Holistic Approach | Support & Wellness | Lower School | Friends Select School
Source: https://www.friends-select.org/lower-school-holistic-approach
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:18
Holistic Approach | Support & Wellness | Lower School | Friends Select School
Holistic Approach | Support & Wellness | Lower School | Friends Select School
Alert
Info
Lower School Holistic Approach
In This Section
Lower School Holistic Approach
The lower school student support team at Friends Select works collaboratively to support the emotional, social, and academic development of the whole child. We believe that social-emotional learning, fostering academic growth and confidence, and building toward developmentally appropriate levels of independence and agency provide a foundation for a child’s success in school and life.
The student support team meets regularly to review and discuss the overall well-being and academic progress of students. The team consists of a school psychologist (pre-K- 12), the lower school counselor, and two lower school learning specialists.
The student support team works in close partnership with teachers and families to nurture a child’s development across domains. We believe caregivers are essential in nourishing their children’s development, so we work closely with families to ensure their children feel confident in all aspects of their lives. Partnerships happen in a myriad of ways through family meetings with the student support team, parent meetings with the classroom teacher, and parent programs led by our wellness team.
Learning
Support
Social-Emotional
Support
Wellness
Program
Learning Support
In the lower school, we know that young children are busy learning and growing in many areas. We expect that children will come to school with a range of skills and experiences. At various times in their learning process, many of our students benefit from additional support in building important foundational skills to become confident readers, writers, and students.
While differentiation is embedded in the daily life of each classroom, our two full-time learning specialists also work with children in small groups. Through systematic instruction and careful observation, we are responsive to each individual child’s strengths and areas of need and build the skills necessary for success across all areas of the curriculum.
Social-Emotional Support
At Friends Select, our lower school seeks to develop the whole child, which includes nurturing the social and emotional development of our students. We believe that children learn best when they have an environment to learn and explore the skills needed to develop a strong sense of self and feel empowered in their emotional growth and identity.
As part of the student support team, the lower school counselor attends grade-team meetings to consult and advise about student issues that may arise, and provides details and consideration on how best to support individual students in the classroom and the lower school community as a whole.
In the classroom, teachers work alongside the lower school counselor to introduce themes such as identity development, identification of emotions, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and coping strategies to navigate the different emotions they experience in and out of the classroom. Students also have the opportunity to work in small groups and individually with the lower school counselor to practice and strengthen the skills they are learning in a more intimate setting.
Wellness Program
The Friends Select Wellness Program, now in its eighth year, engages the school’s community and the general public about mental health and other wellness issues. It is spearheaded by Natan Gottesman, Ph.D., the school’s psychologist, and Chris Singler, upper school director. The program provides information, strategies, support, and resources to students, faculty, and families in the Friends Select community and beyond. Through speaking events, presentations, and participatory activities, the program increases awareness of issues that can affect student learning and well-being, such as mental health challenges, learning styles, peer relationships, social media and internet use, academic pressures, the college application process, and current events.
During the 2023-24 school year, Friends Select offered access to a series of Child Development and Parenting Webinars, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) and the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). Friends Select’s Wellness support team followed these webinars with a series of companion conversations, each one customized to provide parents, caregivers, faculty, and staff an opportunity to gather, discuss, and process the learning from these lectures.
Wellness Meetings
As an ongoing foundational aspect of the program since its inception, Natan meets with small groups of upper school students throughout the school year for “Wellness Meetings.” Issues such as mental health, academic successes and struggles, stress and stress management, navigation of upper school expectations, and time management are discussed.
Past Wellness Program Events
2017-18
During the 2017-18 school year, the Wellness Program brought Kenneth Ginsburg to speak about his book, Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love with Expectations and Protection with Trust. The program continues to expand, with events intended to increase conversation about the connections between stress, overall mental health and well-being, and academic engagement.
