Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Inclusive Schools

Name: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Inclusive Schools
Price: 400 EUR

Why this is Erasmus+ eligible

Structured, multi-day programme (5 days) with a pre-defined schedule and learning outcomes — not a passive lecture format.

Built around interaction: participants engage directly with the trainer and with peers from other countries throughout the course.

Transnational by design — open to participants travelling from outside the host country, a core requirement of Erasmus+ mobility funding.

Aligned with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority: Inclusion & Diversity.

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide opens its inclusion and diversity priority with the sentence this course works from: “The Programme seeks to promote equal opportunities and access, inclusion, diversity and fairness across all its actions” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). Access here is social and emotional rather than physical. The participant rebuilds their own lessons around the nine competences of LifeComp, the European framework for personal, social and learning-to-learn competence, so that the students who normally sit at the edge of a mixed-ability room have a defined way into the lesson — and leaves with material for their school and for families, not only for their own classroom.

Source: Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Key Action 1 — School Education Mobility.

Overview

Most SEL training stops at a poster of five competencies. This week goes past that: you take a European framework with nine named competences, work through what each one looks like as awareness, as understanding, and as something a student actually does — then rebuild your own lessons around them. The school here is yours: your subject, your class list, your mixed-ability room.

Monday — you map the two frameworks onto each other and mark where your own school already works and where it does not.
Tuesday — you take the personal competences (self-regulation, flexibility, wellbeing) and turn them into things a student does in your lesson.
Wednesday — you do the same for the social ones: empathy, communication, collaboration.
Thursday — you connect the learning-to-learn competences to your subject teaching, which is what convinces sceptical colleagues.
Friday — you take the week beyond your own classroom: to your school, to families, and to what you will ask for.

You go home with one page mapping all nine competences to what they look like in your subject, three of your own lessons rebuilt around named competences, a simple way of noticing change that does not pretend to be a measurement, and a plan split into what you can do alone, what needs a colleague, and what you will ask your school leadership for. None of it needs a budget, a new platform, or a programme your school has to buy.

Description

Social and emotional learning has a vocabulary problem: everyone uses the term, most schools mean something slightly different by it, and training often stops at naming five competencies and hoping the rest follows. This week is built to go further than the naming, using two frameworks that fit together rather than compete.

The first is the one most schools recognise. CASEL — the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning — organises SEL around five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. In its own words, SEL is “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” What often gets left off the poster is the other half of CASEL’s model: the four settings it runs in — classrooms, schools, families and caregivers, and communities. Friday is about those.

The second framework is European, and it is the one this week is actually built on. LifeComp, published by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre in 2020 on behalf of DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, sets out the “Personal, Social and Learning to Learn” key competence — established as a key competence by the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning in 2018. It names nine competences in three areas: self-regulation, flexibility and wellbeing in the personal area; empathy, communication and collaboration in the social area; growth mindset, critical thinking and managing learning in the learning-to-learn area. Each one comes with three descriptors that follow the same logic — awareness, understanding, action.

That descriptor logic is what makes the week practical rather than conceptual. It is one thing to say a class should have empathy; it is another to separate being aware of someone else’s feelings, understanding them well enough to take their perspective, and responding in a way that changes what happens next. Those are three different pieces of teaching, and they need three different activities. Each day takes one area, works through its three competences at all three levels, and ends with the participant’s own material rebuilt accordingly.

The inclusion in the course title is not decoration. CASEL revised its framework in 2020 specifically to foreground the potential of SEL in promoting educational equity, and LifeComp is written for all individuals across all spheres of life rather than for a target group. In a mixed-ability, multilingual classroom the social competences do the visible work — an empathy activity that assumes everyone reads a room the same way will exclude the students it was meant to reach — so Wednesday works those descriptors directly against real classroom situations.

Thursday exists because of the argument every SEL advocate eventually has with a colleague who teaches an exam subject. The learning-to-learn area — growth mindset, critical thinking, managing learning — is where social and emotional work stops looking like an extra and starts looking like the thing that makes the lesson work. As UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report puts it, “learning has inseparable cognitive, social and emotional dimensions.” Thursday turns that sentence into two lesson plans in your own subject.

This course teaches social and emotional learning as something students build over time. Emotional literacy as a tool a teacher reaches for during a live dispute — what to say first, what to ask next — belongs to Conflict Management, Emotional Intelligence and Bullying Prevention in Schools.

Methodology

One Framework, All Week

The nine LifeComp competences are the spine of the course — introduced on Monday, worked through area by area, and still in use on Friday, rather than named once and left behind.

Awareness, Understanding, Action

Every competence is broken into the same three levels the framework itself uses, because "teach empathy" is not an instruction a teacher can act on and "here is the activity for the understanding level" is.

Your Own Lessons on the Table

Participants rebuild their own material during the week rather than discussing examples — what goes home with you is lessons you are going to teach, not a folder of someone else’s.

