Safe & Supportive Schools
In Holliston we seek to collaboratively create and sustain Safe and Supportive Schools. A Safe and Supportive school is the culmination of what it would look like for us to truly foster a safe, positive, healthy and inclusive whole-school learning environment that: enables students to develop positive relationships with adults and peers, regulate their emotions and behavior, achieve academic and non-academic success in school and maintain physical and psychological health and well-being for all students, staff, and the greater Holliston community!
Let's Build this Together!
Jariel Vergne Director of Social Emotional Learning & Equity Email: vergnej@holliston.k12.ma.us
What is a Safe and Supportive School?
Safe and Supportive Schools Excel in Embedding the Following Essential Elements throughout the School, that we collaboratively create an environment where all students:
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Feel safe-physically, socially, emotionally, behaviorally and academically;
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Experience a sense of agency and effectively self-advocate in appropriate ways;
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Engage effectively and productively with learning experiences;
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Develop a sense of competence and academic success with multiple opportunities to learn and practice newly developing skills as part of a productive community;
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Experience physical health and well-being.
And where:
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We actively work to build community connectedness and positive relationships with adults, families/guardians, and peers of similar and different cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds;
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We collaboratively develop SEL skills that promote emotional intelligence, develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. https://casel.org/what-is-sel/
A “Safe and Supportive School” is one that must have social emotional learning as a key component, in which equity, diversity, and inclusion are all key components towards all students feeling “seen, heard, and valued”; where the work is about a “whole” school community meaning students, staff, and families all feel that they belong and are welcomed.