Focus On Falcon Wellness

By Cheryl Mitchell, Director of Wellness

Wellness begins at home with healthy family relationships, communication, meals, sleep, community involvement, and learning to set boundaries. Young people listen to and learn from their parents, even when at times it may not feel like they are listening or watching. The school-home partnership is key to supporting healthy students and allowing healthy young people to continue to learn about and practice self-care.

In all three divisions at Kinkaid as well as in our arts and athletics programming, the administration, faculty, and staff value and promote wellness through building relationships, listening, and creating safe classroom and learning environments. Students build connections to mindfulness through homerooms, advisory programming, community groups, and wellness education. When students hear similar messages both at home and at school about the importance of protecting their health and well-being through practicing self-care, it empowers them to make healthier decisions.

Our ongoing partnership with the Parents’ Association is an integral part of communicating the educational mission of helping young people make healthy choices throughout their lifetimes. The goal is that each Kinkaid graduate carries with them through adulthood a toolbox full of skills to help them cope when faced with stress, sustain healthy relationships, follow their core values with moral courage, and understand and practice self-care for their mental, emotional, social, and physical health.

Starting in October, Michele Borba, Ed.D., widely acclaimed author of Thrivers: The Surprising Reasons Why Some Kids Struggle and Others Shine, joined the Kinkaid community to discuss effective and proven strategies on how to raise resilient, moral, and empathetic children. Lower School Counselor, Dr. Nancy Simpson, then led a book study on Dr. Borba’s book specifically for Lower School parents, discussing ways topics in the book impact elementary aged children with an important focus on encouraging growth mindsets.

In November, internationally renowned psychiatrist, John Rush, M.D., who was recognized as one of the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Reuters, joined the Kinkaid community for a valuable conversation on mental health, stigma, and depression. Crime Stoppers representative Jenna Fondren joined the Lower School later in the month to present on Cyber Safety Awareness covering potential online dangers, cybercrime trends, social media and gaming platforms, and online monitoring tools.

During the fall semester, the Health, Wellness, and Parent Education Committee, led by Upper School chairs

Annette Brissett and Jennifer Wizel, Middle School chairs

Betsy Goldstein and Lis Purdy, and Lower School chair Natalie Reichman, hosted several incredible presentations by experts in the field of child psychology and child safety.

Finishing the year in December, Dr. Simpson led another book study discussing Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Yourself and Your Child Thrive by Dr. Marc Brackett, a professor at Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Simpson guided Lower School parents through a discussion on how families can help children manage anxious feelings.

Kinkaid will continue to support our families as the primary support system for teaching and practicing self-care from our youngest Falcons to those we are soon sending off into the world.