Mentoring

Will personal formation for parents and students continue?

Yes, they will.

In fact, we realized that being compelled to follow a mostly remote implementation allows us to intensify our personal formation activities. For example, Our Catholic Doctrine Classes for teachers shifted naturally to an online mode during the quarantine. By the same token, we see that student and parent formation can be delivered more conveniently despite our circumstances. The following adjustments in Personal Formation Activities will be made this year:

• Student mentoring chats and parent chats will continue online, following a regular weekly and monthly schedule. The current situation actually allows for more flexibility in scheduling chats, especially with parents who are both at work.

• As a support service, the Guidance Center will also make chats with the school’s Guidance Counselors available for students who are in need for greater intervention, using as a template the tele-counseling standards of the American Counseling Association.

• Formative group activities for students will be held online, including the following:

1. Short activities during Homeroom check-ins with the Class Adviser

2. Regular online Student Assemblies to highlight the Virtue of the Month (VoM)

3. The yearly Student Seminar for each class or grade level will continue online or, when the health situation and government guidelines already permit, as an actual school activity later in the school year.

4. The Class Excellence Awards, which is a staple formative activity for the individual classes, will continue.

• Student activities, including those initiated and managed by the Northfield Student Executive Board (SEB), will continue to be organized online.

• Students will also be able to sign up for Student Clubs, which will be organized online by their respective faculty or staff moderators.

• Parent assemblies and parenting talks will also continue:

  1. The New Parents Education Program (NPEP) for new parents and the Middle Childhood Parenting Program (MCPC), which are handled by EDUCHILD, will still continue, following either a blended or remote delivery as dictated by the circumstances. These sessions, however, will start a little later in the year than usual.

  2. Parenting talks and assemblies will also be organized online. We see parenting activities as taking place more frequently this year, since there is no pressing need to organize a physical gathering with a suitable venue and compatible schedule.

• Chaplaincy activities will also resume, with some adjustments:

  1. The school chaplain, Fr. Dante Estepa, will be able to hear confession and provide spiritual direction for parents, students, and staff once the campus is opened (even without classes), scheduled by appointment and following social distancing measures. Fr. Estepa is also making himself available for parents or students who wish to get in touch with him via remote means.

  2. When circumstances already permit, the chaplain will begin celebrating mass in the Northfield oratory, which can be livestreamed as part of the school’s weekly or monthly schedule.