Little Keswick School

Clinical overview Keswick School employs four full-time clinical therapists: a phd level licensed clinical psychologist as the clinical director; a phd level licensed marriage and family therapist; a master's level social worker licensed also in drama therapy; and a master's level social worker who also serves as a residential clinical advisor. The fifth member of the clinical treatment team includes a consulting psychiatrist who manages the psychiatric and ongoing medication management of all the students, including classroom observations, regular 1:1 student sessions, parent calls, and weekly clinical/administrative meetings within the immersive clinical model. Related service therapies in speech/language pathology, occupational therapy, and art therapy further add to the broader clinical team. All students receive weekly individual sessions with a clinical therapist, a biweekly family therapy via video conferencing or in-person if location and family systems allow for it, weekly small group clinical therapy, and psychiatric oversight and medication management. Additional related and academic support services are available according to each student's individualized needs. These may include any combination of the following: speech/social pragmatics: individual, small group, conversation caf, integrated; occupational therapy: individual, small group, whole group, meal mechanics, integrated; art therapy: individual; academic support in reading and/or math remediation. The clinical team directs an advisory team process, provides staff training, and consults on programmatic issues. More importantly, the clinical team works to guide and support the relationship-based interactions between all of the staff members and our students. The clinical-developmental model predicated on the knowledge that human development is primarily mediated and facilitated by interactions within important relationships, the School maintains a relationship-based model. Many elements of attachment, object relations, and interpersonal therapies are utilized in the approach to treatment. Additional interventions include strategies found in behavioral, cognitive behavioral, family systems, and experiential work. Because of the pervasive disruptions and challenges students face in their lives, the appropriate conceptual umbrella is broad enough to contain and address the widest array of needs and symptomatology. The clinical team at Keswick School focuses on establishing and maintaining deep and evolving conceptualizations of students' complex and multilayered disorders. Optimal treatment and specific interventions are based upon comprehensive in-depth understandings of the underlying psychological and biomedical processes for each student. Traditional, solution-focused, or symptom focused therapies are not sufficient, as demonstrated by most of the students' treatment histories. Students do not typically benefit from traditional behavioral contingencies, insight-oriented therapies, or teaching methods; they often benefit from classic cognitive behavioral intervention, but not as the primary intervention modality. Therefore, a broad clinical-developmental model is used to address all areas of individual, relational, and social functioning. Change occurs primarily through immersion in a highly structured and predictable milieu, designed and calibrated according to the individual and group needs of our students. Collaborative goal-setting, direct instruction and positive practice of a set of functional goals provides the content for hundreds of relationship-based interactions each day. Carefully engineered task demands and contextual support ensure experiences of success with appropriate objectives. The types of functional goals targeted are defined thorough the social/emotional curriculum, which addresses objectives in executive functioning, interpersonal collaboration, competence in daily tasks and interactions, and social and relationship skills. Along with comprehensive psychiatric and psychological assessments and interventions, essential services include pragmatic language support, occupational therapy interventions for support of processing and anxiety reduction, and facilitation of relational and social interactions, all accomplished within relevant context. Students learn to expect academic success as their individual capacities are developed and supported. Ongoing family therapy supports the central role of the family in their son's growth and treatment. That connection also serves to support and shape the family system toward the development of an effective supportive environment for their son upon transition, as well as to facilitate the extension of gains from this community to the family and home. Academics the School is comprised of five multi-aged classrooms grouped approximately by age, grade, developmental level, social skills needs, executive functioning needs, and academic level ranging from fifth grade through twelfth grade. Students can graduate from the School and earn a diploma; however, most transition to a step down placement after completing their time at the School. There are seven certified teachers serving in either a teaching or academic aide role, including a health and physical Education teacher. The classroom student-to-staff ration, including a classroom aide in each classroom, is no more than 8:2. The director of academic services, an academic shift supervisor, an academic support counselor, and a program support specialist provide an additional layer of support to classroom staff. The academic day is from 8:30-4:30 monday-friday and includes group and individualized instruction in math, science, language arts, history, and physical Education as well as required fine and practical arts credits in stem (science, technology, engineering and math), horseback riding, woodshop, and athletics. Athletics include competitive sports during fall and spring soccer and winter basketball seasons. Online classes are available when there is a need for individualized study that falls outside of the traditional course offerings each semester. A five-week summer enrichment session is part of the annual calendar. Students take a break from formal, grade-based instruction to engage in more hands-on, experiential learning. With the exception of a one-hour later weekend wake up time, the monday-friday daily schedule follows the academic year structure of 45-minute periods. The enrichment activities include novel study, creative writing, an engineering-based building and design class, team building, and swimming. The five-week summer session can be an opportunity for new families who are considering full-time enrollment to spend five-weeks on campus participating in the academic enrichment activities, residential student life, and clinical and related services therapies. Residential life there are four dorms on campus that are approximately grouped by age, grade, and developmental levels. The jefferson and madison dorms each house up to nine younger students, typically from 10-13. The monroe dorm is the largest dorm with a capacity for 14 students. Monroe students are typically 13-15. The yellow house is home to the six independent living program students. These students are typically in their final year of enrollment. They participate in a specialized program where they engage in cooking a variety of meals throughout the week, grocery shopping, budgeting, managing the School store, doing their own laundry, tending the chickens, and more socially complex off-campus activities, including at least three days/week exercise and recreational time at a local gym. Each of the four dorms have round- the-clock staff. Residential staff sleep in the dorms but are available for middle-of-the-night needs as they arise. Residential trips are typically scheduled on the weekends and include social outings for hiking, biking, swimming, fishing, cultural locations in Washington dc, richmond, and surrounding areas, sporting events at the university of Virginia and minor league games in the area, wall climbing, zoos, pumpkin patches and corn mazes, and much more. Clubs and quests are scheduled throughout the week to provide opportunities to spend time outside of dorm and classroom groupings engaging in creative and fun activities. Just a few examples of the numerous clubs and quests include bob ross painting hour, model rockets, fantasy football, cooking, sewing, musicians meet-up. Quests and club offerings change quarterly and are self-selected by students based on their interests. Food service team and program the food service program is based upon a whole foods, clean, scratch kitchen model. The School recognizes the important connection between nutrition and the overall wellbeing and treatment of the students. As such, highly processed, artificially flavored, higher sugar and salt content, and other unhealthy ingredients, foods, and snacks are minimized and closely m