Content

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The Culture of the Heart is a child-led scheme of work that gently and creatively helps children form healthy mental, emotional and relational habits.

The Culture of the Heart is a values-based, social, emotional & mental wellbeing curriculum that offers transformational resources for the classroom. The content has been designed around leading neuroscience, psychology and EQ, integrating coaching and therapeutic techniques that empower children to connect to their own thoughts and beliefs around values centred classrooms. Our aim is to support you in creating emotional and relational cohesion within the classroom that creates a “safe/ circle environment” to enable children to thrive as a community of learners. The content initially invests in the relationships within the class, gently exploring self worth and the value of every class member. Each Culture has been throughly researched and the content has been created to support the development of relationally safe classroom communities.

The content is inclusive and easily adaptable for all age groups and abilities. It incorporates relational, emotional and social learning with academic and creative disciplines, resulting in independent thinking and team work. The foundation year offers seven cultures (or themes), exploring a new culture every six weeks.

Kate Jane Neal | Menu Demo

00

“If we want to build a thriving community, we must think profoundly about our relationships”.

Jenny Edwards CBE

Helps develop emotional intelligence, empathy and kindness.
Encourages core values and an understanding of good character.
Invests in a child’s self worth, and their understanding of the value of others.
Encourages independent thinking, creativity and teamwork.
Develops a strong and kind learning community.
Incorporates PSHE/SEL learning with creative disciplines.

01

We are all deeply valuable and our lives hold intrinsic worth.

Intentionally looks at the culture you want to create in your school/classroom.
Identifies and develops an understanding of good character.
Identifies good character in self and others.
Builds self worth and value.
Recognises the value and worth of all class members.

02

Children will look to you to tell them not necessarily what they are, but what they are capable of becoming.

Introduce the power of words using Words And Your Heart picture book.
Understand the power of words in their most relational form.
Look at words and how they can make us feel.
Healthy boundaries and the power of forgiveness.
Empower children to overcome and deal with negative words.

03

Kindness creates ripples in the fabric of culture.

What is kindness and what does it look like in practice?
Why we have laws and rules, including your school rules.
Creating a culture of kindness in the classroom and playground.
Expressing kindness in our wider community.
Develop your own classroom kindness rules.

04

I am less without you – I am more because of who you are.

What is a community and what does it mean to belong?
Behaviours that help create safe and healthy communities.
How to treat self and others with dignity and respect.
Defining and mapping your own community.

05

Gratitude has one of the strongest links to good mental-health and well-being.

Creating practical habits of gratitude.
Sharing gratitudes.
Emotional intelligence tools for staff to use with pupils.
Connecting with your wider community with gratitude.

06

“Culture does not make people. People make culture”.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Creating a classroom culture that the children feel a part of.
Exploring the way our values and beliefs affect culture.
Discus school life and the children’s beliefs about learning.
Develop a set of shared beliefs about learning and school life.

07

Together we make the world extraordinary.

Using Wonderful You picture book.
Celebrating our differences and uniqueness.
Encouraging self awareness and empathy.
Developing a habit that encourages awareness of joy & wonder.
Celebrating the individual.

08

Listening is foundational to relationship and learning.

Listening with all of our senses, encouraging empathy and kindness.
Exploring active listening and its positive benefits.
Self-awareness and our emotions.
The creative power of story-telling.
Encouraging the art of politeness and honouring.

09

“We are constantly invited to be who we are”. Henry David Thoreau

Honesty in our relationships and learning.
The value of honesty and how dishonesty affects relationships.
Being vulnerable and the braveness of not-knowing.
Growth mindsets and mistakes, successes and encouragement.

10

A good friend sticks closer than a brother.

What does being a good friend look like?
Boundaries for self, and respecting other people’s boundaries.
Understanding bad behaviour and building safe relationships.
Growth and forgiveness, mistakes and believing the best.

11

One good thought can change the world.

Encouraging self awareness.
Safe ways for children to explore their thoughts.
Recognising unhealthy thought patterns and negative mindsets.
Exploring new positive thought patterns.

12

Hope is one of the most powerful substances in the universe.

Growth mindsets and what happens in the brain when we learn.
Developing a healthy learning-community mindset.
Healthy/unhealthy competition and comparison.
Exploring hopes and dreams for the future.
The discipline of learning and growth.

What will a school receive?

Teachers receive access to an online portal where they will find lesson plans, resources, downloads and video training. Your school will also receive picture books, Character Cards, Emotion Cards and the option to use our CotH Reading & Wellbeing Journals.

What is involved?

The Culture of the Heart is not a single intervention but is a commitment over time to develop child and staff wellbeing. The lessons have been designed to support the existing curriculum, easily fitting into current academic planning.

Across the year, the content introduces practical and creative exercises that encourage the children to explore the kinds of behaviours that create safe relationships and happy classroom communities.

Take a look at the first years structure