Lower Division Program Highlights

• Every class receives 14 age-appropriate counseling lessons that focus on topics such as emotional management, relationship skills, and personal safety. Most lessons are skill-based, and students are taught new tools to use whenever they are needed.

• In pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, students are taught a curriculum called “We Thinkers!” which helps our youngest students establish a common language that then strengthens their social awareness and their social smarts.

Individual support is provided in such areas as social skills, anxiety, and emotional regulation. Counselors can meet with students and use targeted resources to help them learn about and apply specific skills.

• During convocation presentations, counselors review and reinforce a common language around specific tools that have been previously taught in our counseling lessons.

• Counselors offer targeted class lessons and provide grade or division-level support as needs become apparent.

• Parent consultation

  • Counselors work closely with parents to provide strategies and advice for the home.

• Referrals to community professionals

  • When needed, counselors connect families with appropriate professionals outside school for additional support.

• Teaming with community mental health professionals, parents, and educators to support student growth

  • Counselors act as a vital link between stakeholders to ensure we are using the same language and reinforcing the same tools, thereby supporting the growth of a student.

Advisory is an opportunity for our fifth graders to build relationships with a faculty member who is not their homeroom teacher and a small group of their peers. Along with building community, advisory is designed to teach students about leadership, using a social filter, digital citizenship, and the transition to Middle Division.