Managing stress and anxiety
R.I.D.E.S. the Wave program is a classroom-based stress management program for students, developed by experts in school mental health at Ometz. Sessions cover developmentally appropriate information related to stress and provide concrete strategies to help with stress management.
Social skills
This program will help children develop pro-social behaviours through interactive activities and role modelling. Children will be encouraged to focus on the identification of feelings, the need for empathy and respect, strategies for self-regulation and the importance of expressive communication skills to create strong relationships. Dealing with conflicts in a healthy manner while creating an awareness and tolerance of diversity will be discussed.
Managing stress and anxiety
R.I.D.E.S. the Wave program is a classroom-based stress management program for students, developed by experts in school mental health at Ometz. Sessions cover developmentally appropriate information related to stress and provide concrete strategies to help with stress management.
Conflicts and their resolution
Students will learn the concept of “relational aggression” and its effects on healthy, inclusive friendships. Using role plays, videos and real-life stories, children will become more sensitive to the power of words and body language in hurting others. Students will then focus on “win-win” solutions and the importance of good communication skills.
Social skills
This program will help children develop pro-social behaviours through interactive activities and role modelling. Children will be encouraged to focus on the identification of feelings, the need for empathy and respect, strategies for self-regulation and the importance of expressive communication skills to create strong relationships. Dealing with conflicts in a healthy manner while creating an awareness and tolerance of diversity will be discussed.
Internet safety
Students will have the opportunity to discuss both the positive and negative effects of internet use, including the influence of social media. Internet safety will be highlighted. Cyber bullying and the effects of the internet on personal relationships will be included.
Study skills
Students will be given the opportunity to learn skill-building techniques, including routines around homework, planning work/project schedules and organizing workplaces for optimal concentration. Coping with stress and methods to relieve it will be included in the discussion.
Body image and self-esteem
This program empowers youngsters to be the best they can be through information on healthy body image, nutrition and fitness while focusing on the importance of supporting good health and resisting counter-productive lifestyle habits. Gaining confidence and retaining a healthy self-esteem at this transitional time in their lives will be a focus especially in light of media, peer influences and the potentially long-term effects of bullying and relational aggression.
Alcohol, smoking, vaping and drug awareness
Research highlights the need to talk to kids about risky behaviours at younger ages. This program helps students become aware of the signs of risky situations and learn strategies for saying “no”. Role playing and use of scenarios will assist the youngsters in recognizing, understanding and coping with this issue.
Puberty awareness
Discussions with “tweens” and young adolescents about physical, social and emotional changes throughout puberty can “demystify” their challenges and concerns. This program also encourages students to develop a healthy body image and a positive self-esteem, leaving them to feel more confident and self-assured at a time of identity transitions.
Transition into high school
These sessions will help students to develop skills to promote a positive transition into high school. Developmental changes concerning physical, emotional, and social issues will be discussed. Forming new relationships with peers and teachers, navigating an ever-changing schedule, study and organizational skills, healthy responses to stress, working with others in groups, and exposure to risky behaviours will be included.
Healthy Relationships
Healthy Relationships aims to help students understand the differences between healthy and unhealthy friendships and romantic relationships. Emotional safety in relationships is emphasized. Students are given scenarios to navigate and reflection questions to answer to help increase education and awareness at developmentally appropriate ages.
Consent and Boundaries
These workshops are designed for children of all ages in the school system to learn more about consent at all developmentally appropriate stages. For the younger grades, our Consent and Boundaries workshops help introduce bodily autonomy, choice, and saying no. For older grades, our workshops include information on sexual assault, unhealthy relationships,and how to understand when someone is giving consent.
Managing stress and anxiety
R.I.D.E.S. the Wave program is a classroom-based stress management program for students, developed by experts in school mental health at Ometz. Sessions cover developmentally appropriate information related to stress and provide concrete strategies to help with stress management.
Transitions: starting high school
This program covers common concerns such as developing new relationships with peers and teachers, navigating an ever-changing schedule, study and organizational skills, dealing with less guidelines and guidance concerning homework and projects, managing stress and being exposed to risky behaviours.
