Promoting social and emotional learning & well-being – Istituto Comprensivo Chignolo Po, Italy

The ‘Istituto Comprensivo Chignolo Po’ is located in northern Italy in the Lombardy region. It teaches children, of whom 35% have a foreign background, from pre-primary to lower-secondary school. To promote inclusion and the well-being of the pupils and staff, as well as to prevent school dropouts, the school has adopted a whole-school approach on well-being and participated actively in different initiatives and projects around SEL.  

The school participated in several Erasmus+ projects, including: 

• Learning to be: development of practices and methodologies for assessing social, emotional and health skills within education systems (2017-2020).
• PROMEHS: promoting mental health at schools (2020-2022).
• Teaching to be: supporting teachers’ professional growth and well-being in the field of social and emotional learning (2021-2024).

Beyond these projects, the school also takes part in LifeSkill, a school-based program supported by the WHO and the Italian health and education ministries. Moreover, the school implements various activities to engage its pupils and teachers such as the ‘smart snack’, pedibus, school garden and active breaks.