St John's Campbelltown is supporting children in developing their understanding of emotions and how to help them regulate their emotions. Doing this supports them in their learning and social development.

The zones of regulation are: blue (sad, tired, sick, bored), green (calm, ready to learn, happy, focused), yellow (worried, frustrated, excited, silly) and red (angry, yelling, mean, out of control).

We all experience a wide range of emotions each day. Emotions are an important tool that let us know how we feel in any given experience.

Sometimes, however, they become overwhelming and impact our ability to focus, learn, communicate and play. When this happens we need to support our children in understanding that all emotions are okay and they don't last forever.

Classes have been given a toolkit of sensory devices to assist students to move from the blue, yellow or red zone, back into the green zone.

Every classroom also has a designated calming space that can be accessed by any student, as needed, to assist them in moving back into the green zone.

Teachers have received professional development each term, led by our CatholicCare counsellor, to assist them with the explicit teaching of social and emotional learning in their classrooms.

Each whole grade is also engaging in a whole day or series of workshops with our CatholicCare counsellors, called 'Bouncing Back'. These workshops teach the students how to become more resilient when things go wrong.

There is a common language used by all staff and students across the school. Many parents have also commented that they are using this language at home as well, and it's proving to be quite successful!

Read more about Pastoral Care & Wellbeing at St John's.