July is a time for big goodbyes. On Friday July 28, 2023 we will host Cheerful Helpers' graduation. Three students will graduate this year and we are feeling excited and proud knowing the students have gained the tools needed to embark on their next academic journey. 

In preparation for graduation, students and teachers (and parents too) are taking a pause to think about what it means to say goodbye and how our invisible thread keeps us connected. Building on that theme, many of last year's graduates will be visiting the school. This long-standing tradition and its impact on recent graduates mimics that of our parents when they attend their first alumni night (not as current parents, but rather in their new role as alumni).

In addition to saying goodbye to students and parents, several of our trainees have finished their internships and will be taking the next steps in their professional careers. To celebrate the work of all of our trainees we will host our annual Intern Graduation on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. This special occasion provides the clinical team an opportunity to reflect on the year, the growth of our students and the growth of our practitioners.

The month of July is our extended school year. Classrooms are finishing end of the year projects including self portraits, calendars, learning about the life cycle of butterflies and working on the bunny picture and story. This prompt allows our students to think about what used to be hard, what they have learned and what they are wanting to learn next.

We are proud of all of our students and the growth they have shown this year.

Cheerful Helpers Therapeutic Preschool is our cornerstone program. With rolling admission, we provide small class sizes and a very attentive 2 kids to 1 adult ratio. Each classroom has a credentialed teacher, and is staffed by our training clinicians. The training program is something we are very proud to have kept running almost as long as the school has been in existence. Through our training program, we are able to help early career clinicians learn about
working with children and families in this respectful and relationship prioritizing way. Being a training site also ensures that we are able to maintain that important ratio. And the new energy of the students in these roles helps us as an agency to continue learning and growing.

As we look forward to 2023/24, we are holding space for some big hellos. There will be new families and new early career clinicians in the classrooms! By the way, our classrooms do have room if you know of families that could be supported by the important work and therapeutic
support we offer. Our families come with a range of diagnoses and needs.

As a language rich program, a child with communication skills and ability will be the most successful. This does not mean that children must be using verbal language, but should have the capacity to communicate and take in language. Also, we are a family program, so families will be asked to
spend an extended time in the classroom at the beginning of their child’s time at CHPS, and will
attend parent group and family therapy meetings throughout their time here.
The process for enrollment includes having a warm-line call, coming in for a screening (a brief playtime with one of our teachers), attending a school tour, and then moving through 
the IEP process to secure placement.
We are very excited about next year. With a growing BEIG and community social skills program, our 23/24 school year looks big and bright!

To honor this momentous graduation time, this month’s video is in two parts. We are grateful to Ellen Pearlman for taking time to talk to us about graduation. Ellen shares the tradition of birds and special words for our graduates.