RDS to Host "Focus on Middle School", November 10

Redwood Day School will host a free parent education event titled “Focus on Middle School” on Tuesday, November 10 at 7 p.m. at its Sheffield Avenue Campus. Presentations by Head of School Mike Riera and Middle School Director Warren Sepkowitz will help parents and guardians better understand adolescent development and how it impacts family relationships and middle school learning.

Riera will draw on the latest neuroscience research and his background as a psychologist to outline the developmental process that parents and guardians can expect to see unfold in their early adolescent children. Sepkowitz will build on this foundation to show how these expected developmental changes can be built into a strong, rigorous, developmentally-supportive middle school program that supports both academic mastery and socio-emotional growth.

“Early adolescents are actively beginning to construct their identities and grapple daily with wanting to belong and seeking answers to the question ‘Who am I?’”, explains Sepkowitz. “Over a three-year span, we give them opportunities to develop as leaders and role models and to sample a wide variety of activities and ways to be. The rock band guitarist, the cross-country runner and the poetry-writer may be one and the same student, just at different moments.  And that student is also learning to master self-organization and basic executive functioning, so the key is to consciously create an academic program and an advisory system that supports and develops these key skills for life.”

Mike Riera, Ph.D. is the Head of School at Redwood Day, a best-selling author, award-winning columnist, educator, television commentator, and national speaker on issues of children, adolescents, families, and parenting. Riera is the author of Staying Connected to Your Teenager, Surviving High School, and Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenager. With Joe Di Prisco, he has co-authored Right from Wrong: Instilling a Sense of Integrity in Our Children and Field Guide to the American Teenager.

Warren Sepkowitz is the Assistant Head of School and Middle School Director at Redwood Day. He served as Head of School at Woodlawn School in Davidson, North Carolina, before joining RDS in 2007 and was formerly Director of Studies, Director of Professional Development, and Acting Director of the Upper School at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He previously taught locally at Head-Royce School.

This free event is open to the public, and guests interested in attending are asked to RSVP to Redwood Day’s Associate Director of Admissions & Financial Aid, Katrina Lappin, at (510) 534-0804, ext. 224.