Parents - Social Emotional Learning and Mental Health

Social Emotional Learning and Mental Health

North Vancouver School District

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Parents

Building Resilence in our Children

Resilience is an important aspect of mental well-being.
Resilience involves being able to recover from difficulties or change—to function as well as before and then move forward. Many refer to this as “bouncing back” from difficulties or challenges.
Resilient children tend to be empathic; that is, they can understand and sympathize with the feelings of others. They tend to be good communicators who are able to solve problems. They have a strong interest in school and are dedicated to learning. They're driven to achieve goals. They're involved in meaningful activities. They're hopeful about the future. They have a solid relationship with one or more adults. And they live in safe and well-functioning families and communities.
Mental Health and Resilience
Part of being resilient is having good mental health. Mental health involves balancing the different aspects of life: the physical, intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual. It involves our ability to think, feel, act and interact in a way that we can enjoy our lives and cope with the challenges that arise. Mental health also involves how we think about and appraise ourselves, our lives and the people we know and care about. It involves our ability to make realistic sense of—and react meaningfully to—the world around us. It affects our ability to make choices and decisions.

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SEL and Mental Health - In Schools and at Home

A continuum of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is integral to student well-being and development. The continuum includes an intentional focus on creating a sense of belonging for students, the teaching of social emotional skills, teaching mental health literacy and strategies, and an working towards an integrated approach to mental health with our community partners. Each area of SEL and Mental Health support is beneficial on its own, but the development of strategic action across the continuum provides a comprehensive focus and best meets the needs of all students.

Families and caregivers play an incredibly important role in the development of good SEL skills and positive mental health, and the more that schools and home can align their efforts, language, and strategies, the more our young people will benefit. Families are encouraged to communicate with their childrens teachers, and other school staff, about what they can be doing at home to reinforce skills being taught and modeled at school.

To learn more about SEL, and specifically, what it is, why we teach it, and how we teach it at the NVSD, please watch the short video 'Social Emotional Learning in NVSD.'