Puberty/sexuality
Students will engage in age-appropriate discussions, ranging from emotional, physical and social changes in the younger high school students, to safe sex education, reproduction, sexually transmitted diseases and the importance of establishing healthy relationships in the more senior years.
Alcohol, smoking, vaping and drug awareness
One risky behaviour often leads to another. Through this program, students will better understand substance use/abuse and the signs of risky situations. Strategies to “keep safe” will be highlighted in light of strong peer and media influence. Recent research on the effects of these substances on the developing teenage brain will be reviewed.
Conflicts and their resolution
Students will learn the concept of “relational aggression” and its effects on healthy, inclusive friendships. Using real life stories, videos and literature, students will become more sensitive to the power of words and body language in hurting others. The role of the “bystander” will be discussed as a strategy for reducing conflicts.
Body image and self-esteem
This program helps students to be more aware of their changing body image and the influences of their peers, the internet and the media on the image they have of themselves. As well, these influences will be discussed in relation to their evolving self-esteem and identity. Strategies to cope with these pressures will be discussed.
Introduction to mindfulness
This introduction to mindfulness will offer students an opportunity to use self-regulation skills in times of stress and anxiety. Students will learn to be more “present” and will build on their capacity for compassion for self and others as well as refine concentration skills and self-discipline. A specialist in this technique will lead these sessions.
Internet safety
Both positive and negative effects of internet use will be discussed. Internet safety and privacy will be reviewed and cyber bullying will be highlighted for the role it plays in creating unhealthy relationships and threatening friendships.
Study skills
Students will learn skill building techniques including creating study/project plans, organizing workplaces for optimal concentration, working in groups and establishing routines for homework. Research on multitasking and the importance of sleep will be discussed. Coping with stress and methods to relieve it will be included.
Loss and bereavement
Students and staff may be impacted in a variety of ways when faced with illness and/or death. These sessions will assist those in your school community who are having difficulty coping and will help them with strategies for healing and recovery.
Transitions: leaving high school
Leaving high school can be filled with mixed emotions about graduation and proms, school applications, course requirements, career planning, and changes in relationships. Our group worker will include these topics and more in their discussions with these senior students.
Healthy Relationships
Healthy Relationships aims to help students understand the differences between healthy and unhealthy friendships and romantic relationships. Emotional safety in relationships is emphasized. Students are given scenarios to navigate and reflection questions to answer to help increase education and awareness at developmentally appropriate ages.
Consent and Boundaries
These workshops are designed for children of all ages in the school system to learn more about consent at all developmentally appropriate stages. For the younger grades, our Consent and Boundaries workshops help introduce bodily autonomy, choice, and saying no. For older grades, our workshops include information on sexual assault, unhealthy relationships,and how to understand when someone is giving consent.
Managing Challenging Behaviors
Global instability has increased the stress levels of children and youth of all ages, often resulting in behaviors that create problems in the classroom and at home. These workshops are tailored to help parents and staff work with children of all ages whose behavior has been negatively impacted by the stress from Covid-19 and other external factors. These strategies can help manage behavior in a group or individual context.
Managing Stress and Anxiety
Depending on the level of severity, stress and anxiety can detrimentally impact one’s quality of life. Although stress and anxiety share many of the same emotional and physical symptoms – they have very different origins. Determining which one you are experiencing is critical to finding an effective treatment plan and feeling better. The workshop will teach an array of simple strategies to help participants manage their own stress and anxiety. The workshop will equally teach participants strategies to support children’s stress and anxiety. In order to support children’s stress and anxiety, one must first be adept at managing their own stress and anxiety!
The Importance of Play
Through play, young children engage and interact in the world around them. Later, play has a role in school success as it enhances children's confidence and resilience and their ability to interact positively with peers and adults. But today, time for free play has been greatly reduced in our classrooms and our homes. This workshop will review the recent literature on the importance of play in children’s development and explore strategies for embedding “play” into our daily lives.
