The student support team collaborates with other services (Student Services, DEIB, IT, teachers, and administrators) to ensure that the needs of every student are met.
Wellness | Remember to start from a place of strength
As often as possible, we can try to see that when our teens are seeking out help, it actually comes from a place of strength. We can then wonder about: What is going well? What is my teen already doing well that they can build on for what doesn’t go well?
At LFSF, keeping our students safe is our priority and their wellness, our focus. During the month of October, our teams, led by our wellness coordinator, work on bringing awareness to the importance of promoting wellbeing and preventing self-harm. Making sure that we promote empathy and dialog is essential in this approach.
Provides one-on-one support for the students in managing the various aspects of life and stressors as a teenager and as a student at the LFSF, including crisis intervention.
Participates in health education by organizing workshops for students, educational teams, and parents and developing a health education curriculum (including sex and drug education).
Participates in the promotion of mental health, well-being, and prevention of psychological risks (stress, discouragement, academic demotivation, exhaustion, loss of meaning, risky behaviors) and psychopathological risks (anxiety, depression, drug use, eating disorders) among students, for example through the development and implementation of a curriculum in socio-emotional strategies (Socio-Emotional Learning or SEL) and other events on the campus that influence protective factors for the students (Wellness Wednesdays, stress-less events, mental health awareness campaigns).
Provides information and advice to students who are experiencing learning challenges.
Provides information and resources to teachers to better support their students.
Creates Student Accommodation Plan (PAP) for students diagnosed with Specific Learning Disorders and organizes annual reviews of those plans.
Assists students eligible for accommodations for the DNB and French Baccalauréat in filing requests with the French embassy.
Nathalie works on the three campuses of the LFSF:
Ashbury and Sausalito (the Primary campuses)
Ortega (for Middle School + LFSF High)
Special Aid Network: What does exist?
Student Support Strategies
Our Student Support team is a group of professionals (speech therapists, psychologists, learning specialists for the French and English curriculums, etc.) who intervene with students who are experiencing difficulties in their academic journey, either learning difficulties and/or emotional challenges, that affect their academic performance and success.
The Student Support team can intervene in the following ways:
Ressources for Personalized Help in the Classroom
Advice to families
Implementation of accommodations and adaptations for school work
Implementation of PPRE (Personal Plan for Educational Success), PAP (Special Accommodation Plan) and PPS (Individual Educational Plan)
Participation in Educational Team meetings
Observations, student evaluations
Ad hoc consultations and interventions with students
Coordination and monitoring of student progress
Assistance with requests for exam accommodations
Referral to external local ressources
For new families whose child already has identified difficulties within the framework of a PAP or other special plan (PPS, American IEP, etc.), a conversation with the admissions team will help prepare the on-boarding and identify whether the school will be able to meet the applicant's needs.
Many students with special needs can be schooled in a regular school setting and in a bilingual school such as ours, with accommodations in terms of time, specific equipment or personalized aids .
Schooling in an ordinary environment is always preferred whenever possible and beneficial for the child. However, in certain cases, if our school cannot meet the specific needs of a student, our team will then help guide the family in their search for a local, public or private specialized structure.
The first point of contact for families should always be the child's teacher.
The teacher will call the Student Support team after discussing the concerns with the family. An action plan will then be put in place in consultation with all involved. In most cases, a set of actions will be provided to solve temporary difficulties.
In case of persistent difficulties, despite the interventions already in place, other actions can be implemented by organizing an Educational Team or proposing specialized assessments to better understand the student's learning profile.
If a learning disability is identified and diagnosed (highlighted by a recent assessment clearly indicating one or more deficits), and if the family so wishes, PAP will be set up and revised each year according to the evolution of the student's needs.