Social-emotional
Learning
From the first day students step on campus, they feel it: the caring way in which they are welcomed, how students relate to each other, the respect and nurturing that teachers give students and their ideas, and the unique connectedness of our community.
We believe that EQ matters as much as IQ. Nueva’s internationally recognized social-emotional learning program has been fundamental to our commitment to nurture the whole child since the school’s inception. Our values of care for self, care for others, and care for the community are the foundation of our culture.
Nueva’s approach to SEL education is rooted in the competencies laid out by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. While many schools across the country use the CASEL framework, Nueva is one of few schools whose students have a dedicated SEL class every year from pre-kindergarten through eleventh grade.
What Is Social-Emotional Learning?
SEL teaches students to understand themselves and others, to manage their emotions productively, to empathize with others, to forge healthy relationships, to work toward and achieve goals, to make responsible decisions, and to develop resilience, confidence, and well-being.
Why Is SEL Essential?
Like math or writing, SEL skills are learned. How to collaborate with others. Why it is important to build empathy, and how to demonstrate it. How to better understand one’s own emotions and express them. Just as children don’t automatically develop the ability to subtract fractions or write a cohesive paragraph, neither do they intuitively have the emotional intelligence necessary for full self-awareness and attunement to others.
For gifted students in particular, having a dedicated class for social-emotional learning gives them a space to understand their unique needs. Giftedness, which in part is characterized by high intellectual ability and asynchronous development, brings with it “a greater awareness, a greater sensitivity, and a greater ability to understand and to transform perceptions into intellectual experiences,” writes Annemarie Roeper, a pioneer in the field of gifted education.
IN THIS SECTION
Humza Rabbani ’22
“A lot of schools can teach students how to do math, how to write, and how to do science. But there aren’t as many schools that can teach students how to lead, how to communicate, how to collaborate with other people, how to bring people together. Those are really valuable skills.”
SEL Competencies
Our SEL program supports students' learning and growth through the development of these five competencies, which are rooted in the competencies laid out by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
SEL on Campus
A legendary example of SEL in action is the forts in the lower meadow of the campus. Generations of Nueva students have transformed the forts into a wonderland of trees, boards, logs, and sticks. The forts are a quiet sanctuary for those who love peace, quiet, and being in nature. You see brightly painted signs with sayings like “Respect this Fort” or “Welcome to this Fort!” signaling the collective agreements of how to behave in the forts. Students design, create, or remodel forts, teaming with one another to carry large branches, decorate their structures, climb trees, trade currency (pottery and stones), and form community. The forts continue to be a real life laboratory and an SEL classroom, a place to experiment and practice freedom, industry, agency, trust, taking risks, building communities, assuming responsibilities, and conflict resolution.
- SEL is deeply integrated by classroom teachers starting in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.
- SEL specialists begin delivering weekly classes to all students starting in first grade.
- At the Upper School, SEL becomes Science of Mind, with the added components of psychology and neuroscience.
- In addition to classroom teaching, SEL specialists engage in responsive work with students one-on-one and in small groups.
- Best practices are embedded in all aspects of student life:
- in classroom learning
- in the advisory program
- in the design thinking program
- in the social justice and equity program
- during recess and outdoor activities, including the forts
- in athletics
- in extracurricular activities and clubs
- on learning trips
- in the common language and caring approach that teachers use to respond to student needs
SEL Beyond the Classroom
- All teachers are trained in SEL by Nueva’s in-house SEL and Science of Mind specialists, as well as by the Institute for SEL, a leading SEL consultancy founded by former Nueva SEL teachers.
- SEL curriculum and the trips program are tightly interwoven to ensure that students are equipped with necessary skills, support, and resources as they progress to increasingly independent experiences. Supported by teachers and chaperones, students exercise their SEL skills to care for themselves and their classmates and to adapt to unfamiliar real-world environments with respect, compassion, and resilience.
- Parents also benefit from educational opportunities, including regular learning events with renowned experts through the Common Ground Speaker Series and the Innovative Learning Conference and through smaller private events that connect parents with each other and faculty for learning and partnership.
Megan Terra
Lower School Division Head
”SEL is about the self and the collective. It is about who we are and who we want to be in community. It is a way of being in the world with care for self and care for others.”
A Foundation Pillar of Nueva
When Karen Stone McCown envisioned Nueva in the early 1960s, she was ahead of her time in understanding that emotional intelligence, or EQ, matters as much as IQ. One year before social-emotional learning was introduced at Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center (often credited as the birthplace of modern SEL), Karen founded Nueva as a school that would not only serve the academic needs of gifted students, but also support their social and emotional lives. She believed that SEL skills were essential to equip Nueva graduates to “make choices that benefit the world.”
Karen’s vision remains central to the school’s mission today, and realizing it is perhaps more important than ever. In a world where many report feeling less connected to each other, society needs people with the skills to understand themselves, their own emotions, and their impact on others.
