Heath & Wellness

Wellness for Young Learners
At CHA, students learn to know and care for themselves. At times, young learners do face challenging issues where they require more specialized care. We desire for children to know themselves, and access care for themselves. Therefore, we have a CHA play therapist that is on site on a part time basis to support our youngest ones. Through play, children can explore challenging emotions, and work towards wellness and peace. 
Student Wellness
Student mental wellness is also of utmost importance. Our community focuses on the whole child, recognizing that academic achievements, happiness, and life success stems from forming positive, healthy and trusting relationships with adults and peers within and outside of the school community. It is also crucial for our students to acquire an understanding of mental health literacy, social emotional and executive functioning skills and trauma-informed practices to increase their wellness when difficulties arise. Our school has implemented the Open Parachute system that provides actionable, in depth resources for our students, and staff alike. Moreover, our students have access to school counselling services and a play-based counsellor on site. 

Our homeroom system is focused exclusively on mental wellness and allows for teachers to build meaningful and deep connections with each of their homeroom students. The teachers also extend this mental health teaching practice into their everyday curriculum through the lens of the Core Competencies embedded in each and every lesson. Students are provided with time to reflect on their social emotional learning and how it affects their daily engagement in class.

Mental Wellness for Teachers
The school is heavily invested in building a mental health strategy that focuses both on staff and students in our community. A dedicated Wellness Team focuses solely on the mental wellness of our staff. Studies show that declining mental health is on the rise; and for this reason, we have prioritized the mental health of our staff who are mentoring our young leaders. We aim to ensure our staff are balanced and ready to fully engage in their teaching duties when working with our students. A compassionate leadership team is wholly invested in providing resources and time to foster adult well-being in our school community. A dedicated school counsellor not only supports our students but also acts as a resource for the adults in our school.