Supporting Student Engagement

At Southern Grove Primary School we believe social and emotional learning is an integral part of education. We call social and emotional learning 'behaviour education' and our teachers explicitly teach social and emotional skills and strategies.

At Southern Grove Primary School we have implemented the 'Play is the Way' social and emotional learning program to achieve our outcome of developing socially and emotionally competent children who are able to demonstrate empathy for others.

'Behaviour is shaped by the sum total of regular and frequent lessons that create small but meaningful changes over a long and sustained period of time' Wilson McCaskill (Play Is The Way founder)

Teaching students to be in control of their thoughts, feelings and actions allows them to harness their abilities and skills to pursue the pathways to success.

Play Is The Way uses physically interactive games and activities that both require and develop students' personal and social capabilities as they are being played. The Golden Rule at Southern Grove is 'Treat others as you would like them to treat you'.

Play is the Way has five guiding concepts that serve as a moral compass and help students, staff, parents and the wider community do the right thing as they believe it is the best thing to do.

These are called Life Raft Concepts and at Southern Grove we embed these concepts across the school.

They are: