Academic Overview

Health & Wellness at The Downtown School

Health & wellness is a graduation requirement at DTS, in the State of Washington, and nationally. We embrace a developmental approach to how we offer health education. Exploring “Healthy Relationships” looks very different with a 14-year-old just starting high school than it might for an 18-year-old who is launching into adulthood. We curate speakers, content, and safe conversation space in our grade-level advisories. Individuals use a portfolio system to set personal goals, chart questions and insights, and ultimately build a plan for lifelong, responsible decision making. Twice each year, we lead two health-focused, day-long retreats for each grade-level that dig more deeply into some of the topics referenced below. Our four-year curriculum is framed by the National Health Education Standards and is aligned with best practices in other independent schools. We revise and update our curriculum each year with feedback from students, input from expert providers, and reviews of data trends from sources like the Independent School Health Check and the Centers for Disease Control.

Topic Strands:

• Eating, Health at Any Size, and Body Image

• Contraception, STI Prevention, Sexuality, Gender and Identity

• Healthy Relationships, Consent, and Sexual Harassment & Assault Prevention

• Impulses, Addictions, Substance Use & Healthy Decision Making

• First Aid, Personal Safety in Community and Online Spaces

• Mental Health Symptoms, Risks and Protective Factors

• Self-Care, Goal-Setting and Active Wellness Experiences

Immersive Projects

At The Downtown School, we want to both encourage student ownership of learning and validate the deep work that students do. Immersive Projects provide an opportunity for both, and they promote intellectual wayfinding in a way that can help students craft their own methods for future independent learning.

Immersive Projects have three domains: 1) Approaching learning in an interdisciplinary manner, 2) Putting in the time for deep work, and 3) Sharing that work with a wider audience. When connected to a class, an Immersive Project allows a student to select an element from a course in which they are enrolled and develop a particular component. That project, grounded in an assignment of the course, must”

• Include content or themes from another class to demonstrate interdisciplinary understanding, 

• Have a written and presentation component, and

• Constitute a time investment of between 36 and 52 hours.

Creative endeavors lend themselves to a stand-alone Immersive Project, in which a personal project or series of works is presented. In these cases, the student recognizes the interdisciplinary aspect in their written component by connecting their work to a series of college and career readiness factors.

Immersive Projects are evaluated in a public presentation of which a panel of three faculty members review the work and the process, ultimately awarding .25, .33, or .05 credit.