ASHLAND — Ashland Middle School’s counseling department is looking to alleviate students’ stress during testing week by recruiting community members to write them letters of encouragement.
According to Deidre Kilpatrick, a school counselor at Ashland Middle School, the idea came up in a family engagement meeting.
“Oftentimes, testing week can seem daunting to students and they are more often than not their toughest critic,” Kilpatrick stated in an email to Ashland Source.
She said somebody suggested writing letters to students, and it snowballed into involving community members in the efforts from there.
It serves a dual purpose of engaging people in something positive and productive, and helping students feel encouraged as they go into testing days.
Kilpatrick stated test days happen on April 15 and 16, and April 23-May 1.
She said the counseling department hopes to give each student at the school a letter for each testing day.
They’ll count the letter-writing campaign a success if each student can receive one letter during testing week.
Ashland Middle School’s office will be accepting letters until March 10.
Before then, people interested in writing letters are being asked to write a general letter of encouragement to a student. Kilpatrick said people can write as many letters as they want. The school is asking them not to sign their name.
“If we have too many that would be an awesome problem to have,” Kilpatrick stated in another emailed message. “We will most likely put them towards next year if we have a surplus of letters.”
If the middle school doesn’t receive enough letters, Kilpatrick said staff and the counseling team will fill in empty spots.
People can turn letters in to Kalie Godsey at Ashland Middle School’s office.
“The hope is that with these letters, the students realize that someone is there for them,” Kilpatrick stated. “High stakes testing can be very stressful, and we want to relieve some of that stress.”
