Bulletin #21 | February 11th, 2020

Our Model of Education reminds us that our first belief about learning at JFK is that our students can excel inside a safe, innovative, and collaborative school culture.
Such beliefs are easy to write down, but much more complex to build on a daily basis within a school of our size. Much of our work to provide a safe school culture goes far deeper than physical security and is managed by our Student Support Services team. This year, as part of our review of the school structure, we aligned Student Support Services vertically. That is to say, instead of the psychologists in each section working only in their section and for their principal, we joined them together as a school-wide single team, under the guidance of their coordinator Clarisa Montes de Oca, a trained and professional psychologist. This alignment helps all of the team work together, gaining experience from each other, sharing best practices and helping us to build our ‘One School’ instead of 4 independent sections. Collaboration and team work is definitely the way forward!

 

The Student Support Services team focuses mainly on supporting students who are experiencing academic, social, emotional, and/or physical difficulties that may have a temporary or permanent effect on their learning. The team offers various age-appropriate programs and services in all sections of the school, and work daily to provide students, staff and parents guidance for a whole range of situations and concerns they face both on and off campus.

As well as working directly with students and staff, some other common activities include offering workshops for staff and students on topics of interest and their work has been instrumental in helping Clarisa establish our successful program of parenting conferences called ‘Parent Talks’, receiving an average attendance of about 100 parents per talk!

 

In High School, through College and Career Counselling programs, dedicated staff also offer guidance and support in order to prepare students for post-secondary education in Mexico and abroad. Our College and Career Counseling programs assist students with their decision making process and the preparation of necessary documentation. We organize events and conferences to inform students and parents about the college admissions process both locally and internationally. This includes both the annual College Fair (with an average of 100 universities from around the country and the world attending!) and maintaining collaborative relationships with numerous national and international colleges and universities.

 

With so many professionally qualified experts available in our team, working closely with our students, the JFK is able to provide support to all those who need it. In this way we aim to identify a great many of the issues that could so easily escalate to a far more serious or tragic level, and help not only individual families and students, but also to give our school a safe learning environment.

 

 

 

 

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Mark Dunn
Elementary School Principal