After 10 weeks, Blankenhagen Primary School in Gütersloh completed their first series of Family SEAL workshops. A new element of the already successful SEAL (Social Emotional Aspects of Learning) program, the workshops helped to empower parents with strategies equipping them to better understand their children’s learning needs.

The popular and well-attended Family SEAL workshops helped parents and their children learn about self-awareness, managing feelings, empathy, motivation and social skills. Part of the workshops involved a range of activities including: Circle time, feeling good about myself, social games, co-operative games and relaxation techniques.

Linda Snape was one of the many parents attending the meetings and was pleased with the advice given.

‘We all have behavioural problems with our children at times but after guidance was given at the meetings on how to deal with issues, we put things in place and some improvements can be made. Distraction techniques are helpful as well as understanding what our children are feeling and not jump to conclusions when they seem angry and frustrated.’  

Zeenat Zaman, Blankenhagen School teacher and organiser of the workshops felt the feedback was positive.

‘Our children encounter lots of changes like moving and making new friends and all these are new skills. If they can have social and emotional skills embedded it would certainly help them to deal with situations like when a family member deploys to Iraq or Afghanistan. This can be a very emotional time but if there are strategies in place it would make this time easier for both the child and the parent.’

‘Family SEAL is opening the doors to the school so that parents can understand how we go about providing the right kind of learning for children.’ said Ben Turner, Head Teacher of Blankenhagen School.
 
‘The whole principle behind SEAL is to empower the children to be able to learn and empower parents to understand the learning process and their part within it.’