Middle School Student Wellbeing

Homeroom Program

The homeroom program is an important feature of the Middle School. Each student is assigned a homeroom class and a homeroom teacher who is the primary contact for students and parents. The homeroom program is guided by the RULER program from the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, which explicitly teaches students social-emotional learning skills (SEL) including fostering positive relationships, managing emotions and making responsible decisions. Homeroom time is also used to hone students’ executive functioning skills including time and material management.

Middle School Social Worker

Upon entering the Middle School, students face a range of exciting new opportunities as well as new challenges. These challenges include adapting to significant academic and psycho-social changes. The first line of support for these challenges is the homeroom teacher. Social work support is available to students as an additional individual resource for those seeking guidance around their own social and emotional wellbeing. While accessing social work support is confidential and voluntary, the goal is to be as collaborative as possible in order to best support students. Students can be connected to the Middle School Social Worker through their teachers, their parents and/or can self-refer. Additionally, parents are encouraged to reach out to the Social Worker if they wish to share any additional information regarding their child about which the school should be aware in order to access additional psycho-social support or academic accommodation.

Learning Strategies

Learning support for all students begins in our inclusive classrooms where teachers differentiate instruction to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles. Our Middle School Learning Strategists support and advocate for exceptional students to help them access the curriculum and implement appropriate accommodations. 

Student Learning Plans (SLPs) are written for students with identified exceptionalities so that teachers know how to appropriately support their identified needs. These plans include the exceptional identification, the student’s learning strengths, needs and the accommodations that are necessary to support the student’s learning.

SLPs are reviewed and updated annually. Our Learning Strategists work as co-teachers in classes and offer one-to-one and small group support outside of the classroom. The Learning Strategists are enlisted for support by the teaching faculty and/or the student’s family.

School Nurse

The school nurse provides direct health assessment and intervention to students experiencing acute or chronic health conditions during the school day, collaborates with school staff around health promotion and education and liases with public health as required. Parents are encouraged to reach out to the school nurse to ensure home /s school partnership on student health issues.

Allergies

There are a number of students in the Middle School with life-threatening allergic reactions called anaphylaxis. Typical anaphylaxis triggers include:

  • insect stings

    medication

  • exercise

  • latex

  • and, most often, specific foods.

In order to protect children with nut allergies (the most common food allergy) we ask that when you pack snacks and lunches, you do not send any foods that contain peanuts, nuts, or nut-related products.

Foods that have the “May contain…” label are unacceptable, as are foods that specify nuts in the ingredients list. If your children have peanut butter or any other nut-related product for breakfast please ensure that they brush their teeth and wash their face and hands before going to school.

In an effort to provide the care that severely allergic children may require, the allergy is noted on our database and teachers are aware. The students are required to have 2 Epipens with them at the start of each school year (each Epipen should include that child’s name). The students are required to wear one Epipen on them at all times; as well, we keep one in the office.

Please note: The York School makes every effort to be a nut-aware environment. Foods prepared in our cafeteria do not knowingly contain peanuts, nuts, or nut-related products. We do have mechanisms to accommodate other personal dietary restrictions. Please reach out to the principal or the school nurse to discuss your child’s needs. 

Thank you for your consideration and cooperation in helping to make The York School a safe environment for all our students.