Self-Regulation in Children
There is a growing awareness that the better a child can self-regulate, the better they can rise to the challenge of mastering increasingly complex skills and concepts. In other words, the more a child can stay calmly focused and alert, the better they can integrate the diverse information coming in from their different senses, assimilate it, and sequence their thoughts and actions. This workshop will inform parents and/or teachers how to assist in the development of self-regulation skills in children.
Effective Communication
This workshop will provide effective communication strategies for interactions with children. Participants will leave this presentation with a variety of tools to better deliver and receive feedback, listen actively and express fears and concerns appropriately while leaving the lines of communication open.
Reframing Behaviors: For Teachers
A workshop to help change how we think about challenging behaviors. One word can make all the difference in how we perceive a “difficult” student. The tools taught in this workshop help teachers create a classroom enviroment of respect and understanding that benefits teachers and students alike.
Social Media and Internet Safety
This workshop, for both parents and educators, provides valuable resources for keeping children safe online. Participants will come away with tools for identifying and reporting cyberbullying, an understanding of current online trends, apps and social media sites, strategies for encouraging responsible digital citizenship online and an understanding of the permanent traces and real life consequences of children’s online actions.
The Unique Dimensions of Temperament
Temperament shapes children’s outcomes, and influences the way they interact with their environment and how adults and children respond to them. Understanding a child’s temperament can help reframe how parents interpret children’s behaviour and the way parents think about the reasons for these behaviours. This workshop will look at the different dimensions of temperament and how they can be used to promote positive social and emotional development in children.
Raising a Resilient Child
Children need to grow up to be independent, self-reliant adults. The challenge is for the adults in their lives to appropriately nurture children’s self-esteem, enhance coping strategies for dealing with failure and disappointment, encourage motivation and foster strong decision making techniques. This presentation offers parents and educators the opportunity to explore these methods of helping children gain the self-reliance needed for coping in our “hurried” world.
Homework 101
This presentation offers strategies to make homework a more pleasant experience for children and parents. Homework is presented as a means to enhance self-reliance and foster motivation in children. The concept of “mindsets “will be explored as it impacts the ability for children to understand that through “effort” they can “grow” their intelligence.
A Parent's Role in Their Child's Friendships
Parents often wonder what they should do to ensure their children have good friends. Participants will learn practical strategies for identifying the boundaries of their involvement and how to teach their children to effectively navigate their social relationships. Issues related to exclusion, bullying, fostering healthy relationships and encouraging independence in conflict resolution and relationship maintenance will be examined.
Bullying... What You Need to Know
Whether a bully, a target or a witness, children are being confronted with this problem all too often. This workshop will help parents and educators understand bullying and why it happens, be able to recognize the signs of it in children’s behavior, and how to deal with it. Discussion will include how the brain influences the incidence of bullying and how a positive self-esteem helps to mitigate its effect on children.
Risky Business... Protecting Your Kids
Part of the transition to adolescence is the searching for identity, while at the same time trying to separate from parents and be a member of the peer community. Parents will have the opportunity to discover the “protective factors” which keep children from risk taking behaviours and learn how to use them in the everyday lives of their family.
Growing a Growth Mindset
Understanding intelligence and abilities as qualities we can develop has powerful ramifications on student motivation and learning, and school success. When teachers and parents focus on improvement rather than on whether a child is smart, children learn a lot more. Using the research of Dr. Carol Dweck, strategies to develop a “growth mindset” in children will be explored.
Objective
To provide a forum for parents to network and share challenges and solutions. Note: We currently have over 100 parents participating in parenting groups.
Ometz Parenting Groups meet monthly (during the school year) to share the joys and challenges in bringing up children in today's world. Ometz Parenting Groups are small (6-8 parents), led by a professional facilitator and are formed for parents with children of similar ages from pre-school to high school. Discussion centers on parenting topics that are relevant to the group, such as strategies for coping with your child's stress and anxiety, social media use, and school issues.