2018-19
The Wellness Program hosted a screening and panel discussion for Angst: Raising Awareness Around Anxiety, an IndieFlix documentary that explores the multilayered effects of anxiety on our society. This film was screened for Friends Select parents, caregivers, and the wider community, as well as for faculty and students in the upper and middle school. In addition, speakers were brought in from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), who presented information about mental illness to upper school students, with one speaker candidly sharing her own personal experiences with mental illness, treatment, and recovery.
2019-20
The Wellness Program presented adolescent mental health expert Anthony Rostain and family therapist B. Janet Hibbs, authors of The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years. They discussed their book, which is intended to help students and parents cope with the stress and anxiety associated with college.
2020-21
The Wellness Program hosted two virtual events: Youth Suicide Risk: What You Should Know with Dr. Terri Erbacher, and Helping Students Thrive During Pandemic Schooling with Denise Pope, Ph.D.
2021-22
The Wellness Program hosted an event in the fall titled Kids and the COVID-19 Vaccine: Addressing Your Questions and Concerns. This virtual event included a multi-disciplinary panel discussion featuring Dr. Susan Coffin, Dr. Paul Planet, Dr. Tina Scott, and Kathryn Snyder. In recognition of the designation of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, Friends Select psychologist Natan Gottesman and school counselor Gabby Kenny offered a virtual Wellness Program event titled Suicide Prevention and Education: What You Should Know, to inform caregivers and other community members about warning signs, coping skills, and action steps related to suicide prevention.
2022-23
The Wellness Program invited Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary to speak to the Friends Select community and the public about her book, The Anxiety Paradox: Why Helping Kids Feel Bad Can Help Them to Feel Good. As the Molly Patterson Wellness Speaker for the 2022-23 school year. Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary provided a new model for ways to think about and deal with anxiety and address how parents and guardians can best support their kids.
The Wellness Program is made possible by the generous and thoughtful support of Jeff Abrams and Margaret Barry P ’15, ’16. They continue to support the Wellness Program for students, faculty/staff, families, and the community, in recognition of the creative and compassionate energy that Molly Patterson Ed.D. and Natan Gottesman, Ph.D. have brought to the program since its inception to help it grow and respond to the needs of the Friends Select community.
Make a gift to the Wellness Program
Where Next?
Educational Journey
Academics
Arts
Holistic Approach | Support & Wellness | Lower School | Friends Select School
Alert
Info
Lower School Holistic Approach
In This Section
Lower School Holistic Approach
The lower school student support team at Friends Select works collaboratively to support the emotional, social, and academic development of the whole child. We believe that social-emotional learning, fostering academic growth and confidence, and building toward developmentally appropriate levels of independence and agency provide a foundation for a child’s success in school and life.
The student support team meets regularly to review and discuss the overall well-being and academic progress of students. The team consists of a school psychologist (pre-K- 12), the lower school counselor, and two lower school learning specialists.
The student support team works in close partnership with teachers and families to nurture a child’s development across domains. We believe caregivers are essential in nourishing their children’s development, so we work closely with families to ensure their children feel confident in all aspects of their lives. Partnerships happen in a myriad of ways through family meetings with the student support team, parent meetings with the classroom teacher, and parent programs led by our wellness team.
Learning
Support
Social-Emotional
Support
Wellness
Program
Learning Support
In the lower school, we know that young children are busy learning and growing in many areas. We expect that children will come to school with a range of skills and experiences. At various times in their learning process, many of our students benefit from additional support in building important foundational skills to become confident readers, writers, and students.
While differentiation is embedded in the daily life of each classroom, our two full-time learning specialists also work with children in small groups. Through systematic instruction and careful observation, we are responsive to each individual child’s strengths and areas of need and build the skills necessary for success across all areas of the curriculum.
Social-Emotional Support
At Friends Select, our lower school seeks to develop the whole child, which includes nurturing the social and emotional development of our students. We believe that children learn best when they have an environment to learn and explore the skills needed to develop a strong sense of self and feel empowered in their emotional growth and identity.
As part of the student support team, the lower school counselor attends grade-team meetings to consult and advise about student issues that may arise, and provides details and consideration on how best to support individual students in the classroom and the lower school community as a whole.
