Preparing Students for Their Futures

Greensboro Day School recently went through an accreditation process to ensure that we are meeting the standards of best practices in independent schools and that we are actively engaged in designing courses, programs and activities that will help our students to achieve our mission* and be prepared for their futures.

As part of our accreditation review process we were pleased to have it reinforced once again that our mission of developing the social emotional abilities of our students is supported by research in how children best learn.

Harvard and Yale have long been publishing findings on the value of emotional intelligence and it’s profound impact on overall health and success. More recently, a key finding in a study by LinkedIn identified social emotional ability to be the most sought-after skills amongst employers. What they found was that “the ability to communicate trumped all else, followed by organization, capacity for teamwork, punctuality, critical thinking, social savvy, creativity and adaptability.”

We begin working with students when they enter our Junior Kindergarten program. Through structured activities found in Second Step, our students learn emotion management, problem solving and perspective taking. They also benefit from the Responsive Classroom approach to classroom management. As our students progress through their years, they continue to learn through family groupings, assemblies, conversations and workshops on ethics.

As a result of our accreditation review process, we decided to strengthen our middle and upper school programs. For instance, this year our middle school implemented a new advisory curriculum focusing on developing student problem solving, perspective taking (empathy) and emotion management skills. These bi-weekly sessions also engaged students in dialogue about diversity, equity and inclusion as well as ethical dilemmas and service learning.

Our upper school has also developed a new advising curriculum, even inviting parents in at times to participate! With our older students, we work to support social emotional development through clubs like the honor code committee, student diversity and student council. Soon we will have posters supporting our common language around respect and ethical decision making as a visual reminder for our community.

We understand that emotional intelligence is a lifelong process and we place a high value on professional development for the adults in ourcommunity as well. In addition to ongoing support for teachers who are implementing social emotional development curricula, we have also have pursued training in Restorative Practice which connects discipline to empathy and is used to resolve conflicts and support community.

We believe that if we can help students lay strong ethical and interpersonal foundations that they will be able to more fully engage in their intellectual pursuits, learn to be contributing members of a team, become capable family members, knowledgeable citizens and constructive contributors to the world.          

*Our Mission: Greensboro Day School develops the intellectual, ethical and interpersonal foundations that students need in order to become constructive contributors to the world.