Academics
Student Support
WDS Psychologist and Social Worker
Dr. Naomi Adler (nadler@westchesterday.org) provides psychological and psychoeducational support to all WDS students and faculty. Together with Mrs. Suzie Marder (smarder@westchesterday.org), WDS Social Worker, they collaborate with parents, administration, classroom teachers, WDS Learning Center staff, and Mamaroneck District professionals to ensure that each child receives optimal psychoeducational and psychosocial support inside and outside of school. In partnership with families, they focus on supporting a psychologically healthy school environment in which WDS students, faculty, and administration can thrive.
Dr. Adler and Mrs. Marder are available to connect families with various private practice professionals outside of school, including mental health professionals, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, educational specialists, and social skills groups. If you are consulting with outside professionals, please complete the consent form here, so that we can communicate for the purpose of optimizing collaboration to best support your child.
Westchester Day School is committed to having a comprehensive understanding of each child in our school and to supporting all students in reaching their academic potential. Our dedicated classroom teachers collaborate with our Learning Center specialists, who are supported by the WDS Learning Center Coordinator, WDS Psychologist, WDS Social Worker, and Mamaroneck School District (district of location) professionals.
Executive Functioning Support
WDS G.O.A.L.S. (Grow Organizational and Learning Skills) is our initiative focused on enhancing our students’ executive functioning skills. We partnered with expert faculty from NYU Langone Child Study Center, whose approach to organization and study skills is rooted in a decade of empirical research. Our expanding, school-wide efforts stem from that productive collaboration. Select aspects of that programming are detailed below:
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GoodStart Program
The Goodstart Program provides organizational, study skills, and learning support to select 4th and 5th grade students with specific needs in these areas. It meets daily an hour before the regular school day begins with the goals of explicit teaching of organizational and study skills; test preparation; pre-teaching and re-teaching material; and managing emotional reactions to academic demands. -
NextStep Program
The NextStep Program provides organizational and study skills support to select 6th and 7th grade students with specific needs in these areas. The program runs two mornings per week for each grade and placement in this program is based on teacher and/or parent referral with administrative approval. -
After School Homework Helper
After school homework help with a focus on teaching executive functioning skills is available three days per week with separate groups for 3rd-5th graders and 6th-8th graders. The goal of this program is to help students learn skills such as initiating work, planning, following through, and test preparation using actual homework and assigned tests and projects. We hope that participants will be able to go home with all or most of their work completed and benefit from enjoying relaxing time with family in the evenings.If you have any questions or concerns about your child, feel free to contact Dr. Naomi Adler at 914-698-8900 x122, Mrs. Suzie Marder x121, or Mrs. Lauren Kaplan x412.
Educational Plans
Some students require classroom accommodations and/or modifications that have been delineated in psychoeducational testing or neuropsychological testing evaluations. If these students do not qualify for IESP services, we may develop a WDS Educational Plan, which provides for the required student accommodations.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
WDS is committed to enhancing students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies. Successful students develop personal strengths including grit, tenacity, perseverance, and positive academic mindsets. They also learn broader social and emotional competencies such as interacting with others in socially skilled and respectful ways, practicing positive and safe behaviors, and contributing ethically and responsibly to their peers, family, school, and community (CASEL, 2013). Research has shown that acquiring SEL skills also improves academic achievement. Just like we say it is essential to teach children to read so they can read to learn, it is equally essential to teach children SEL skills so they can navigate successfully their school and home environments and the broader world as they grow up. Our SEL program is based on a curriculum called Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving and is currently being implemented in Grades 1-5.
In general, WDS is committed to fostering a growth-oriented, psychologically minded environment for our students, faculty, and families. We provide various forums for learning about challenging issues facing our community, such as understanding child development and developing effective parenting strategies, technology use, mental health issues, and developing resilience.
Learning Center
WDS Learning Center specialists support students from Kindergarten through 8th grade in General and Judaic Studies and Hebrew. At various grades, we use a push-in and/or pull-out model of support. Mara Trager (mtrager@westchesterday.org) is our Learning Center Coordinator. The need for Learning Center is assessed through classroom observation and assessment, together with collaboration between parents, teachers, administrators, WDS Psychologist, and any relevant professionals outside of WDS.
Mamaroneck District Services (IESP)
In addition, we are fortunate to have a highly skilled team of professionals from the Mamaroneck School District that provides services to select children who attend WDS. They include a School Psychologist, Speech/Language therapist, Resource Room teacher, and Occupational Therapist, who provide services in the WDS building during some school days for those students who meet criteria for an Individualized Educational Service Plan (IESP).
Health and Wellness Program
The WDS Health and Wellness Program is provided to students in Grades 5-8. All sessions include didactic curriculum as well as guided discussions. There is variability in what each group learns, based on their interests, prior knowledge, and developmental level, but in general, topics include:
- Health and wellness promotion (includes healthy eating and physical activity, body image issues, and managing difficult emotions)
- Being a mensch in social relationships (includes bullying prevention)
- Puberty- the facts and the feelings
- Positive decision making (includes age appropriate information about alcohol/substance abuse and internet/social media risks)
Who We Are
Westchester Day School is a Modern Orthodox, co-educational, dual-curriculum, toddler to 8th grade Jewish school that inspires and educates our students in their own way to value menschlichkeit, mitzvot, and lifelong learning.
