Student success at The York School comes by supporting the individual needs of the whole child.
Forward thinking and academically robust, The York School approaches education in a unique way. A gender inclusive JK to Grade 12 International Baccalaureate (IB) school, York prioritizes its students’ mental and emotional wellbeing alongside building their academic strengths in preparing them for the future.
Knowing one cannot thrive without the other, The York School has a multi-layered support system in place that includes teachers, learning strategists, counsellors, and social workers. By focusing on the whole child, the School can provide specialized assistance suited to each student’s needs. It also cultivates meaningful parent partnerships to ensure children succeed at school and at home.
This approach proved especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being away from the classroom, students may have experienced learning gaps. In addition, they may have experienced difficulty focusing and adapting to online and hybrid learning. The School also recognized that young people may have struggled with their mental health over the course of the pandemic.
Community encouragement
Fortunately, The York School already had a strong wellbeing and learning strategies structure in place, ready to support where needed.
Proactively, the School intervened to prevent learning gaps and promote mental health by reaffirming support through its three-tiered Response to Intervention (RTI) System. Teachers and staff quickly identified where students were struggling and addressed learning issues with individual learning plans built on subjective intensity, frequency, and duration levels.
Social and emotional wellbeing is central to how we approach our students because we see it as the foundation for academic learning.
Plus, the School has an impressive social and emotional learning curriculum that is woven throughout each school division and also headquartered in a centrally located Leigh Centre for Wellbeing. As one student put it, “I just think the school wants us to be prepared — to build a foundation here and be able to do whatever we want to meet what we think our idea of success is.”
Well-rounded education
From Junior School through Middle and Senior School, York ensures student success by having the right tools and infrastructure in place to support different learning styles.
“Social and emotional wellbeing is central to how we approach our students because we see it as the foundation for academic learning,” says Elissa Kline-Beber, Associate Head of Wellbeing. “Our goal is that, by graduation, students really know themselves, are confident in their strengths, and aren’t afraid to ask for help.”
