Meet the team behind Brooklyn X's social-emotional learning initiative
Across Brooklyn, a quiet shift has been reshaping what high school feels like for teenagers juggling exams, family responsibilities, and the everyday pressures of growing up. Brooklyn X High School has built a social-emotional learning initiative that sits alongside its academic programme, recognising that young people cannot pour from an empty cup. The team blends counselling, classroom practice, and family outreach into a single safety net.
Walking into the building, you will find walls covered in student artwork, calming corners stacked with cushions, and posters that speak to identity, resilience, and belonging. None of that happens by accident. Behind every quiet chat in a counsellor's office is a deliberate strategy led by educators who have spent years refining how they support adolescents through grief, anxiety, and friendship breakdowns.
From Sydney to Melbourne, schools have been wrestling with similar questions about how to hold teenagers through uncertainty. Australian educators often point to programmes like Be You and KidsMatter when discussing whole-school wellbeing, and there is plenty of crossover with what Brooklyn X has built. Both hemispheres agree that a teenager's inner life cannot be left to chance.
What follows is a guided introduction to the people who make this work possible every day, from the directors shaping the vision to the bilingual family liaisons who translate paperwork, hope, and hard conversations into something every caregiver can use.
The vision driving Brooklyn X's SEL work
The programme at Brooklyn X began as a conversation between the principal and a small group of teachers who noticed a pattern. Students who were academically capable were quietly disengaging, not because the curriculum was too hard, but because something else was getting in the way. The team decided early that the response could not be another pull-out programme tucked into a corner of the timetable. It had to be woven into the fabric of the school.
Today, the SEL vision rests on five pillars: identity, emotional literacy, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, and social awareness. Each pillar is taught explicitly in advisory periods and reinforced across subject areas. Teachers have been trained to notice shifts in a student's demeanour the way a surf lifesaver at Bondi Beach scans the water for rips, picking up early signs before a situation becomes critical.
Like Australian schools working through the Respectful Relationships curriculum, Brooklyn X staff treat consent, conflict resolution, and emotional regulation as skills worth practising rather than soft concepts to discuss once a year. The approach is pragmatic, warm, and unsentimental, which is exactly what families tend to appreciate.
Counsellors and therapists on the front line
The counselling team is the heart of the SEL initiative. Led by a director of student support, the group includes licensed social workers, a part-time psychologist, and school counsellors who each carry a caseload of students they meet with weekly. Referrals come from teachers, families, and students themselves, and the waiting list is reviewed every Monday morning so no young person slips through unnoticed.
What sets this team apart is its willingness to step outside the office. Counsellors run lunchtime groups on managing test anxiety, co-host sessions on healthy friendships, and sometimes simply sit with a student eating lunch while talking through a rough weekend. The tone is casual, much like the easy-going "no worries" spirit you hear in a Brisbane school staffroom, where teachers aim to be approachable rather than authoritative.
| Role | Focus | Typical touchpoints |
|---|---|---|
| Director of Student Support | Whole-school SEL strategy, supervision, family crises | Weekly leadership meetings, emergency response |
| School Counsellor | One-to-one sessions, small group work | 30-minute weekly check-ins, drop-in hours |
| School Psychologist | Assessments, complex trauma, referrals | Scheduled evaluations, consultation with teachers |
| Social Worker | Family outreach, housing and food insecurity | Home visits, community agency liaison |
| Wellness Coach | Mindfulness, regulation skills, peer mentoring | Advisory classes, after-school clubs |
The team also coordinates closely with external clinics and hospitals, which matters in a city where finding a therapist can mean a months-long wait. By offering in-house support, Brooklyn X removes one of the biggest barriers families face when a child is struggling.
Classroom teachers trained in trauma-informed practice
No SEL programme survives without classroom teachers willing to carry it forward, and Brooklyn X has invested heavily in professional development. Every faculty member completes trauma-informed training in their first year, then refreshes it biennially. The training covers brain development, de-escalation techniques, and the neuroscience of stress, giving teachers a shared vocabulary when a student is having a tough day.
In practice, this looks like a maths teacher pausing a lesson to let a student take five minutes in the calming corner, or an English teacher adjusting an assignment after a student loses a parent. Australian researchers studying similar programmes in Victorian government schools have found that trauma-informed practice reduces suspensions and improves attendance, and the team at Brooklyn X is watching its own data with the same careful eye.
Teachers also run circle discussions during advisory, where students practise active listening and respectful disagreement. The goal is to give young people daily rehearsal in skills they will need outside school, whether they are heading to university, TAFE, a trade, or straight into the workforce after Year 12.
Family liaisons and community partnerships
Families are the third pillar of the SEL initiative, and the liaison team is the bridge. Bilingual staff members reach out to caregivers who might otherwise feel shut out by school language, helping with everything from attendance concerns to navigating housing support. Their work is part translator, part advocate, part sounding board, and they are often the first call a parent makes when something goes wrong at home.
Community partnerships extend the reach of the school further. Brooklyn X works with local mental health clinics, after-school arts programmes, and youth employment services so students can move smoothly from school-based support into longer-term care. The school also partners with university social work programmes, hosting interns who bring fresh energy and current research into the building.
The liaison team regularly runs evening workshops for families, sometimes over Zoom so relatives working night shifts or living in different time zones can attend. Sessions cover helping teens manage screen time, recognising signs of disordered eating, and supporting a child through exam stress. The aim is to meet parents where they are, rather than expecting them to fit into a nine-to-five schedule.
How the SEL team connects with students daily
Day to day, the SEL team is visible, approachable, and present. Students see counsellors eating in the cafeteria, attending games, and cheering at the spring arts showcase. That presence matters. A teenager is far more willing to open up to an adult they have shared a laugh with than to a stranger behind a closed door.
Advisory periods form the backbone of the daily connection. Each week, students spend structured time on goal setting, gratitude journaling, and conflict role-play. The lessons are short, practical, and designed to feel like normal classroom work rather than an extra subject bolted onto an already full timetable.
The team also uses a simple digital check-in once a fortnight, where students rate their mood and flag any worries. Responses are reviewed by the counselling team, and a follow-up conversation is offered to anyone whose answers suggest they could use a chat. It is a small system, but it catches things early, and that is what social-emotional learning is really about: noticing the quiet signals before they become loud problems.
If you would like to learn more about the team, the programmes they run, or how to get involved as a family or community partner, visit Brooklyn X High School and explore the social-emotional learning pages, where contact details, upcoming workshops, and enrolment information are kept up to date throughout the year.