Principal’s Corner: Latham School Celebrates Student’s Achievements

Over the past week, the Latham School has assisted three students in their transition to new classrooms! Students at the Latham School move to new classrooms upon achieving personal goals and educational goals. Students are chosen very carefully by administration, teachers, and clinicians, and the transition is thoughtfully planned with parental input.

Transitioning to a new classroom offers the student access to new curriculum, new social skills, and new overall experiences. As our students’ progress through our classrooms, they are met with more mature curriculum, with focus placed up on transitional skills, as well as, a higher standard for behavior. Our students excel when they are challenged to form new relationships with staff and peers, and awarding them many opportunities to do this while at Latham is very important. With thoughtful planning by the Principal, Assistant Principal, and teachers, these transitions are made successful educationally, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally.

This week we celebrated Diane; a student who has passed all her MCAS, established exceptional peer relationships, and is ready to embark on a transitionally-based curriculum. It was evident that Diane was very proud of herself and all she has accomplished as she walked around her new classroom asking questions and exclaiming about how excited she was. We also celebrated Brennan; a student who has worked hard to maintain positive behavior, complete all of his schoolwork, and is ready to embark on our oldest transitional classroom. When given the news about his transition, Brennan could be seen running around campus telling everyone about his accomplishment. He wished his old teacher and aide well, and when asked about his new teacher, exclaimed, “I think I am really going to like Katherine”. Our last student who was celebrated was Gordon; a student who is ready to be challenged by a more mature curriculum in a classroom where social skills are heavily focused upon. Gordon, who also could barely contain his excitement over his transition, was key in stating that he would miss his old class and teachers, but was excited to be with new peers.

We are so proud of our students! We wish all our students well in their new classrooms and cannot wait to see what they accomplish and achieve!