Parents

As your student enters Middle School, there is a greater expectation for the student to take more responsibility for their learning. It is still vital that parents play an active role in their child's education and we are here to help support yuor family during these years.

These are intervention suggestions for parents to try at home and options available at Hillcrest Middle School. The following are two tiers or levels of interventions that may be utilized to help students succeed.

Here are TIER ONE interventions to try with your child to help bolster success:

IT IS IMPORTANT TO TRY DIFFERENT INTERVENTIONS BOTH AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL TO ASSIST YOUR CHILD. NOT ALL STUDENTS RESPOND TO EVERY INTERVENTION. BE CREATIVE AND REMEMBER THAT YOUR CHILD IS IN A DEVELOPMENTALLY CHALLENGING TIME IN THEIR LIFE!

AT HOME

  • Homework Support: There are many individual differences in organizational skills among students. Students will benefit from the security of having time, space and materials set aside for doing their homework. Many students work best when a parent is working in the same room. Encouraging students to discuss what they are learning and working on is generally much more successful than nagging.
  • Structure: Children thrive when their home environment allows for positive interaction, attention and security. Sleep, exercise and balanced meals contribute to successful learning.
  • Set Limits: A child who is doing poorly in school is often a discouraged child who feels out of control. Have and enforce high standards for behavior, be clear in your expectations, help your child respect self and others and send him/her to school with the conviction that rules are to be followed and learning is important.
  • Encouragement: Parents are the primary coaches for children. Having faith in their ability to learn and succeed, reassuring them that hard work and effort are more important than grades, keeping them motivated and helping them ask for help will help them be successful learners.

AT SCHOOL

  • Phone Calls/Emails - When you have a concern about your child's learning in a class, call the school and leave a message for the teacher and/or email the teacher. Teachers will call/email you back in a timely manner. 
  • Teacher Extra Help - Students are encouraged to speak with teachers directly to clarify any problems and to ask for help.
  • Signed Planner - The student writes the homework (or "no homework") in the planner and takes it to the teacher to be initialed. This ensures that parents know the expectations.
  • Parent Portal - Update student grades  can be found on Schoolwise Parent Portal.

Have you tried all of these interventions for an extended time and your child is still not succeeding? You might need to try a Tier Two intervention.

TIER TWO Interventions:

The following intervention(s) can be utilized after Tier One interventions have been implemented and given time to gage effectiveness.

  • Counseling: If there are personal or family issues interfering with success in school, a productive relationship with a supportive, trained adult counselor can be helpful. Our counseling team is trained to provide short-term individual or group support to our students. The school counselor provides crisis support and check-ins with students according to need.
  • Student Success Team Meeting (SST): When a child experiences difficulty in several classes and multiple interventions have been tried unsuccessfully, a Student Success Team meeting brings together school personnel and parents to discuss the student’s strengths, and challenges. The team brainstorms a concrete action plan to aid in success.