Collaborative & Proactive Solutions

"Kids do well if they can.  [Challenging kids are challenging] because they're lacking the skills not to be challenging.  If they had the skills, they wouldn't be challenging."

- Dr. Ross Greene

Helping Students Improve Skills & Meet Expectations

At The Quaker School at Horsham, we recognize that many students come to us without the skills they need to meet certain demands and expectations -- and when that occurs, it can manifest as challenging behavior.

For that reason, we have spent the past several years building our capacity to implement The Collaborative & Proactive Solutions Model (CPS), a non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care created by Dr. Ross Greene.

Rather than emphasizing a child's challenging behavior, CPS focuses on:

  • Identifying the skills a student is lacking and the expectations they are struggling to meet.
  • Helping students solve those problems without the use of rewards or punishments

TQS is proud to be the first Pennsylvania school with CPS certified practitioners.

Our goal is to engage students in a collaborative partnership with TQS teachers to help them find solutions to the problems they're having with meeting expectations.

We do this by following Dr. Greene's three-step model, which includes:

  1. Examining our beliefs about a student's challenging behavior in order to gain a more accurate and compassionate understanding of where it's originating.
  2. Identifying a student's lagging skills and unsolved problems to prepare for proactive intervention.
  3. Using collaborative problem-solving techniques to help address platforms with individual students as well as the entire class.
Want to learn more about how The Quaker School at Horsham is using CPS in the classroom -- or how you can use the model at home?  Contact Nicole Negro for more information.

“Leading the Change is the most far-reaching strategic plan in our school's history,  yet I have never been more confident in our community's ability to accomplish our goals. Together, we will deliver bold leadership, authentic engagement, emboldened people, unparalleled programs, and audacious innovation - and we will impact the lives of even more individuals with complex challenges.” -Alex Brosowsky, Head of School

Upcoming Events

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Upper School families are invited to a Lunch and Learn focused on College Planning for Students with Complex Challenges beginning at 12:00 p.m.  Laura Sibbald, Executive Director of Neurodiversity Initiatives from Chestnut Hill College and Kristen Tabun, Director of Transition from TQS will review with families how to know if their student is ready for college, what to do now to support a transition, and how to successfully navigate the many changes students will face in college.

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