Student Wellness
YWIES Zhejiang Tongxiang Student Wellness Programme
The Facets of Wellbeing
One of our main priorities is to provide a supportive and caring environment for our students, whereby the ‘Wellness Framework’ has been adopted across the whole school and all year levels.
We place a strong emphasis on the physical, emotional and mental health and safety of our students, and strive to strengthen intercultural awareness, which underpins the development of global competence among students.
Curriculum Development
Students are engaged in an enrichment programme ‘Life Skills’, which aims at fostering their sense of connectedness and problem solving skills. The programme features a range of initiatives including ‘Wellbeing Week’ and various workshops.
Tracking
In addition to daily interaction, we have adopted a systematic process to track the levels of overall wellbeing of our students.
Supporting Students’ Mental Health
Our student support team is here to support the mental and emotional wellbeing of our students. When necessary, the school can refer students to additional medical, counseling and assessment resources.
Future-ready Leaders
The Student Council is the high school student leadership team that serves the student body, and is the most prominent platform for student voice within the school. The Council, led by the Head Boy and Girl and prefect team, prepares our students to become global citizens.
A mentoring programme has also been established to help students connect and engage with each other by building a support network. Mentors are provided with training on approaches to conduct discussion with their mentees.
Meet Our Team
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Ms Sarah Tortolano
Head of Student Support
Child Protection OfficerMs Tortolano is an experienced pastoral leader, having spent six years working as a wellbeing leader at Safa British School Dubai. Working hand in hand with the school’s primary and secondary coordinators, she aims to establish a quality wellness programme that integrates character education, life skills and moral education. She also leads and delivers parental workshops and newsletters on supporting your child’s wellbeing and ensuring professional development training.
Ms Kristen Perkins
Learning Support Teacher
Ms Perkins is an experienced Special Educational Needs (SEN) teacher with 15 years of experience. Her job duties includes supporting individual needs as well as working closely with teachers to establish a quality individual education programme. Ms Perkins is currently working on her doctorate in education in addition to her qualifications as an Education Specialist (EdS) in curriculum and instruction, master’s degree in school administration and bachelor’s degree in social studies education.
Ms Louisa Crook
School counsellor and Career & University Guidance Counsellor
Ms. Lou came with a Psychological Counsellor background and specialised in working with young adults when she first started in Hong Kong. She came to YWIES-TongXiang in August 2021 as School Counsellor. She has recently taken on a complementary role as the Career and University Guidance Counsellor supporting the Upper Secondary students. Other than supporting students to understand and work with their social, emotional and behavioural matters, her responsibilities involve meeting students one-on-one or in group sessions, career and university guidance, post-secondary education applications, developing and facilitating various Life Skills & career/ university guidance curriculum. Ms. Crook grew up in Hong Kong, Thailand and the US. She loves challenging young minds and assisting them to be better versions of themselves. Ms. Crook has a Bachelor’s in Art & Design in Education & a Master’s in Counselling.
Supporting Students
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Q: Who may qualify for additional support?
A: Except language needs, students who have challenges in but not limited to: cognitive needs; communication and interaction concerns; social, emotional, and mental health conditions; behaviour needs; physical and/or sensory impairments; medical conditions; crisis intervention; and adverse childhood experiences.
Q: How are students identified?
A: Referrals can be made by teachers and parents. Students are also referred based on teachers’ observation and assessment review.
Q: What types of supports are available?
A: YWIES Zhejiang Tongxiang utilises a three-tiered support system. Tier One consists of various strategies implemented in the classroom where teachers, parents and students review existing strategies and determine if change is required. Tier Two focuses on monitoring, and students will receive specialist support if they are not making further progress. Tier Three includes advice seeking support from external professional agencies.
Supporting Families
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Q: What kind of information should families provide during the admissions process?
A: Families should inform us of any special needs that their child would require additional support including learning, medical, social, emotional and physical aspect.
Q: If my child needs additional support at school, what can I do to help him/her?
A: Families are encouraged to attend meetings with teachers and inform the Student Support Team (SST) of any medical, social, emotional or physical changes that may affect a student’s progress at school.
Q: How can the school and the SST help the families?
A: Families can always reach out to the SST for support, guidance and any form of intervention. SST will also host parent workshops, webinars and meetings to offer advice, strategies and, if needed, referrals to external agencies.
Safeguarding Policy
We follow the Safeguarding Policy to ensure all children are kept safe and their wellbeing is taken care.
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Safeguarding Policy includes:
• Protecting children from maltreatment
• Applying relevant child protection policy and legislation applies to all children up to the age of 18.Child Protection
Child protection is part of the safeguarding practice, which is undertaken to protect our children who are likely to suffer harm or already suffering significant harm.
“Safeguarding is to prevent harm; child protection is how we respond to harm.”
If you have any concerns regarding safeguarding at school, please email our Safeguarding Team.
Meet the Designated Safeguarding Officers:
Ms Sarah Tortolano
Primary and Wellbeing Coordinator
Head of Student Support
Child Protection OfficerThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ms Betty Bai
Primary Coordinator
Designated Safeguarding LeadThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
