Emotional regulation helps learning at Catholic school

For the past three years, the school has been fine-tuning a social and emotional literacy teaching framework, dubbed Cognitive Affective Learning (CAL). It was developed in association with Mary-Anne Murphy from emotional intelligence consultancy RocheMartin, using feedback from the school’s community.

The framework, which is fully integrated into the school’s formal learning processes, focuses on empowering students to recognise and manage their own social and emotional needs.

Year 0-2 students learn the vocabulary for their emotions, how they feel and look for different people, and explore how feelings are expressed in stories.

For middle-schoolers, the framework introduces neuroscience – the “upstairs and downstairs brain”, and the impact emotions have on learning and relationships – and begins developing strategies for self-regulation.

Seniors work with a “toolbox” of strategies to help understand what is and isn’t within their control.

Principal Emalene Cull said that before the school started work on the framework, achievement data in reading in 2021 was 65 per cent. Ms Cull said that figure rose to 88 per cent in 2024. She noted the figure was closer to 95 per cent when adjusted for an influx of English as Second Language learners during the year.

“It’s brilliant because it’s confidence-building, and it’s honouring and teaching the whole child, not just academically,” she said.

“It’s beautiful seeing our kids showing empathy and being optimistic and resilient, which are the skills and the qualities that are going to set them up for life, not just for when they’re at St Joseph’s.”

The work at St Joseph’s has attracted interest from the Education Gazette and the New Zealand Principals’ Federation magazine. The school is hoping to use this framework to benefit students elsewhere, with a trial starting at St Joseph’s Catholic School in Te Aroha.

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Improving academics through emotional regulation (By Alice Parminter/Valley Profile)