One of the founding tenets of SELS was a focus on student character and developing the whole child. As such, from the onset, SELS implemented school-wide relational character norms, visible and used in every classroom. These norms were developed using the acronym SIERRA (explained in depth below). In 2012-13, SELS also developed a set of Habits of Work (HOWs) for all classrooms, using the same acronym.