Experiences

Health, Wellness & Support

Research proves that students learn best when their academic, emotional, physical, and social needs are met. Annie Wright is dedicated to educating the whole child and works to provide a healthy, safe and supportive environment so that our students can be engaged and challenged learners.

We provide opportunities to cultivate personal wellness and academic success through classroom instruction, student support services, and professional mental and physical health personnel. The key elements of student support services at Annie Wright Schools include:

Learning Support

The Learning Support Department strives to meet the individual needs of students, to encourage each student to reach his or her personal best, and to cultivate age-appropriate self-management skills that lead to independent and community-minded thinking. In their efforts to reach these goals, the Learning Support Department collaborates and engages with teachers and parents to create an environment that best ensures that all students are being challenged and supported in their learning.

The Learning Support team also provides professional development opportunities for faculty to enhance their knowledge of how students learn and expand their use of the best practices in teaching, as well as collaborates with classroom teachers to help ensure that all students are being challenged and supported in their learning.

Learning Specialists are able to provide additional academic support beyond what the classroom teacher already provides, either within the larger classroom environment or outside of the classroom individually or within a small group. Students who are identified with specific learning difficulties worthy of an assessment are directed to outside sources for psycho-educational testing and are supported by the Learning Support team during this process. As our students grow, Learning Specialists work to give them self-advocacy skills and tools to move to their next level independently and successfully.

Learning Specialists also support parents and families to establish strong communication with teachers, better understand the academic needs and challenges of their students, and provide wider awareness of academic opportunities beyond high school.

Annie Wright Schools offer accommodations for students to help ensure that each individual has an opportunity to learn and to demonstrate that learning has occurred. Here are some examples of the types of accommodations offered in the different divisions:

Learning Support Accommodations

List of 2 items.

Lower School
- Visual aides
- Student contracts
- Reinforcements/rewards
- Concrete manipulatives
- Organizational aides
- Frequent breaks
- Methods to reduce distractions
Middle & Upper Schools
- Extended time on tests
- Testing in a quiet, separate area
- Notetakers
- Audio Books
- Oral testing
- Permission for the use of computers or other technology to assist in test taking and study skills

Counseling

The counseling program at Annie Wright is designed to provide a wide variety of opportunities and experiences that promote the social and emotional well-being of our students and families.

In addition to providing a thoughtful and scaffolded health and wellness curriculum in Preschool through Grade 12, targeted counseling services, including in-house and referral services, are also provided by a Lower School Counselor (Preschool-Grade 5), a Middle School Counselor (Grades 6-8) and two Upper Schools Counselors (Grades 9-12, one day and one part-time Dorm counselor). The counselors engage with students in the classroom with age-appropriate lessons and activities, work with faculty to support student social and emotional learning, and are available for individual counseling, group counseling, peer conflict mediation, staff development, parent education, crisis intervention, curriculum development and community referral resources.

Annie Wright also has one reserved 50-minute counseling appointment with Olympic Psychology Services every day of the school week for an AWS community member. If an AWS student needs immediate access to therapy, we can now ensure they have it. Between increased counselors on staff and ready access to outside counseling, we are working to intentionally and effectively support the mental health of the Annie Wright community.

Health Center

The Health Center has two registered nurses who provide basic health care and education to our AWS community. The nurses promote a healthy school environment, attend to injuries and illness, provide care to students with chronic health conditions, administer medications, direct the immunization program, perform general health screenings, oversee the first aid emergency protocols and coordinate referrals to healthcare providers. Our nurses strive to be a source of guidance and education to help our students realize their full potential.

Health & Wellness Curriculum

List of 3 items.

Lower School

In Preschool-Grade 5, we aim to align with the Units of Inquiry in the classroom, and support student learning of social emotional wellness alongside those units. Our counselor focuses on identifying emotions, friendship skills, building empathy and self-awareness, mindfulness, conflict resolution, and emotion regulation. Additionally, as students move into the higher grades, there is further discussion around choices and the impact of these choices, as well as rights and responsibilities of being a member in a community. Throughout the grades, small group work supports healthy friendship skill building and overall skills practice.
Middle School

In Grades 6-8, health and wellness is a primary focus of the Physical Health and Education course curriculum. The social-emotional aspect allows students to grow and reflect through activities focused in five core competency areas, including self-awareness, self-regulation, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.
Upper Schools

In Grades 9-12, the health and wellness curriculum is designed to provide information needed to make important decisions about health, wellness, and individual lifestyle. Topics related to personal health and social/emotional health such as healthy relationships, digital literacy, mental health, community engagement and sexual health are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the student’s acquiring knowledge and assuming responsibility for their own mental and physical health with the goal to be able make positive health decisions for themselves in the future.

In addition, for Grades 6 - 12, the school is implementing the Character Strong SEL Curriculum which focuses on social emotional self-care. The curriculum provides a series of lessons that teachers and counselors can use in advisory and core programming to build on topics of empathy, kindness, and resilience.