Health & Wellness

The Ridgefield Academy Wellness Program is specifically designed to support the social-emotional growth of our Middle and Upper School students. The workshop-based program is implemented both by Ridgefield Academy faculty and outside contributors. Each scheduled workshop has been built to address the specific needs of the developmental age; however, the program also supports responsive programming around specific grade level, gender, and community needs. All workshops are interactive with students engaging in discussion, role-play, and other hands-on activities.

Grade 5: Digital Citizenship

The Grade 5 Digital Citizenship workshop is designed to support students’ healthy use of personal technology and social media. We empower students to recognize personal technology as a tool with the potential for positive and negative uses. Additionally, we seek to inform students as to how best to navigate challenging situations that can arise in cyberspace.

Grade 6: Healthy Relationships

The Grade 6 Healthy Relationships workshop supports students in managing the joys and challenges of friendship. Topics include how we identify friends, the benefits of strong friendships and the challenge of negative friendships, inclusiveness, and navigating conflict with peers.

Grade 7: Self-Image, Gender Identity, and Media Literacy

The Grade 7 wellness workshop on Self-Image, Gender Identity, and Media Literacy meets our seventh graders at a time when they are exploring their emerging sense of self. We question the roots of identity and the impact of media on self-identity.

Grade 8: High School Bound

The High School Bound program is held in the spring of the eighth grade year and utilizes the theme of decision-making to highlight the difficult decisions that high school students face. The program focuses on the roots of decision making and the impact of others’ decisions on our own, while touching on important social issues including dating relationships, academic honesty, and use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
Health & Wellness in Lower School
Feel good Fridays began as a way for our Lower School community to come together and feel good! Katie Spiro, Grade 2 teacher, sparked the idea last year and has had tremendous support from the entire faculty in carrying out each of these special Fridays. As a faculty, the goal of Feel Good Friday is for the children to build relationships with each other, connect with teachers, and celebrate a month of hard work. So far our themes have included peer appreciation, animal mania, thankful hearts, hot chocolate and holiday reads, sports and fitness, and there is more to come!