Student Support Services at The Meadows School

The Meadows School strives for excellence in education. This includes the support of the academic, health, and social-emotional needs of its students. In order to best meet these needs, TMS established the Student Support Services Division. This team currently consists of the Director of Student Support, a Dean of School Counseling, a School Nurse, two Academic Coaches, and a Learning Specialist. This team collaborates regularly with administrators, teachers, students, and families to ensure that all students receive what they need to achieve their highest potential.

Student Support Services (SSS) at The Meadows School are intended to serve students through the provision of or connection with a variety of programs and services:

Direct Instruction
Beginning and Lower School students receive direct instruction around Character Strong traits such as responsibility and respect during their twice-monthly sessions with Mr. Pasieka, our Dean of School Counseling. Middle School students engage in conversations around relationship skills and executive functioning in their sixth grade Life Skills course. Upper School students engage in student-led conversations spurred by topics from the same curriculum during Advisory.

Consultation
Members of the SSS Team consult with teachers to provide strategies to best meet the needs of all learners. They are also available to work with families to provide strategies to try at home.

Learning Lab
To help students at The Meadows School find success in their early years, the Lower School offers a Learning Lab. This room provides all students the opportunity to complete work in an alternate, quiet setting. This space also houses the Learning Specialist, an interventionist who uses student data to build and guide targeted instruction to meet the needs of individual learners. This specialist will work with small groups or one on one to remediate or challenge the curriculum as identified by teacher and student data. This specialist also supports by completing progress monitoring and can collaborate with teachers to identify in-class strategies and activities to meet student needs.

Student Success Plans
All students with proper documentation, from Beginning to Upper School, are eligible to submit a request for a Student Success Plan (SSP). This is The Meadows School version of a 504 Accommodation Plan. Qualifications for these supports are based on the review of a neuropsychological or other diagnostic evaluation and are updated annually. With this external guidance, an SSP identifies the accommodation strategies classroom teachers should employ to help Meadows students benefit from universal instruction and achieve TMS learning objectives. This means that students with these plans are expected to engage in the same curriculum, without modifications, at the same pace as their peers. The accommodations offered in the Middle and Upper Schools are in line with those offered by university disability resource centers. Such accommodations may include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Preferential seating

• Additional time on tests

• Alternate testing location

• Copies of PowerPoints or class notes

• Use of audiobooks or text-to-speech to support idea generation

Academic Coaching
Students needing additional executive functioning support in the Middle and Upper Schools have access to an Academic Coach. These faculty members are housed in Study Hall and Flex locations and are accessible to all students. For students with SSPs, these specialists meet at least once a week in a conversation that may include the review of grades, building of work completion plans, providing an accountability partner, or facilitating communication with teachers. These faculty members also oversee testing accommodations.

Tutoring
We have created a number of after school tutoring options. Upper School students may receive support through the National Honor Society’s Writing and Tutoring Centers housed in the library after school. Lower School students can be connected with Middle or Upper School students for peer-to-peer support or can be connected with an adult for targeted tutoring and re-instruction.

Resource Connection
A final role of the Student Support Team is to serve as a resource hub to connect students and families with community resources to help each child succeed. Within this umbrella, we have connected with occupational and physical therapists, speech language pathologists, and dyslexia specialists to bring private services on campus.

If you have any questions or would like to connect with a member of our team to discuss these support options, please reach out to Dr. Kristin Withey at kwithey@themeadowsschool.org.