Back to School - Counseling Dept.

Happy first week back to school! The hustle and bustle of a new school year is such an exciting time. While the new year can bring some jitters, it is also a time to build new connections and jump back into established ones! I love watching our students learn to mesh with new classmates, a new teacher, and new routines. It serves as a great reminder of just how capable our kids are, even with moments of newness and uncertainty! I was so impressed by all of our student the first two days back... it was like we never left! Our older students told me that the first two days of school are just talking about a bunch of rules... so in the spirit of "reviewing expectations", I will use the first Acorn of the year to provide families with a "what to expect" from my counseling department and how you can reach me, if needed. 

Each year I kick off the first couple weeks of school with individual Minute Meetings for our Kindergarten through 8th grade students. Minute Meetings are one of my favorite parts of the year as it it gives me 1-2 minutes, 1 on 1 with each student to get to know them (or get to know them better!), and ensure that they know who I am! I love the quick but important insights into what each student loves to do, what they are good at, and how they feel about school. I will start these meetings this week! 

Now looking bigger picture - my goal is always to be visible and support students, staff, and parents as needed. I aim to help students navigate the ups and downs that come with each new year and even each new day. This year, another goal of mine is to be in the classrooms more often teaching whole class lessons. These lessons will be a mix of topics that I want to cover to enhance our mission of inspiring our students to be their best selves, but also topics that are in collaboration with teachers. I want to help support each grade level and classroom in areas that are specific to them. 

In addition to the classroom lessons, I will continue our Let Grow Experience program with Kindergarten through 5th grade! Our students, their families, and teachers really embraced the first year of this program and I hope to keep that momentum going into this year! For those that are new to Oakhill and this program, The Let Grow Experience is a monthly “homework assignment” in which our students are asked to go home and do something that they have never done before... all on their own! Let Grow aims to teach our students independence, resilience, problem solving skills, and so much more. I was so impressed by the “new things” that students challenged themselves with, so I know I will be blown away again this year!

As always, I will continue to support students individually, as needed, and build in small groups within divisions as the year progresses. If you feel that your child could benefit from individual check-ins, or would like to discuss support in some way, please reach out to me at any time. 

My door is always open and I am just an email or phone call away! 
 

Here’s to a great year,

Mrs. P