Second Stepis a difference you can feel the moment you step
through the doors to a Second Step school: a sense of safety and respect grounded
in the social-emotional health and well-being of the entire school community.
Second Step is a program rooted in social-emotional learning (SEL) that helps
transform schools into supportive, successful learning environments uniquely
equipped to encourage children to thrive. More than just a classroom curriculum,
Second Step’s holistic approach helps create a more empathetic society by providing
education professionals, families, and the larger community with tools to enable
them to take an active role in the social-emotional growth and safety of today’s
children.
As part of our Continuous Improvement Plan for Accreditation (CIPA), Guardian
Catholic implemented Second Step in January 2020. You’ll be receiving Home Links from
the teachers describing why these skills are important and including fun activities to
do with your child to practice them. We hope you enjoy them!
Please tell your child’s teacher if you’d like more suggestions about supporting skills
for learning at home.
In March, our school wide theme is emotion management. In our morning announcements and school assembly we’ll be prompting students to notice their own feelings by paying attention to clues in their bodies, and we’ll be reminding them to use their Second Step skills to calm down:
Stop—Use your signal
Name your feeling
Calm down: Breathe, count, use positive self-talk
These skills help students calm down strong emotions when faced with learning and social challenges, which helps them succeed academically and get along well with others.
Second Step lessons specifically teach about calming down strong emotions such as anger, disappointment, frustration, and anxiety. You’ll be receiving Home Links that describe why managing strong emotions is important and include fun activities to do with your child to help him or her identify strong feelings and calm down. We hope the Home Links will give you tools to use together when your child is upset.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to help each student attain their potential through high quality Catholic education in a Christ-centered environment that inspires each of us to think, learn, achieve, pray and serve our communities.
