Free charter school helps students holistically with mind, body and heart

Free charter school helps students holistically with mind, body and heart

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HARRISVILLE — A new charter school is taking a unique approach on education by focusing on its students' holistic health.

Opening for the school year Aug. 26, GreenWood Charter School has a mission to "help students holistically with mind, body and their heart," according to school director Jessie Kidd.

Kidd said they have done research and recruited a pediatrician, a food nutrition doctor, local parents and community members to design a school that will focus on both health and wellness and environmental stewardship.

"We believe that there is a connection between a healthy body and a healthy mind," Kidd said. "And we feel like we've put together some structures that can help students learn and grow in an environment that supports both mind and body."

The free, public charter school has guidelines that support its goals of providing a holistic education, including reading for 20 minutes with their families each day, not consuming sugary drinks, not watching more than two hours of television and saying four positive comments a day.

Mindfulness helps students think about how they act before they do, Kidd said.

Each morning, students will congregate in what is called the Intention Crew, where their teacher explains the agenda as the students close their eyes and picture how they would like to respond to their day before it physically happens.

They then can have a moment of gratitude or share a commitment to a fellow student.

"The mantra is at GreenWood, 'we're a mindful school, we set intentions, we commit to act and we reflect on growth,'" Kidd said. "So, before every activity we set intention and then during the activity, we're able to check ourselves and say 'are we doing what we said we were going to do?'"

At the end of an activity, students will reflect about how they did and will set intentions for how they can improve the following day.

In the afternoon, students reflect on their day and set an intention for that evening or the next day on how they can grow, learn and be strong.

"Ours is not to foster a culture of picking on what we're not doing but the expectation is that everybody is growing, and that goes into our metaphor of teachers are trees, students are seedlings," Kidd said.

GreenWood Charter School's six core health values
  • Healthy habits
  • Environmental stewardship
  • achievement
  • leadership
  • thinking creatively
  • honoring diversity

GreenWood students will learn in multi-age classrooms and will have the same teacher for two years.

When the diversity of a classroom is increased, Kidd said, comfort level also increases, thus spurring kids to participate more.

"Learning is social … when you're in multi-age classroom, you're able to promote the social learning and a strong cultural understanding that everybody has strengths and everybody has weaknesses and here we are to contribute to the whole," Kidd said.

A K-6 school, GreenWood has 530 student spots. Kindergarten through second grade slots are filled, but there are more than 40 spots left in third through sixth grade. The school offers special education as well.

A parents night will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. at 725 W. Harrisville Road, where Dr. Antonia Demas will discuss her curriculum, Food is Elementary, which GreenWood follows.

To apply for GreenWood, fill out an application. Visit the website or Facebook page to learn more about GreenWood's mission and how you can get involved.

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UtahFamily
Megan Marsden Christensen

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