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This week in Primary we have introduced and explored the Zones of Regulation, a school-wide framework designed to help children better understand and manage their emotions.
This week in Primary we have introduced and explored the Zones of Regulation, a school-wide framework designed to help children better understand and manage their emotions.
The Zones provide a common language for children and staff to talk about their feelings, energy levels, and the strategies we can use in order to stay ready to learn. The launch of this initiative started with a whole staff professional learning session, and was then rolled out in assemblies for all children from EYFS to Year 6.
What Are the Zones?
The Zones of Regulation divides emotions and feelings into four easy-to-understand “zones”:
Blue Zone: Low energy emotions—such as feeling tired, sad, bored, or sick.
Green Zone: Calm, focused, happy and ready to learn.
Yellow Zone: Heightened emotions such as stress, frustration, excitement, nervousness, or silliness.
Red Zone: Intense emotions such as anger, rage, elatedness or feeling out of control.
Children heard that all feelings and all Zones are normal, and that they may find themselves in more than one Zone each day. A variety of tools to help with regulation were explored including taking movement breaks, talking to a trusted adult, breathing exercises and allowing ourselves time to rest. We ended our assemblies by taking part in a ‘laser focus’ activity, providing all children with two minutes of calm, focused re-regulation time. It has been wonderful to hear about families who have practised this at home this week following our assembly!
Helping our children to understand their feelings, name their emotions and use strategies to re-regulate supports not only readiness to learn, but crucially the social and emotional wellbeing of every child. We know that when children are provided with the strategies they need to regulate and manage their emotions, they will be in the best position for optimal learning to take place.
In the coming weeks, the Zones of Regulation will be embedded across the Primary School and will provide an additional layer of important support in our wellbeing provision. Please look out for details of an upcoming parent workshop where the framework will be explored in further detail, and information regarding how the language and philosophy of the zones can be used at home to support your child.
Derek Watson
Senior Vice Principal - Head of Primary
Recent parent workshop - Connecting Hearts and Minds: The DC Approach to Strong Relationships
Recent parent workshop - Connecting Hearts and Minds: The DC Approach to Strong Relationships
Thank you to all those parents who were able to attend our recent workshop, exploring how we ensure strong relationships between children and adults are formed in school, and the direct correlation between relationships and behaviour. For those who were unable to attend, a link to the workshop slides can be found here.
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