Moving from Extra to Essential: Embedding Social and Emotional Learning into the curriculum.

Anna Simmonds
May 26
3 min read

Updated: Jun 18

Intro by Empathy Studios:

At Empathy Studios, we believe social and emotional learning (SEL) should be woven into the fabric of education, not just stuck on like an afterthought. We’re always inspired by others working towards the same goal. In this week’s blog, Dr Katherine Gulliver and Dr Eleni Dimitrellou from the University of Exeter share their research-driven insights and introduce a flexible, free online course to support teachers in embedding SEL into the curriculum. It’s not about a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about building a culture where wellbeing, trust, and connection thrive across every subject and classroom.

Read on to explore their approach and see how it could complement your school’s SEL journey.

The Importance of SEL

In an era marked by increasing demands on educators and the evolving needs of students, it has never been more important to build approaches that prioritize trust, connection, and wellbeing in education. The University of Exeter developed a brand new, innovative, freely available online course for secondary teachers with specialist educational psychologists and researchers.

The Current Climate

We know that enhancing children’s social and emotional learning skills can increase academic achievement, build student wellbeing, and create a positive school climate (Corcoran et al., 2018; Durlak et al., 2011; CASEL, 2023). Not only is it important for children, but teachers who develop their own SEL skills are more resilient, and better able to overcome challenges (Collie et al., 2012).

Many schools support students’ emotional development, fostering emotional literacy in a variety of ways. However, this often happens informally, through everyday interactions when teachers respond, in the moment, to students’ needs or provide guidance during personal challenges such as friendship difficulties. Much of this support remains reactive. To more effectively promote student wellbeing and emotional growth, we need a proactive, integrated approach embedded throughout daily teaching and across the wider curriculum (Dimitrellou et al., 2024; 2025). If we explicitly embed social and emotional learning skills into the curriculum for subject teachers, we can ensure students develop skills to manage emotions, build trusting relationships, and contribute to safe, healthy communities.

A Free Online SEL Course For Teachers!

In response to these challenges, and with funding from the ESRC IAA, our research team at the University of Exeter collaborated with Educational Psychologists to design a unique, flexible course for secondary school educators. Drawing on the CASEL framework, this course supports educators to:

Enhance their own socioemotional learning skills
Create positive, safe classroom climates
Explore pedagogies and activities that promote SEL skills
Access SEL-embedded lesson plans classroom strategies

Associate Professor Valeria Cavioni, Expert on SEL, described the course:

“This is an incredibly valuable resource for teachers. The content is scientifically grounded and includes references to key theories in developmental psychology, education, and neuroscience. This multidisciplinary foundation allows for a comprehensive and in-depth approach to the topic.”

The course offers tools for identifying and distinguishing between emotions, thoughts and feelings, understanding student behaviours, building relational practices, and developing strategies for responsible decision making.

Are you interested in completing the course?

This is a freely available course offered online in an asynchronous way to make it easy for busy teachers to complete in their own time. Sign up with a school email address at: https://learn.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=160

You will be taken to the Learn Exeter page which will guide you through making an account. The enrolment key is SEL2025.

This is just one great example of what you can do as a teacher to develop your own skill of empathy and bring these skills to your classroom. This free, flexible online course from the University of Exeter is designed with busy teachers in mind. You can work through it at your own pace, whenever it suits you!