In the classroom, teachers work alongside the lower school counselor to introduce themes such as identity development, identification of emotions, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and coping strategies to navigate the different emotions they experience in and out of the classroom. Students also have the opportunity to work in small groups and individually with the lower school counselor to practice and strengthen the skills they are learning in a more intimate setting.
Wellness Program
The Friends Select Wellness Program, now in its eighth year, engages the school’s community and the general public about mental health and other wellness issues. It is spearheaded by Natan Gottesman, Ph.D., the school’s psychologist, and Chris Singler, upper school director. The program provides information, strategies, support, and resources to students, faculty, and families in the Friends Select community and beyond. Through speaking events, presentations, and participatory activities, the program increases awareness of issues that can affect student learning and well-being, such as mental health challenges, learning styles, peer relationships, social media and internet use, academic pressures, the college application process, and current events.
During the 2023-24 school year, Friends Select offered access to a series of Child Development and Parenting Webinars, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) and the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). Friends Select’s Wellness support team followed these webinars with a series of companion conversations, each one customized to provide parents, caregivers, faculty, and staff an opportunity to gather, discuss, and process the learning from these lectures.
Wellness Meetings
As an ongoing foundational aspect of the program since its inception, Natan meets with small groups of upper school students throughout the school year for “Wellness Meetings.” Issues such as mental health, academic successes and struggles, stress and stress management, navigation of upper school expectations, and time management are discussed.
Past Wellness Program Events
2017-18
During the 2017-18 school year, the Wellness Program brought Kenneth Ginsburg to speak about his book, Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love with Expectations and Protection with Trust. The program continues to expand, with events intended to increase conversation about the connections between stress, overall mental health and well-being, and academic engagement.
2018-19
The Wellness Program hosted a screening and panel discussion for Angst: Raising Awareness Around Anxiety, an IndieFlix documentary that explores the multilayered effects of anxiety on our society. This film was screened for Friends Select parents, caregivers, and the wider community, as well as for faculty and students in the upper and middle school. In addition, speakers were brought in from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), who presented information about mental illness to upper school students, with one speaker candidly sharing her own personal experiences with mental illness, treatment, and recovery.
2019-20
The Wellness Program presented adolescent mental health expert Anthony Rostain and family therapist B. Janet Hibbs, authors of The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years. They discussed their book, which is intended to help students and parents cope with the stress and anxiety associated with college.
2020-21
The Wellness Program hosted two virtual events: Youth Suicide Risk: What You Should Know with Dr. Terri Erbacher, and Helping Students Thrive During Pandemic Schooling with Denise Pope, Ph.D.
2021-22
The Wellness Program hosted an event in the fall titled Kids and the COVID-19 Vaccine: Addressing Your Questions and Concerns. This virtual event included a multi-disciplinary panel discussion featuring Dr. Susan Coffin, Dr. Paul Planet, Dr. Tina Scott, and Kathryn Snyder. In recognition of the designation of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, Friends Select psychologist Natan Gottesman and school counselor Gabby Kenny offered a virtual Wellness Program event titled Suicide Prevention and Education: What You Should Know, to inform caregivers and other community members about warning signs, coping skills, and action steps related to suicide prevention.
2022-23
The Wellness Program invited Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary to speak to the Friends Select community and the public about her book, The Anxiety Paradox: Why Helping Kids Feel Bad Can Help Them to Feel Good. As the Molly Patterson Wellness Speaker for the 2022-23 school year. Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary provided a new model for ways to think about and deal with anxiety and address how parents and guardians can best support their kids.
The Wellness Program is made possible by the generous and thoughtful support of Jeff Abrams and Margaret Barry P ’15, ’16. They continue to support the Wellness Program for students, faculty/staff, families, and the community, in recognition of the creative and compassionate energy that Molly Patterson Ed.D. and Natan Gottesman, Ph.D. have brought to the program since its inception to help it grow and respond to the needs of the Friends Select community.
Make a gift to the Wellness Program
Where Next?
Educational Journey
Academics
Arts