It All Starts with Feeling Known

It all starts with feeling known.

Before students can stretch academically, navigate friendships, or take healthy risks in learning, they need to know that the adults around them truly see them—not just as students, but as people. When we ask students directly about their experience at Park, this is the message we hear most clearly.

As part of our ongoing Self-Study work, we have gathered student feedback through multiple surveys and checkpoints across the year. Across these student-reported data sources, a consistent theme emerges: students feel known, supported, and cared for by the adults in our community.

This shows up in several ways. In the ERB Self-Wise survey, administered at the beginning of the school year, students report strong relationships with adults and a sense of emotional support at school. In our fall Self-Study student surveys, students across grade levels again describe teachers and staff as attentive and approachable. And for the second consecutive year, we will administer the ERB mid-year Check-In survey, allowing us to look for patterns in student feedback over time—not just a single snapshot.

From our youngest learners through middle school, students themselves report feeling comfortable asking for help, confident that adults will listen, and secure in knowing there is someone at school who understands them. This sense of being known is not accidental; it is a foundational element of our school culture and a defining feature of daily life at Park.

This foundation directly supports our Portrait of a Graduate. When students feel known and safe, they are better able to develop the confidence, empathy, curiosity, and sense of belonging that we value as essential outcomes of a Park School education.

– By Ken Rogers, Assistant Head of School for Curriculum & Instruction

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