The COVID‑19 pandemic has negatively impacted the social and emotional well-being and health of children worldwide. In the ‘Social Impact of COVID-19 Survey August 2020: The Reopening of Schools’, 42.2% of parents reported that school closures had a negative impact on their child’s social-emotional development. Social distancing and lockdown measures increased children’s anxiety and impeded their social-emotional development. The impact of the pandemic on children's social-emotional wellbeing has called upon an urgent need for more effective and innovative approaches to expand students’ social-emotional learning support in schools. Schools provide a structured social setting in which children can learn and practice social-emotional competencies such as self-awareness, self-regulation, and empathy. In response to the above findings, the key aim of this research was to explore and create innovative, pedagogical practices that can develop and support the teaching of and learning of these social-emotional competencies in school. A social-emotional learning intervention comprising of restorative practices was implemented. This included the use of daily restorative circles, the creation of a social-emotional language framework and the delivery of a restorative practice programme for students. Action research was chosen as the methodology and qualitative data was collected using reflective journals, surveys, observation and feedback from critical friends. Findings that emerged from the study were in relation to the importance of teacher modelling, the power of restorative circles and relationship building. A key finding was the importance of teacher vulnerability and seeing it as a strength for teachers developing students’ social-emotional learning. This finding inspired a significant change in my teacher identity and how I will foster social-emotional learning in my classroom for years to come.