ABSTRACT
From the outset, SEAL was designed to be part of both a universal and a whole-school approach to emotional health and well-being, through which the needs of all students and staff were considered (Weare 2004). To this end, SEAL materials include a broad range of resources for use with children in whole-class teaching and school assemblies, small-group resources for more targeted skills development, training resources for teachers and other school staff, and guidance on developing policies to support the development (and raise the profile) of social and emotional skills in the school community. Both Primary and Secondary SEAL programmes were launched as part of the National Strategies, a collection of UK government initiatives to support school development and raise standards. SEAL found a home within the ‘Behaviour and Attendance’ strand of the National Strategy and schools were encouraged to use it to support classic school improvement aims such as better attendance, reduced exclusion on behavioural grounds and as a significant contributor to improved academic attainment (DfES 2005; 2007b). SEAL is not a statutory element of the National Strategy – schools subscribe to the programme voluntarily – but its popularity is demonstrated by the fact that SEAL resources are currently used in approximately 80 per cent of English primary schools (Humphrey et al. 2008: 5).
