[This sample parent newsletter article may be adapted to meet the needs of your school. Be sure to include details about any specific activities you are doing at your school.]

NationalSchool Psychology Awareness Week:

Helping Students Know Their Own Strengths

Supportive learning environmentshelp childrendiscover their individual strengths, share them, and celebrate them across all areas of learning and throughout the school community. Tapping into individual and collective strengths can buildchildren’s resiliencyand ability to meet challenges successfully. This capacity is essential to success in school and life.

Helping our students to identify their interests, passions, and accomplishments is why [NAME OF SCHOOL] is participating in national School Psychology Awareness Week, November 12–16, 2012. The theme is“Know Your Own Strengths. Discover Them. Share Them. Celebrate Them.”[I/we] will be working with teachers and other school staff to lead students in a number of activities that link their strengths to positive actions in and outside the classroom. [OR BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT ACTIVITIES YOU ARE DOING.]

As parent or guardian, youcan help build and celebrate your children’s individual strengths!

  • Encourage yourchildren’s individualstrengths. Explore how they might differ from those of their siblings or classmates and why they can make a difference.
  • Havefamily discussions celebrating each other’sstrengths.No one is good at everything, but everyone is good at something. Be sure to highlight individual strengths across all family members; everyone’s strengths may be different, but they are all important to share.
  • Come together for a good cause. Experience the strength of working together as a family or a group to help the community.
  • Pay it forward. Challenge your children to use their strengths to help someone this week, such as teaching a friend to play a sport or helping a classmate with a project.
  • Help your children use their strengths to make a difference. Give them the opportunity to volunteer with a local cause such as the Special Olympics or Habitat for Humanity. They may be surprised how much of a difference they can make using their personal talents.
  • Encourage your children to connect with others. Social competency is important. Having and staying connected to friends and loved ones can increase resilience. Being part of positive group experiences and belief systems, such as after school clubs, faith-based communities, and volunteer organizations, can contribute to your child’s sense of connectedness as well.
  • Connect with me. I am your school psychologist, [NAME]and I would love to talk with you about how we can work together to help your child do his or her best.

School psychologists work with students, teachers, and families in many capacities. Weassess learning styles and needs, lead social skills development sessions, reinforce positive behavior, guide learning strategies and problem solving skills,provide counseling, and help students develop positive self-concepts. School psychologists also help to prevent negative behaviors such as bullying and to create positive school climates. Together, we can help all of our students here at [SCHOOL] to discover, share, and celebrate their strengths and achieve their goals.

(Insert School Psychologist Name and contact information)