I am extremely over-excited(!) to announce that my latest book: The Power of Emotional Intelligence – a primary school toolkit has been published and is available in all the usual places. I was delighted to get the chance to write this book when Routledge approached me and asked me to do so. It’s 276 (A4) pages – so jam packed! (The child in me would still relish going up to my teacher and saying, ‘I wrote 276 pages miss – look!’)
It includes much of what I deliver in training and talks, and a whole lot more that I used as a teacher. Here’s the official blurb with some added comments from me…
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We’ve all been told emotional intelligence is a good thing, but are we really clear about what it is and how we can all get more of it? We know it helps children self-regulate, be more motivated, maintain relationships and be more resilient, but how do we go about accessing these benefits? When I first heard of emotional intelligence many years ago, I was intrigued and a little confused about what it was exactly, as the term was not commonly used. Years later, I have got a description of what it is and how to get more of it down to a succinct, accessible and clear description – the one I use in training and this book.
The Power of Emotional Intelligence will help primary school teachers and leaders (and anyone really!) to increase their awareness and use of emotional intelligence to improve the wellbeing of the whole school community. It includes everything you need to embed emotional intelligence at the core of your school’s ethos. This practical book:
• explores key issues relating to emotional intelligence to help develop adults’ understanding; I really enjoyed writing this section. It’s a to-the-point, distillation of all I have learned and experienced over the years. As a perpetual ‘tweaker,’ I could always add more though! It includes a sort of DOs and DON’Ts when it comes to talking to children about emotions.
• contains a wealth of activities that can be used with children to help develop their emotional intelligence, with extra focus given to anger and anxiety, as well as the impact emotions can have on learning and relationships; There are many ideas for teaching emotional intelligence. This section includes games, drama activities, discussion prompts, emotion check-ins, reflections, scenarios to explore, agreement spectrums, true and false quizzes, creative ideas for considering emotions and several photocopiables to help with delivery.
• covers the beneficial impact of emotional intelligence when supporting challenging behaviour; I loved writing this section too as it gives some theory about approaches as well as ready-to-use practical tools. I have received much feedback from teachers about how helpful these tools are, as well as the positive impact from the changes in approach to behaviour.
• outlines a straightforward emotional intelligence curriculum that ties into the personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) schemes of work; I have also suggested which emotion vocabulary could be added in each year group as part of this curriculum.
and
• provides ideas for developing a whole-school approach to putting emotional intelligence firmly within the school ethos. This is an ideas bank of tried and tested activities to involve the whole-school community in increasing the understanding of emotional intelligence so everyone can benefit from the positive impact of increased emotional intelligence on wellbeing.
This comprehensive resource has been written with teachers and school leaders in mind – particularly PSHE leads, special educational needs coordinators and those who work in pupil referral units and alternative provisions; but it is a useful tool for all adults working with children who are looking to improve children’s self-awareness and wellbeing. I also think most adults could take-away a lot from its contents!
