If there is one thing that Gratts Primary School (Gratts Elementary School) gives priority to, it is the mental health of its students as the results are seen in a greater learning.
“We want to make sure they have the basics, and it all starts with mental health,” he said in an interview with Real America News, teacher Lorena Rodríguez, director of the Gratts Primary School for five years.
What is more, she emphasized that mental health is gives preference to the three schools of Para Los Niños, the Gratts Primary School, the Charter Elementary School and the Charter Middle School.
The Gratts Primary School located in downtown Los Angeles is for children ages 4-7, transitional kindergarten through second grade. It currently has 225 students, mostly Latinos and African-Americans.
“One of the reasons why I came to work For Children, is because there is a focus on the mental health of children, teachers and families. If we support mental health we can have more benefits when we learn and study”.
He went on to say that when they provide this support, whether the minors have suffered a trauma for a long time or it is something temporary , the following years are more beneficial for those children.
Children find at the Charter Primary School the support they need for their early education. (Courtesy)He specified that the fundamental goal is for children to finish second grade, reading and writing, “learn to transfer the sounds of language to writing.”
However, he mentioned that it may be that a student is not ready to learn and they have to support him, because sometimes it takes time.
“If we don’t support them, nothing we are teaching has any point”.
What makes Gratts School different from other schools?
“I have worked in different leadership and in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and realized that access to mental health was lacking. The difference is that Para Los Niños schools give preference to the mental health of students; and from there we start to educate academically.”
But he also highlighted that they offer mental health to teachers. “
Being a teacher has its impact because they handle the different situations of each student and they also need that assistance.”
The need for mental health became more palpable when the children returned to face-to-face classes after more than a year of isolation due to the pandemic.
“The last year was difficult. Routines had to be restored. Teach what it is to be a student and be present learning. On the way back to school, we saw them very tired. Many by 15 in the morning were already exhausted and they wanted to return home.
“We also saw an increase in the number of children who did not know how to communicate. It was a time of great learning for me as director. I had never been in a situation like this”.
But he pointed out that this year, the students have returned to school happy.
“The difference is evident. They have entered calmer. I feel that this school year is going to be better”.
Director Rodríguez states that access to mental health that they have in their schools made a difference since it allowed them to refer students who needed support to therapists.
“Something we had to implement, after the second week of returning to classes was the creation of social skills groups, in which the social workers and the family specialist helped them to learn again how to share, live together, talk and be friends”.
She said that they should have taught the minors what is appropriate when playing with other children since they did not live with others for a long time.
“We did three series of workshops to provide this socialization support; and they were very helpful to the students”.
He also mentioned that they had groups of students who specifically needed a therapist, and who were quickly channeled to receive the mental health care they urgently required. .
“Also when we detect families in need, we support them with a voucher for housing, food or access to mental health”.
Reported that last year, they welcomed a recently arrived student from Central America at the Gratts school, who was he was having a hard time adjusting to classes, because for many years he was separated from his mother.
“ In his country, if he didn’t want to, he didn’t go to school, and nothing happened . He was a first grade boy. He didn’t want to be in the classrooms, he was very angry and with good reason. He was entering a new world with high expectations. He had to meet his mom again. It was a lot for this student .”
Principal Rodríguez recalled that she found a therapist for her; and her mother was very willing to collaborate.
“Now we see that child completely differently. He is pleased and happy. If I hadn’t had access to those mental health resources, I wouldn’t have improved so quickly.”
He stressed that the therapists who serve the students have all the credentials to support them, and they don’t know charges them nothing.
What are the benefits that parents can have in schools For Children?
“My daughter is going to have 15 years. If she had been little, when I started at this school, I would have enrolled her here because the staff is more than 80% committed to families and community.”
And explained that when there is a school like Gratts that offers education from transitional kindergarten to second grade, they do not have to deal with problems of students from other grades.
“We focus on our students; and we have the appropriate services when students and families need them.”
The most important thing, he assured, is that the student has a space to flourish at an early age, and an environment in which he can be a leader and independent.
He commented that sometimes they have to work with the parents to let the students loose and allow them to be independent.
But with the equipment and resources available at Gratts, when they graduate and go to another school, students have choices of what they want to do when they grow up.
In conclusion, he noted that the Gratts Public School was focuses on early education, which greatly helps students and parents, and provides the fundamental pillars in the formation of the minor.
“Parents often tell me, Miss Rodríguez with I want you to stay here another year, my son, because you focus on supporting our children so that they grow up according to their age and as they should be”.
2022