{Milford Sound in New Zealand}

My name is Vhenus Belisle and I am the School Psychologist at McGaugh. I have the pleasure of being a part of the McGaugh community and family for several years now. While most of my day includes consulting with staff and/or parents, conducting evaluations, and completing reports...what I enjoy most about my job is facilitating social skills as well as play groups for our students.  At McGaugh, we strive to find creative means to enable students to become more successful socially, behaviorally, and academically. In the past, we facilitated a"Social Stars" theater based social skills group for students in kindergarten-3rd grade. We also had a "Social Stars Script Writers" group for  students in 4th-5th grade who developed the "scripts" or social dialogue for the younger students. This year we reintroduced the Social Stars theater, which ran for 8 weeks in the fall. There were two groups: 1st grade lunch bunch and a 2nd-3rd grade combo lunch bunch.  At this time, we currently don't have any social skills groups.

Every other month, we host parent workshops on topics such as tips on improving homework and study habits with children, social skills, sensory integration, and understanding ADHD.  For information on future workshops, please look for flyers that are distributed and posted at school as well as an email from the PTA. 

For the 2011-2012 school year, we are proud to announce the launch of the SEALION Leaders. SEALION stands for:

Service * Educational Achievement * Leadership * Integrity * Community *  Inclusion.

SEALION Leaders is focused on building relationships, increasing a sense of school community, building students’ self-esteem, and promoting community responsibility. Guided by McGaugh administration, teachers, and parents, we will embed a 4^th and 5^th grade student leadership council committee into the current student leadership teams, which include Conflict Managers, Assembly Assistants, Best Buddies, Play Leaders, Media Center Helpers, Emergency Assistants, Decathlon Runners, Valets, News Broadcasters, Sea Lion Store Clerks, Kindergarten Helpers, and Office Clerks. In addition, we hope to facilitate community service projects and fund-raising events. Through youth leadership, we at McGaugh want to create a school community that supports peer mentoring, service, learning, and acceptance.

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Some of our Current McGaugh 2011-2012 Conflict Managers!!!

A great resource to check out is the Parent Support Workshop newsletter put together by one of our wonderful McGaugh mothers.

Please feel free to contact me. I am at McGaugh five days a week. The best way to get in touch with me is via email, vbelisle@losal.org. I am available to meet by appointment.

I am the proud parent of a daughter attending Oak Middle School and have a toddler!