Winchester public Schools Fall 20176 mental health Series Middlesex partnerships for Youth

1. Turning Down the Temperature: Reducing Stress and Anxiety in High-Performing Schools by Finding Balance Winchester public Schools Fall 20176 mental health Series Middlesex partnerships for Youth

2. Session Goals • Share our district’s story about how we seek balance for our students and ourselves • Highlight common causes of student stress/anxiety, especially in high-performing suburban schools • Remind ourselves that this is a shared challenge that requires joint parent/school/community responses • Show how choices made about program, instruction, and relationships can impact student stress/anxiety • Build understanding that this is not just a high school issue; change is required K-12 • Inspire action: we must address what is under our control and be open to positive change for our students

3. Hyper-, a WHS student documentary

4. Are Stress and Anxiety Normal and Unavoidable? Mild, situational stress and anxiety may be unavoidable. This type of stress can help us prepare or even perform better. It is when anxiety becomes persistent, chronic, and pervasive and interferes in daily functioning and normal development that anxiety may be at a clinical significant level and warrant intervention of some kind.

5. What do anxious students look like? For some students, fears and anxieties can have a significant impact on the way they perform at school, on their ability to make or maintain friends, and on their family life. Children who experience significant difficulties with anxiety can generally be described in the following ways: • They are often well-behaved and tend not to bother anyone. • They dislike trying new things. • They tend to dislike change or taking risks. • They have a tendency to highlight the negative consequences of any situation. • They avoid situations or objects they fear. • Physical complaints are common. Because some children don’t have the vocabulary or awareness to describe their anxiety, they may express it via physical symptoms such as feeling sick, having a lump in their throat, or sore shoulders from muscle tension. (Exerpt from understandinganxiety.wayahead.org)

6. Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2017: WHS The leading causes of negative student stress: • A busy schedule (22.8%) • School demands and expectations (31.7%) • Winchester High School students said the most stressful part of school is “keeping up with schoolwork” (27.2%) • Other causes of stress included parent/family expectations about academics, family/personal issues, and worrying about the future.

7. Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2017: WHS • Winchester High School students reported: • Feeling sad or hopeless (25.1%) • Doing something to purposefully hurt themselves without wanting to die (15.2%) • Seriously considered attempting suicide (13.8%) • Making a plan about how they would attempt suicide (9.7%) • Attempting suicide (4.3%) • Taking medicine or receiving treatment for behavioral health, mental health conditions, or emotional problems (15.1%)

8. Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2017: Middle School • 7.9% of Winchester middle school students reported that they were currently taking medicine or receiving treatment for behavioral health, mental health condition, or emotional problems • The leading causes of negative stress from Winchester middle school students: “school demands and expectations” and “busy schedule.” • Winchester middle school students reported that the most stressful part of school was “keeping up with schoolwork” and “getting up early in the morning to go to school.”

9. Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2017: Middle School With respect to suicidal thought and behavior, Winchester middle school students: • Seriously considered attempting suicide (13.5%) • Had made a plan about how they would attempt suicide (9.1%) • Had attempted suicide (3.6%)

10. District Efforts to Support Students’ Social-Emotional Development In recent years, the district has: • Developed goals and action plans related to supporting students’ social-emotional learning • Analyzed and reviewed data and practices around social emotional wellness throughout the district • Drafted a district Wellness plan to connect many elements of teaching and learning, including formal and informal programs, curricula, professional development, and personnel.

11. Can social-emotional skills be learned? • Research says that: • Social emotional skills can be taught and developed. • Effective social-emotional learning programs can improve teachers’ effectiveness and well-being. • These programs must engage communities and families to affect children’s development. • Effective implementation, training and teacher support are necessary to make social-emotional learning work. Source: Scientists to Schools: Social, Emotional Development Crucial for Learning • By Evie Blad on September 13, 2017 in Ed Week

12. Major Program Shifts at WPS to Turn Down the Temperature • Implementation of RULER social-emotional program from Yale University (K-5) • School Start Time Study Committee: planning to move to later start (8:30 a.m.) for grades 6-12. • Homework Practices Study Committees (K-5)

13. What are we doing to counteract anxiety/stress? Funded new professional staff positions: • Administrator of Counseling, Health, and Wellness • District-wide School Adjustment Counselor to provide coaching and support Partnerships with other districts and community organizations: • Middlesex Superintendents partnered to administer YRBS. • Winchester Coalition for a Safer Community sponsors parents/community programs • Winchester Multicultural Network sponsors community conversations about inclusion. • Winchester is a member of the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Educational Assessment (MCIEA) • Parent groups (including Parent-toParent) sponsor guest speakers.

14. Professional Development & Partnerships • Ongoing SEL Professional Development open to all staff members, including Youth Mental Health First Aide • Whole Child SEL Graduate Course offered through WPS-part of new teacher induction program • Consultation with Triumph Center and SEEM Bridge Program to develop strategies relating to emotional regulation and mental health in order to develop vertical alignment of supports

15. Professional Development & Partnerships • Professional development in collaboration with NAMI(National Alliance on Mental Illness) • Regularly share focus on wellness in communications (central office newsletter, guidance newsletter, principals’ blogs)

16. School-Based Initiatives to Reduce Stress/Anxiety Winchester High School: • June Academy • Community Hour • Extended time for all for mid-year/final exams • Sachem Leads (inclusive student leadership group) • Speaker series • Yoga and mindfulnes before/after school McCall Middle School: Mindful Minute (starting each day with silent period for mindful meditation or quiet reflection)

17. Ever-learning/ever-growing: Next steps….. • Explore implementations of next phase of elementary RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, Regulating) program • Review uses of meditation, mindfulness, and yoga throughout the district • Expand student support groups for social-emotional needs such as GEMS (Girls Empowered by More), Inner Peace, etc. • Develop partnerships with Colleges/Universities to help promote wellness programming. • Embed social emotional supports in Unit plans, including social justice standards, emotional supports and strategies across the district • Review homework practices to ensure that they are meaningful and relevant and that they support a healthy balance for students

18. Ever-learning/ever-growing: Next steps…. • Increase the use of data tracking/collection, such as referrals, hospitalizations (all levels), surveys, and YRBS analysis to drive programming • Analyze classroom physical structures to better support social emotional learning, including acquiring flexible furniture, creating quiet spaces, etc. • Give gr. 6-12 students more choice in course offerings/selection. • Increase professional development across the district using Teaching Tolerance Curricula • Create activities and assessments to support diverse learning styles, including performance-based assessments.

19. Key Conclusions • Helping students manage stress/anxiety is not enough; we must change the system instead of responding to symptoms. • Teachers, parents, and administrators all want the same thing: healthy, balanced, happy students who feel challenged and inspired. • Teachers need lots of training on SEL and must be empowered as professionals to meet needs of individual students. • Students will tell us what they need through their behaviors and words—we just need to watch, listen, and work to understand.