Holistic Approach

Learning Support

Academic support is available in a variety of ways. Our advisory program allows students to check in with their advisors weekly. Additionally, study hall/free periods are available throughout the week where we encourage students to catch up on assignments, seek out support from teachers, and/or schedule time with the learning specialist. Office hours are embedded in the upper school schedule to provide students an opportunity to meet with teachers. 

Our middle school/upper school learning specialist supports students in a variety of ways, such as meeting with students during study help time, connecting students with peer tutors, and providing support to students, families, and faculty in the area of learning differences. Consultation regarding student support is available on an ongoing basis with an effort to help students develop compensatory strategies and assist in implementing necessary accommodations for students with documented learning differences. Professionals from Cora Services provide additional academic support.

Social-Emotional Support

The developmental span of upper school is quite broad, marked by the shift from most 9th grade students still presenting very much as adolescents (and sometimes young adolescents) to a time of entering emerging adulthood by the time they graduate at the end of the 12th grade. During this time, students grapple with who they are, who they want to be, how they are seen by others, and how they interact with the world. Additionally, students are accomplishing the critical development task of asserting their independence and autonomy. All of these shifts, coupled with some level of uncertainty about the “next steps” after high school, call for robust opportunities for students to engage in learning and self-direction around their overall emotional health and well-being. 

Friends Select’s counseling team attends grade-team meetings to consult and advise about student issues that may arise and to provide details and considerations on supporting individual students in the classroom and the wider school community. Additionally, the guidance team, comprised of learning support, counseling support, and administrative staff, meets weekly to review student progress, assess areas of need, and plan action steps to support students. 

The counseling support staff at Friends Select are available for conversation and consultation with families of students as well as professionals who may be providing students with outside-of-school support. Additionally, topical groups and discussions are offered to parents and caregivers.

In school, Friends Select students receive and have access to a myriad of social-emotional support services, both planned and on an as-needed basis. These services include lessons that are implemented in students’ advisory groups, joining classroom conversations/lessons, small group counseling sessions focusing on particular topics, conflict resolution meetings, topical classes delivered during health class, and one-on-one counseling.

Wellness Program

The Friends Select Wellness Program, now in its eighth year, engages the school’s community and the general public about mental health and other wellness issues. It is spearheaded by Natan Gottesman, Ph.D., the school’s psychologist, and Chris Singler, upper school director. The program provides information, strategies, support, and resources to students, faculty, and families in the Friends Select community and beyond. Through speaking events, presentations, and participatory activities, the program increases awareness of issues that can affect student learning and well-being, such as mental health challenges, learning styles, peer relationships, social media and internet use, academic pressures, the college application process, and current events.

During the 2023-24 school year, Friends Select offered access to a series of Child Development and Parenting Webinars, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) and the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). Friends Select’s Wellness support team followed these webinars with a series of companion conversations, each one customized to provide parents, caregivers, faculty, and staff an opportunity to gather, discuss, and process the learning from these lectures. 

The Wellness Program is made possible by the generous and thoughtful support of Jeff Abrams and Margaret Barry P ’15, ’16. They continue to support the Wellness Program for students, faculty/staff, families, and the community, in recognition of the creative and compassionate energy that Molly Patterson Ed.D. and Natan Gottesman, Ph.D. have brought to the program since its inception to help it grow and respond to the needs of the Friends Select community.

Make a gift to the Wellness Program