Lower School Counseling

The Lower School Counseling Program aims to help all students grow in their personal, social, and academic skills. The program also helps students manage challenges that may arise during the school year. The counselor is available for individual meetings with students at the request of the student, teacher, or parent, in order to work toward productive action at school and at home.

The Lower School Counseling Program is developmentally, proactively based.

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Program Components

Classroom Guidance
Co-curricular guidance classes are provided by the Lower School Counselor. Topics include:
Internet Safety
Personal Safety
Healthy Choices (drug, alcohol, and tobacco prevention)
Listening Skills
Making and Keeping Friends
Conflict Resolution
Problem-Solving Skills
Empathy
Respect
Peer Pressure
Small Group Counseling
Small Group Counseling is available on an “as needed” basis and is problem and growth centered.
Individual Counseling
Individual counseling is available to help guide students toward productive action at school and at home and assist students in problem solving.
Consultation
Working with teachers, parents, administrators, and other educational specialists.
Student Support Team
The Lower School Counseling Program offers consultation for teachers and parents to analyze the ways that individual students learn and succeed at Wesleyan. This service often occurs through the SST (Student Support Team) process. A support team may be initiated by parents, teachers, or faculty members. Teachers meet once a month with Nancy Jones, the Lower School Counselor and SST Coordinator, for a general SST meeting. The lower school principal often attends these meetings.

At a SST meeting, a student’s progress is discussed from several relevant viewpoints, including: his or her academic, behavioral, social, and emotional perspectives. Our goal is to find out where and how a student is succeeding and where any gaps in success are occurring. We brainstorm possible interventions that may help close those gaps, so that teachers can return to their classrooms with ideas in hand to help keep students on the right track.
We frequently contact parents to obtain additional information or to coordinate additional steps to support each and every student. Many parents choose to share information obtained from outside tutors and/or psycho-educational evaluations. This is invaluable to us, as we are then able to make the appropriate accommodations based on your child’s specific needs. Accommodations may be physical, instructional, or behavioral. Accommodations and/or modifications will be available to Wesleyan students who have the following required documentation of learning disabilities:
- A psycho-educational evaluation completed within the last five years
- Achievement, IQ, and/or Aptitude Test data completely listed within evaluation
- A specific diagnosis
- Recommendations for services and/or accommodations for the classroom
It is our goal to utilize all available information while maintaining confidentiality as much as possible to plan for the success of each Wesleyan student. We welcome and appreciate your input as we make those plans, and look forward to working with you and your child.