Zones of regulation

At Heathrow we use The Zones of Regulation with all our children. All classrooms have Zones of Regulation charts which the children use throughout the day.

The Zones of Regulation is an internationally renowned intervention which helps children to manage difficult emotions, known as ‘self-regulation’. 

Self-regulation can go by many names such as ‘emotional regulation’, ‘self- control’ and ‘self-management’. Self-regulation is best described as the best state of alertness for a situation, or the ability to maintain a well-regulated emotional state to cope with everyday stress and to be most available for learning and interacting.

From time to time, all of us (including adults) find it hard to manage strong feelings such as worry, anger, restlessness, fear or tiredness, and this stops us from getting on with our day effectively. Children who feel these emotions often find it hard to learn and concentrate in school.

The Zones of Regulation aims to teach children strategies to help them to identify their emotions and cope with these feelings so they can get back to feeling calm and ready to learn.

At Heathrow, we want to teach all of our children good coping and regulation strategies so they can help themselves when they experience anxiety and stress.

Using the Zones of Regulation as a framework, we aim to help children to:

• Recognise when they are in the different Zones and learn how to change or manage being in the Zone they are in.
• Increase their emotional vocabulary so they can explain how they are feeling.
• Recognise when other people are in different Zones, thus developing better empathy.
• Develop an insight into what might make them move into the different Zones.
• Understand that emotions, sensory experiences such as lack of sleep or hunger and their environment might influence which Zone they are in.
• Develop problem-solving skills and resilience
• Identify a range of calming and alerting strategies that support them (known as their personal ‘toolkit’).

What are the different Zones?

Blue Zone: low level of arousal; not ready to learn; feels sad, sick, tired, bored, moving slowly.

Green Zone: calm state of alertness; optimal level to learn; feels happy, calm, feeling okay, focused.

Yellow Zone: heightened state of alertness; elevated emotions; has some control; feels frustrated, worried, silly, excited, loss of some control.

Red Zone: heightened state of alertness and intense emotions; not an optimal level for learning; out of control; feels mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting, elated, out of control.

We teach the children that everyone experiences all of the Zones and none of them are ‘bad’. All of the Zones are expected at one time or another. We believe that is it ok not to be ok.

All classrooms have a display, with a list of feelings and strategies that the children can refer to.

In our weekly, Zones of regulation session, we do lots of work on identifying different emotions, both in ourselves and in others. We strive to ensure the children at Heathrow have a broad vocabulary and secure understanding of emotions and the behaviours that they can cause.

In these sessions, children are also encouraged to discuss strategies that they can use when they’re in the different zones. These could be sensory supports, calming techniques or thinking strategies.