Honest About Evidence

Where the research is strong the course says so; where a claim is popular but thin, it says that too, so participants can defend what they bring back.

What you'll take home

Map the nine LifeComp competences and CASEL’s five onto each other, and say which of them your school already works on without calling it SEL.

Break any one competence into its three levels — awareness, understanding, action — and design a different classroom activity for each level.

Rebuild three of your own lessons so that a named competence is being practised alongside the subject content, without losing curriculum time.

Make the case for social and emotional learning to a colleague who teaches an exam subject, in terms of how learning actually works rather than as a wellbeing add-on.

Notice and record change in a class over a term without pretending to measure it, using evidence a teacher can honestly collect.

Take SEL past your own classroom: a plan for your school and for families and caregivers, split into what you can do alone, what needs a colleague, and what you will ask your school leadership for.

Daily programme

Icebreaker: "Name it without the jargon" — in pairs, describe a student who is doing well socially and emotionally, using no framework language at all; the terms come afterwards
Introduction to the course and participants
Presentation of the schools of the participants
CASEL’s five competencies and its four settings — classrooms, schools, families and caregivers, communities — and why most training uses only the first half
LifeComp: the nine competences in three areas, and the awareness–understanding–action logic that runs through all of them
Mapping exercise: the two frameworks side by side, marking where they overlap and where LifeComp is more specific
Output: a one-page map of the nine competences with, beside each, what your school already does about it — including the ones where the honest answer is nothing

Warm-up: quick reconnection round using the framework’s own language for the first time
Self-regulation at three levels: recognising and naming an emotion, understanding and regulating it under pressure, and building the optimism and sense of purpose that keeps a student going
Flexibility: the competence most curricula never teach — reviewing an opinion in the face of new evidence, and managing a transition without treating it as a failure
Wellbeing as the framework defines it, and where a teacher’s responsibility ends
Workshop: turning each of the three into something a student does in your lesson rather than something the teacher talks about
Output: three classroom activities, one per competence, written for your own subject and age group

Warm-up: a short listening exercise run at the "awareness" level, then repeated at the "action" level so the difference is felt rather than explained
Empathy in three steps: awareness of another person’s emotions, understanding them well enough to take their perspective, and responding in a way that changes what happens next
Communication: register, context, and the descriptor most classrooms skip — listening and engaging with clarity and reciprocity
Collaboration: fair sharing of tasks and responsibility in a group, and what it takes for that to work in a mixed-ability, multilingual class
The inclusion test: running each activity against a real classroom where students do not all read a room the same way, and adjusting it so it does not quietly exclude the students it was designed for
Output: one group activity redesigned so that the social competence being practised is explicit to the students, not just to you

Growth mindset, critical thinking and managing learning — the three competences that connect social and emotional work to subject results
The argument with the exam-subject colleague: making the case in terms of how learning works, with the evidence stated at the strength it actually has
Noticing change without pretending to measure it: what a teacher can honestly observe over a term, what a short reflection sheet can capture, and which claims a school should not make about its own students
Workshop: two lesson plans in your own subject where a learning-to-learn competence is practised alongside the content
Output: two subject lesson plans plus a one-page observation sheet you can actually keep

CASEL’s four settings in turn: what changes when SEL moves from one classroom to a whole school, then to families and caregivers, then to the wider community
What a school-level commitment actually requires, and what a single teacher can start without one
Families and caregivers: what to send home, what not to promise, and how to talk about social and emotional learning with a parent who is suspicious of it
The honest split: sorting the week’s material into what you can do alone on Monday, what needs one colleague, and what only school leadership can decide — with the request for that last part drafted and addressed to a named role
Course evaluation: discussing and assessing acquired competencies, feedback and course content
Issuing course participation certificates

Please note: sessions run from 09:30 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, with a break for lunch. Timings can shift a little to suit the venue and the group. If you'd like a specific topic covered, let us know when you apply — the confirmed day-by-day schedule is sent to registered participants ahead of the course.

Certificate: we issue the Certificate of Attendance to everyone who's present for at least 80% of the course — tracked with the daily sign-in sheet (see Certificate & assessment).

Equipment: a few of our courses ask participants to bring a laptop — check the day-by-day programme above, or ask us if you're not sure.

Need a formal invoice or proforma for your school's records? Ask us — we issue official invoices with the participant's name and course details.

Materials & tools

LifeComp: The European Framework for Personal, Social and Learning to Learn Key Competence (Joint Research Centre, 2020) — the nine competences and their descriptors, worked with every day of the week

The CASEL framework: five competencies and four settings, used on Day 1 for mapping and on Day 5 for reach

A printed descriptor grid — nine competences by three levels — that participants fill in for their own subject and take home

A lesson-rebuild template used on Days 2, 3 and 4

A one-page observation sheet for noticing change across a term without over-claiming

Certificate & assessment

This is a Certificate of Attendance, not an exam-based qualification — recognition comes from completing the structured programme, not from passing a test. The real, lasting value is in the competencies listed above under What you'll take home.

