- About Us
- Computer Science
- Visual & Performing Arts
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Physical Education
- Entrepreneurial Studies
- Student Life
- Uniquely GMS
Social and Emotional Learning
Overview and Philosophy
The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Program at The Girls’ Middle School supports every GMS girl in her transition into the teenage years, providing her with the skills necessary to develop into a strong, healthy, self-aware young woman. In a class that meets weekly for all three years at GMS, students have a safe space to explore complex issues ranging from body image to changing friendships to self-advocacy.
In SEL, emphasis is placed on creating a caring and compassionate environment in which girls learn that they are supported, as well as how to support one another. The class provides the time and space for GMS girls to build healthy identities, examine their own internal worlds, and begin to understand themselves and expand their autonomy, which is central to adolescent development.
- Students explore and develop their identities.
- Students demonstrate effective communication skills.
- Students explore their role and understand the importance of taking personal responsibility relating to social change.
- Students build on their awareness of diverse ideas and practices found throughout human society.
- Students examine their own cultural heritage.
- Students understand the conflicts inherent in a diverse and global society.
- Students see puberty as a series of physical and emotional changes.
- Students understand the physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects of human sexuality.
- Students understand what a drug is, why people take drugs, and the effects of drugs.