PATHS
Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies
PATHS is a program that targets the development of social and emotional competence in order to build children’s protective factors and decrease the risk of behavioural and social problems. It is designed to promote social and emotional competence, prevent violence, aggression and other behavioural problems, improve critical thinking skills and enhance the classroom climate.
PATHS covers five conceptual domains:
- Self-Control
- Emotional Understanding
- Positive Self-Esteem
- Relationships
- Interpersonal Problem-Solving Skills
The PATHS program has been implemented at Junior School since 2008.
Teachers have attended in-school professional development sessions to increase knowledge and understanding of curriculum content.
Lessons and resources from the curriculum are implemented across all year levels from kindergarten to year 6, the main components include;
- PATHS person for the day
- Calming down strategies
- Feeling faces
- Problem solving strategies.
- A whole school approach facilitates consistency of these main components and promotes the effectiveness of prevention and intervention therefore promoting the development of social and emotional knowledge, concepts, skills and behaviours.
- Each term every class has to focus on a specific social skill where teachers’ explicitly teach students’ what each skill looks like, feels like and sounds like.
- Provides teachers with a systematic and developmental procedure for enhancing social competence
For further information on the PATHS program at the Junior Schoolo please contact Head of Junior School, Greg Miller.