Hickory Education Support Program
Integrated Holistic Education Support at HVS to support our students’ physiological, social-emotional, and academic needs.
At Hawthorne Valley, we recognize that each child learns at their own pace, and that some may respond best through alternative methods. To support our students in their learning, we have established the Hickory Program – Integrated Holistic Education Support. Through this co-curricular programming, we support students currently enrolled in our classes, to address physiological, social-emotional, and academic needs with targeted small-group instruction. Providing this additional support enriches our students’ education and bolsters our school’s commitment to building a more inclusive and educationally diverse learning environment.
Hickory Program offerings:
General Academic Support:
- This includes small-group pull-out sessions during school hours, as well as occasional 1:1 intensives.
Sensory Integration Work:
- This takes place in small-group sessions.
Life Skills:
- These small group sessions provide students with social-emotional support in a non-traditional classroom setting via nature and project-based programming.
Internal and External Learning-Support Plans:
- Hickory Program faculty liaise with our School District in cases in which students need a more formal IEP or 504, and work with parents, teachers, and students to create and implement our internal ESPs (Educational Support Plans). In addition, we support teachers in implementing learning plans in our general classroom setting and provide support with external evaluations and recommendations.
Organizational-Skills Coaching:
- Hickory faculty have regular check-ins with students to help build organizational skills and assist with school and home assignment completion.
Curative Eurythmy:
- As possible, the Hickory Program schedules 7-week sessions of 1:1 curative eurythmy.
Developmental Assessments:
- Our staff works with faculty to review assessment materials and provide assessments to our students.
Equine Assisted Learning:
- We work with our Horse-back Riding Instructor to provide opportunities for our students to have regular therapeutic horse-back riding sessions and to work with basic caring for the animals.
Music Therapy:
- This pilot offering provides students with a unique music experience, brought with intentionality to encourage the development of communication, social/emotional, motor, and cognitive skills in a dynamic and safe environment which can help students manage stressful situations and become better learners.
Accessing Hickory Program
Email Anna HarrisThe first point of contact for accessing Hickory classes is always the student’s class teacher or high school advisor. If a parent or subject teacher observes that a student is consistently struggling either academically or socially, they should contact the class teacher or advisor to discuss observations. Depending on the level of challenge manifesting at school, a conference will be held with the parent, the teacher and one of our Hickory Coordinators (Anna Harris or Jennifer Green). It may also include our school counselor (Alyssa Haley). These conferences center on the needs of the respective student and identify actionable steps to address challenges through our Hickory programming as well as next steps for continued collaboration between parents, teachers, and Hickory staff.
Who can access Hickory programming?
We are excited about our ability to meet some learning needs via the Hickory Program. We are also cognizant about the limitations of our educational-support program and the financial costs of providing small-group instruction on a wide scale. We aim to be transparent about these limitations with all parents, especially new applicants. We encourage those who can afford to do so to make a contribution to our Hickory Program that will support its continued growth. We cannot guarantee that students will be able to access the level of support they need in our program.
It is with this in mind, that we strongly encourage parents to share your child’s learning history upon applying to our school, especially in regard to any learning challenges which might have surfaced in the past and/or are currently present. Knowing your child’s learning needs in advance will help us to determine our ability to support your child at HVS, and to put supports in place from the beginning of the year. Our educational support structure is much more limited than that offered at a public school. HVS does not discriminate against suitable applicants based on disability that may be reasonably accommodated without substantially altering curricular or instructional goals. With this in mind, there may be cases in which a family is asked to set up additional tutoring or counseling outside of school, or to pursue a more formal assessment, as a requirement for acceptance into our programming.
The school will discuss with families of applicants with diagnosed learning differences or disabilities, whether the school will be able to offer their child the appropriate accommodations to help them be successful at our school.
Our Tutors
Our program is carried by a dedicated team of remedial specialists. To learn more about our educators, visit our Staff Page.
Anna Harris—Hickory Program Director
Jennifer Green—Middle and High School Education Support Coordinator
Julie Scannell—Education Support Teacher
Scott Esty—Education Support Teacher
Alicia Burns—Equine Assisted Learning Teacher
Tom Brown—Math Support
David Moonan—Math Support
Andrew Sansone—Math Support
Rebecca Conroy—Orton-Gillingham Literacy Specialist
Stephanie Murphy—Orton-Gillingham Literacy Specialist
Susan Williams— Orton-Gillingham Literacy Specialist
Marianne Rannenberg—Orton-Gillingham Literacy Specialist
Lynn Stolfo—Curative Eurythmy
not pictured: Marianne Rannenberg—Literacy Specialist / Liaison to Class Teacher
