Zones of Regulation

Intent

The Zones of Regulation are here to help our learners create for themselves a solid foundation from which all the learning skills can be developed and built on. Learners develop an awareness of their feelings, energy, and alertness levels and are provided an easy way to think and talk about how they feel on the inside and how it feels and looks on the outside. They are then given a way to explore a variety of tools and strategies for regulation, prosocial skills, self-care, and overall wellness all of which are expected in life and allow them to achieve their goals like doing school work, managing big feelings, and achieving healthy relationships with others. 

The Zones of Regulation does not follow the national curriculum as it has its systematic framework and curriculum which include a variety of resources to support the delivery of the curriculum.

IntentImplementation

 Safely Independent 
The zones give learners the skills to be able to safely and healthily self regulate.
Confident Communicators 
The zones give learners a way to confidently communicate their inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions to different people in their lives.
 Respectful Citizen
The zones give learners the chance to recognize and accept that everyone has different thoughts, emotions, and feelings and that they all react to things in different ways and for different reasons. 
Inquisitive Thinker
 
At the core of the zones is compassionate curiosity. A philosophy of open curiosity and care that allows our learners to think about themselves and others in a caring and open way.
Resilient Learners
The fact that there are no good or bad zones and that it takes time to get good at becoming a detective ourselves means that it builds a great deal of resilience in our learners. They recognize that it is not meant to be easy and that we all experience both positive and negative events and inner feelings in our lives.

The Zones of Regulation at Westhaven is delivered by the teacher to the whole class, in 15-minute sessions where the different zones are explored as well as the tools that may help learners when they are being experienced. The zones are also used as part of intervention, both on an individual and group level.

The Zones of Regulation curriculum is used throughout the school, from our early years classes and up to our KS3 classes. This allows for a revisiting of central ideas and skills as well as a recognition of the maturity of our learners and the appropriate approach to take with them. All this gives our learners an opportunity for the full development of their regulation skills and emotional intelligence.

All evidence of the work done on the zones will be evidenced through our digital evidence for learning platform.

The zones of regulation curriculum has allowed for some breakthrough moments with learners at Westhaven with a noticeable improvement in their ability to work with difficult emotions and feelings in a healthy and productive way.

Parents have liked its use at home and have seen how it helps their children express themselves.

Learners have been able to express to staff how the zones has helped them to process uncomfortable feelings they may be having and what they can do to help themselves with these feelings.

The zones of curriculum give our learners a great platform from which they can use and apply a variety of different skills that they are developing in different areas of the curriculum. It also highlights to them why having cross-curricular skills is so important for their health and wellbeing in terms of being able to engage effectively with a range of emotions and feelings, using a variety of methods to record their presence as well as working on different strategies for coping with them.

The zones of regulation is most effective for our learners when it is used and applied to all areas of their lives. When the different zones and their inside and outside ‘signs’ are practiced recognizing, as well as the practice of using the tools related to each zone and rating of their effectiveness. That is why work done during zone of regulation lessons will be encouraged to be shared at home and certain projects completed at home.