About Schools That Heal
The Schools That Heal network (aka Networks for Schools That Heal) has been providing joint professional development and support for independent school communities serving 2-8 year olds since 2011. Schools come together to sponsor collective professional development that focuses on fostering social and emotional well being in children. Participants in Level 1 Schools That Heal seminars study:
Supporting Child Development in the School Setting
Being a “Good Mirror” for Children
Using Inviting and Containing Techniques in the Classroom
Transition Objects to Promote Connect to Self and Empathy for Others
Understanding and Working with End of Year Issues
Level 2 seminar’s have focused on Trauma and Loss in Children, Working with Spectrum Issues,
The Value of Play and Metaphor, and in the coming year, Classroom Dynamics: The Family of the Classroom.
Click on the Child Well Being Tab to learn more.
In response to the issues that have arisen for teachers and parents during the pandemic, Schools That Heal will expand in the 2022-23 school year to include a school -based Teacher Mental Health Support through Creative Arts component and Teddy Bear Circle Books and Support Services. Click on the links to explore these services intended to promote emotional well being for children, teachers and parents in your school community.
About the Director:
Lesley Koplow MS, LCSW is a clinical social worker and teacher who has collaborated with school communities for more than 30 years. She is the founding director of the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street as well as the founding director of the Schools That Heal Network. She has written several books about children, including: Where Rag Dolls Hide Their Faces, The Way Home, Tanya and the Tobo Man, Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal, Creating Schools That Heal, Bears, Bears Everywhere: Supporting Children’s Emotional Health in the Classroom, Politics Aside: Our Children and Their Teachers in Score-Driven Times, and most recently, Emotionally Responsive Practice: A Path for Schools That Heal. In addition, Lesley has written a series of books for children in the time of Covid, including: Lilah in the Land of the Littles, Jasmine’s Big Idea, and Wilson’s Wishes: Stories for Children in the Time of Covid. These books are the first titles in her Teddy Bear Circle Publications collection. Her second series addresses understanding feelings in community. The titles are Popcorn Comes to School, Popcorn's Lost and Found, and Ellie the Deli Cat Finds a Friend.
Schools That Heal Network Past and Present Member Schools
City and Country School
The Smith Street School
West Side Montessori School
Broadway Presbyterian Preschool
Plymouth Church School
Our Saviours Lutheran Preschool
Brick Church School
92nd Street Y Nursery School
Bayridge Prep Elementary School
Central Synagogue Nursery School
Grace Church School
The International Preschools