Erasmus Mobility Academy

Certificate of Attendance

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Inclusive Schools · 5 days · 25 hrs

+ Europass Mobility document

Type your name above — clearly marked "SAMPLE" in the PDF, not an official document.

The real certificate is signed by your trainer and EMA's authorised signatory. Your own signature isn't on this document — it's captured separately, on the Europass Mobility document.

Need to verify a real certificate? Check it online using the serial number and participant's full name, or contact us directly — [email protected], OID E10304561.

Attendance

Tracked using a sign-in sheet with one signature per participant per day (paper or digital). This record is used to issue your Certificate of Attendance and Europass Mobility document. View sign-in sheet (PDF)

Output

Every participant leaves with a completed Dissemination & School Impact Plan — a step-by-step template for applying the course back at your school (see below).

Feedback

An end-of-course evaluation form is sent to every participant after the course ends — a chance to reflect on what you've learned and how you'll apply it, and it helps us keep improving the course for future participants.

Your paperwork

Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes and (if you used green travel) any related receipts — your school or National Agency may ask for these for their own Erasmus+ reporting.

How to prepare

There is nothing to prepare in advance, and no reading to do beforehand.

It helps if you arrive thinking loosely about one class you teach regularly — the mix of students in it, and what already works. Nothing needs to be written down or looked up.

You will rebuild your own lessons during the week, so bring whatever form your planning normally takes, in whatever state it is in. If you would rather work from a ready-made example, one is provided.

Practical information

Registration & documents

Not sure how registering works or what paperwork is involved? See our full Registration & Documents guide — from applying to your Certificate of Attendance, in one place.

Invitation letter

Need a formal invitation letter for your school or embassy? Request one — we send it within 2 business days. See a sample (PDF).

Learning Agreement

Prepared by our staff and sent to you and your school once your registration form is submitted — see what it looks like. See a sample (PDF).

Billing & invoicing

We issue official invoices/proformas with the participant's name and course details — ask us. Payment is due in full by bank transfer before the course start date. See a sample (PDF).

Airport transfer

Guidance on getting from the nearest airport to the venue is included in your welcome information.

Accommodation

We can recommend partner hotels close to the venue in the host city — ask us when you apply.

For your school / proposal

School impact

After completing this Inclusive Education course, the participating staff member can transfer outcomes directly to their school: a short briefing for colleagues sharing the key takeaways, applying relevant tools or strategies from the programme in their own role, and inclusion of the course materials in the school's professional development resources — turning one person's mobility into a wider institutional gain that supports the school's European Development Plan. Use the Dissemination & School Impact Plan below to fill in your own — it saves as you go and can generate a one-page summary for your coordinator too.

Prefer a blank, course-independent version of this template? Get it here →

After the course

Participants will receive their certificates (Certificate of Attendance + Europass).

Participants will complete a general course evaluation and event survey.

Participants will receive course materials, videos, photos, and PDF documents in both digital and print formats.

Follow-up support: an email group is created for idea exchange, self-evaluation materials are provided, and participants receive a follow-up check-in after 3 months to discuss progress on applying SEL strategies in their own inclusive classrooms.

Frequently asked

This course is an eligible training activity under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (School Education Mobility) — the course fee, travel and subsistence fall within the eligible cost categories. Whether it is covered depends on your own project's approved grant agreement and your National Agency's rules; we provide all the invoices, attendance records and certificates your National Agency requires for reporting.

B1 is enough — you do not need to be fluent. Trainers speak slowly and plainly, every session is built around doing something rather than sitting and listening, and groups are mixed by nationality so people help each other out. A rough test: if you could follow a staff meeting held in English and ask a question in it, you will be fine here.

Absolutely — group bookings of 3+ from one school receive priority placement, and we can schedule a dedicated session for groups of 12 or more.

Our courses run on request at our centres in Antalya, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Budapest, Bremen and Rome. Tell us your preferred city and dates and we will arrange a session.

Tuition, all course materials, both certificates (attendance + Europass Mobility) and a half-day guided tour of the host city with a local guide. Flights, accommodation and travel insurance are booked separately — we send a vetted hotel list.

You can move to any later session free of charge. Cancellations made 30+ days before the start date receive a full refund; a reduced refund applies closer to the date — see our full Cancellation & Refund Policy for the exact schedule.

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide opens its inclusion and diversity priority with the sentence this course works from: “The Programme seeks to promote equal opportunities and access, inclusion, diversity and fairness across all its actions” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). Access here is social and emotional rather than physical. The participant rebuilds their own lessons around the nine competences of LifeComp, the European framework for personal, social and learning-to-learn competence, so that the students who normally sit at the edge of a mixed-ability room have a defined way into the lesson — and leaves with material for their school and for families, not only for their own classroom. Frame it in your own project's terms — your National Agency's current call will confirm exactly how it applies.