As a follow up to our recent discussions at conferences and program tours, I wanted to update you on some of the recent developments here at Valley View.

Our Clinical Director, Jared Tonks, is currently facilitating a mindfulness group with selected students from the milieu. These efforts are of course poised to assist our youth at engaging more mindfully in areas that they may otherwise struggle with, and we encourage our students to take note of the benefits of such efforts. Future groups on anger management and social skills developments are in the works.

Second, we have brought on another masters level clinician to share some of the advising and clinical responsibilities. Kristen Birch, an 11 yr veteran from a large local mental health organization, has had both therapist and administrative experience and is trained in expressive arts therapies, thereby bringing a unique flair to her approach to students.

Our weekly processing groups continue to be a great success, opening up a forum for 5-6 student subgroups staffed with an administrator, teacher, and residential counselor in each group- all aimed at supporting positive and supportive peer communication as peers share areas of struggle and success with their groups. This effort continues to be a strong one for infusing more positive and supportive language and behavior into the student milieu.

We continue to staff at a 1:4 RTC ratio, despite our licensure requirements of 1:7. This, of course, affords us the ability to develop closer more supportive relationships with our students.

We have now begun our winter basketball season, having opened teams at both the varsity and jr. varsity levels, and continue to make athletics available to all students who have at the very least, interest in participating. The culture of participating in team athletics, we believe, is invaluable to social-emotional growth and therefore we seek to afford each student this opportunity should they feel open to it. That being said, we strive to create as hospitable and receivable an experience as possible in order to encourage participation.

Student council elections are underway and we should have a new team of 6 members just before Thanksgiving. We will then embark on identifying key efforts that students will facilitate in order to enhance the student experience at Valley View.

Finally, in keeping with our annual March tradition of taking an international trip, I am researching details on Cuba as a cultural and political learning opportunity for our students. As always, we will not only participate in a myriad of cultural learning endeavors but also visit schools and perform a service effort of some kind that is deemed meaningful to those in need in our country of choice.

I hope that you are pleased with some of these recent updates and on-goings, and continue to stay in touch with us as we seek to assist our boys at becoming the best version of themselves.

Please keep us in mind when you identify a student our profile, and we look forward to seeing you again in person soon.

PS Happy Thanksgiving!
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Thanks,

Brendan O’Neil, MSW
Valley View School

Valley View School is a small, private therapeutic boarding school for boys ages 11-16.