The Head Royce School Citizenship Program

Mission
Head-Royce School believes that civic purpose is a vital part of our mission to foster in our students a lifelong commitment to constructive and responsible global citizenship.  Our goal is to prepare citizen leaders who demonstrate social responsibility, an ethic of service, a deep appreciation of diversity, and a passion for democratic ideals.  Our School has a significant role to play in helping to make our community a better place, by forging connections with our local, national and global community. To achieve this mission, the School offers a K-12 service-learning program, emphasizes our students' political awareness, nurtures our cornerstone and innovative partnerships, and fosters global perspective in the educational program.  The School actively engages its students, faculty, staff, board, parents, and alumni in meeting our civic purpose commitment.

Citizenship and Honor
For our students we provide a vision of good citizenship:

At Head-Royce School good citizens demonstrate respect and responsibility.  The School encourages citizenship by promoting leadership, appreciation of individual differences, respect for others, compassion, integrity and ethical behavior.

All our students are asked to live by the Honor Code:

Our school community is built on trust. Honesty and integrity are at the heart of our mission of scholarship, diversity, and citizenship. As a member of the Head-Royce community I pledge to embrace two core values: respect and responsibility. I will respect others and myself, I will accept responsibility for my actions, and I will be honest in my daily work and conduct.

Emotional and Social Intelligence
Our School philosophy declares our commitment to "educate the whole child" and to nurture the "development of each individual student."  We believe that our students' social-emotional growth is essential to their overall development as good citizens.  We also believe that our core values of scholarship, diversity and citizenship can be nurtured best when students are confident of their social and emotional abilities.  The work of Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences, reflected in our mission, and the work of Daniel Goleman on social-emotional intelligence, has been critical in shaping our philosophy.

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is distinct from academic abilities, is a key part of what makes people do well in life, and can be expressed in at least five domains:

• Knowing One’s Emotions—recognizing a feeling as it happens is the keystone of EQ and crucial to psychological insight and self-understanding.
• Managing Emotions—handling feelings so they are appropriate builds on self-awareness and includes the ability to soothe oneself, shake off anxiety, and be resilient.
• Motivating Oneself—marshaling emotions toward a goal is essential for self-motivation, mastery, delaying gratification, creativity, and performing at a high level.
• Recognizing Emotions in Others—developing empathy enables a person to understand what people need and want and kindles altruism.
• Handling Relationships—managing emotions in others leads to social competence and is the ability that undergirds leadership and interpersonal effectiveness.

Student Support Services
We as educators have powerful tools to understand and to nurture the social-emotional development of our students.  Our program to develop social-emotional intelligence is implemented daily by classroom teachers working in small classes and in close relationship with their students.  In addition to the relationships teachers build with students, the School offers the following support services to strengthen the social-emotional lives of students:

• All faculty serve as advisors.  In Lower School, classroom teachers are advisors to their class.  In grades 6-12, teachers meet with a group of a dozen students to support their social, academic and extracurricular needs.
• Grade level deans help coordinate academic and personal support for students' development and organize various activities to bring the classes together.
• Each division has professional counselors and learning specialists to support student growth and development.
• The Physical Education Department and the health curriculum enriches these programs by emphasizing development of lifetime fitness and healthy lifestyle choices.

Working in close partnership with families, and understanding the critical importance of peer relationships, we can play a positive role in the growth of young people in our care.

Service Learning
The School's K-12 service learning program helps our students to learn about the diversity in the wider world.  In the Lower School, service learning is built into the curriculum, and students In Middle School engaged in projects through their advising groups.  In the Upper School, all ninth graders participate in a year long Service Learning Seminar on topics ranging public education and poverty to learning differences and human rights, and they develop an Action Plan to guide their future service work.  In grades 10-12, students complete forty hours of service.  This year Upper School students contributed over 4000 hours of service to the community.  By supporting our students' personal development we seek help them lead fulfilling lives of service to others.