No Place for Name Calling at Woodlynde School

By: Elizabeth Coffey, Marketing and Communications Manager
Safe spaces are vital to the emotional health and wellbeing of students now more than ever.
With our nation’s news being tumultuous at best and the pandemic raging on, school should be a place where students can focus on learning, safe in the knowledge that here, they are accepted and celebrated for their differences. 

Last week, Woodlynde participated in GLSEN’s No Name-Calling Week (NNCW), a week organized by K-12 teachers and students to end bullying and name-calling in schools. Mrs. Quinton, the driving force behind Woodlynde’s participation and the school counselor for Grades K-6, delivered grade-specific lessons to students in Lower School. 

Students listened to Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers and created projects describing themselves and who they are at this stage in their life. Younger students created “I Am” signs, drawing and writing down words to describe themselves. Older students created “Identity Icebergs” detailing what people can discover about them from just their outward appearance and what people would have to get to know them to find out. Students were also given the option to create “Identity Flowers” which gave them prompts that they could then use to describe themselves. 

In addition to these lessons, students and teachers were encouraged to give each other “Kindness Grams” to express their gratitude for one another. Compassion and empathy are qualities that can be taught, and this week is a small part of Woodlynde School’s larger initiative to nurture students into thoughtful and caring adults who can make an impact on their community and the world around them. “At Woodlynde, we want students to know that they’re safe to be themselves. Part of that is teaching them to accept who they are so that they can accept others,” says Quinton. “It’s up to us to make the world a kinder, more considerate place.” 


No Name-Calling Week 2021
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Woodlynde School is a private, co-ed college prep day school located in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that serves intelligent, talented students with learning differences in grades K - 12. Woodlynde provides a comprehensive, evidence-based Kindergartenelementarymiddle and high school program in a challenging yet nurturing environment for students with average to above average cognitive abilities (IQ) who have language- or math-based learning differences (such as Dyslexia, Dysgraphia or Dyscalculia), Executive Function Challenges, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or Auditory Processing Disorder. Even for those students without a diagnosed learning disability (LD), Woodlynde offers expert and caring teachers in small classroom settings that support academic success. Woodlynde School also offers a post-graduate (PG) program in partnership with Rosemont College as well as a regional Summer Camp for students who learn differently.