Primary’s zones of regulation

What is Self-Regulation?
Self-regulation is the ability to manage sensory needs, emotions and impulses to meet the demands of the environment. Or the ability to adjust the level of alertness and direct how emotions are revealed behaviourally in socially adaptive ways in order to achieve goals.

In Primary we use “The Zones of regulation” to support students to recognise how they feel, what Zone they are in, what were the triggers and how they can manage their emotions.

Let us introduce the community to our Zones:

Green Zone: Used to describe the ideal state of alertness. A person may be described as calm, happy, focused.

Blue Zone: This colour is used to describe a low state of alertness which can be translated to a sad, tired, sick or bored child.

Yellow Zone: Yellow is used to describe a heightened state of alertness. A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, or fear which means the student’s energy is elevated but caution needs to be applied.

Red Zone: Used to describe an extremely heightened state of alertness. A person may be experiencing anger, rage, explosive behaviour, panic, extreme grief, terror, or elation when in the Red Zone and feels a loss of control.

It is very important to highlight that there is no “bad” zone and it is natural to experience all four zones. Students learn to manage zones according to goals, social context & environmental demands. At school, we create a culture where everyone experiences the different zones and students can be in more than one zone at a time, as some emotions can fall in more than one zone. 

We use a variety of strategies from our Zones toolbox to support and guide students. This is an integrated approach which involves teachers, students and parents. Please do contact Ceri Grünewald-Davies if you would like to know more about this approach and strategies.

Ceri Grünewald-Davies