Greetings Thompson Community,
February brings Valentine’s Day and with it, a chance to show people how much we care about them. In TSD, we care deeply about each of our students and strive for each student to be healthy, safe, engaged, connected, supported and included. One way we support these goals is through social emotional learning and mental health support for our students. I’d like to take this opportunity to share some of our efforts to support your child’s development in these areas as well as how parents and guardians can be involved.
TSD educators teach core social emotional skills, such as self-awareness, self-management, relationship-building, social awareness and responsible decision-making. All of our students benefit from growing their skills in these areas; these skills are critical to success in friendships, extracurricular interests, college, jobs and more. In addition, by growing our students’ social emotional skills, we can sometimes reduce their need for more intensive mental health support. Educators at all levels incorporate this learning into their teaching; elementary students may learn how to make and keep friends, while middle school students learn about healthy eating and activity and high schoolers
learn about setting and achieving their future career goals. Every day, TSD educators help their students grow their social emotional skills and help them prepare for future success.
TSD educators also understand the importance of creating a sense of belonging for each student and for each student to have a strong positive relationship with at least one caring adult. When students feel a sense of connectedness and belonging, we can increase engagement, participation, achievement and even graduation rates, as well as many other positive outcomes. Our staff look for creative ways to do this, including Connection Sessions (dedicated time during the school day to connect with students), clubs, extracurricular activities and a wide variety of learning opportunities that align with students’ interests and needs. Our educators are always looking for ways to make the school day
fun and recognize each student for their unique talents and achievements.
Sometimes students may need a bit more support; all students have access to our incredible school counselors and social workers. They can work with students to help with everything from understanding and regulating their emotions to dealing with anxiety, loss or family changes. Staff can provide crisis support and also have community connections to refer students and families to outside providers as needed.
We also have a wonderful team of district-wide social emotional and mental health specialists who provide students and staff with all levels of support, including suicide prevention and bullying prevention education, PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support), restorative practices, positive school climate and culture efforts, mental health assistance and more. We are also lucky to be part of a community that offers amazing wrap-around support services, from local therapists to award-winning organizations such as Hearts and Horses.
How can parents and guardians get involved? Please reach out to the staff at your child’s school if you feel they could use more social emotional or mental health support in order to be successful in school. Not sure where to start? We all have a very simple tool in our toolkit; the very best thing any of us can do to support a child’s social emotional and mental health is to just listen. Connect with them, appreciate their unique self and take joy in the person they are growing into. An added benefit of slowing down for a few minutes to listen to your child is that it gives you another opportunity to notice changes in your child’s affect, attitudes, mood and behavior and realize you may need to refer them to the school counselor, social worker or a private therapist for additional support. You are not in this alone – Your child’s school staff are here to partner with you to help navigate the path to student success!
Thank you for all you do to support your child and our schools. Supporting the whole child takes the whole community and we could not do it without you!
Sincerely,
Dr. Marc Schaffer
Superintendent
Thompson School District