Advisory & Life Skills
CONNECT WITH OTHERS / CONNECT WITH SELF
The journey to becoming an adult can be both exciting and trying. So we provide Middle and Upper School students with their own small community of peers, a teacher they can trust, and space to explore their identities, values, and the world around them.
Advisory
Beginning in Grade 6 all the way to senior year, Parker students participate in weekly advisory sessions with a small group of their peer students and one faculty or staff member. Advisors act as an anchor for students, helping guide and advocate for them around academic, social, and emotional issues throughout the school year. Advisory also offers a structured curriculum to improve academic and personal skills, a forum to discuss multicultural and character education topics, and space for socializing with their peers.
Life Skills
Life Skills create classes which can be springboards for a deeper focus in advisory. In Middle School, Life Skills topics include health and wellness, alcohol and drug awareness, healthy eating, human development, and stress management. Upper School continues these discussions at a deeper level and focuses on issues such as self-esteem, substance abuse, mindfulness meditation, and sex education.
BENEFITS OF ADVISORY
CONNECTION TO PEERS
Through class discussions, group projects, and other activities, students can form bonds with one another and also learn more about themselves in relation to others.
CONNECTION TO ADULTS
Parker advisors play a key role in helping their advisees find their academic strengths and areas of growth, while also leading happy, fulfilling lives outside of school. Students are likely to view their advisors as caring mentors who will advocate their causes and interests, and celebrate their successes.
PERSONAL GROWTH
A student’s own self-awareness is critical for success in college and beyond—advisory and Life Skills classes allow students to discover their intersectional identities, values, strengths, and perspectives on important social and global topics.