BHHS forms Nests to improve school culture

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Bloomfield Hills High School officials said students have come up with a way to make their big school feel small and supportive to its students.

Each staff member is given a “Nest” — a cohort of 13 to 16 students. These Nests are then divided into four different “Bird Houses,” forming a much larger cohort of students. Within these Nests, students are put in a supportive environment with a small group of other students and one staff member. The goal is for students to connect with staff and other students across all grade levels.

Principal Dan Hartley said BHHS has been talking with students about how to improve the overall culture of the school. A group of students were the ones who came up with the idea for Nests and shared the idea with one of the school’s teachers. From there, BHHS staff brainstormed ways to make the idea come to life.

The idea of Harry Potter houses were referenced, but the houses at BHHS are randomized.

The Nests will meet several times each semester for a variety of team-building activities.

In addition to Nest meetings, there will be greater Bird House meetings where students will gather in their larger cohort to prepare for a whole-school event.

 

Nests and mental health
BHS Mental Health Specialist Julianne Umbarger said these Nests address “the basic need of belonging.”

Students are put in small groups with one staff member where the goal is to connect.

“This is something that gives every single student in our building a group to belong to, so that even if they might feel like they are just floating through the school day, just trying to get through it, on these particular days, they have like a social thing that they belong to, that they can engage in and an adult in the building who specifically just cares about them as a person beyond their grades or their performance in school,” Umbarger said.

While every student is different, the Nests are offering students an opportunity that was not there before to improve their mental health.

“It’s giving all 1,500-plus students something to belong to, so that they do feel seen and that they are more than just a student walking our halls,”  Umbarger said.

 

Safety and wellbeing
“One of our goals as a staff over the last two years has been to have every student be able to identify at least one staff member that they can go to and they can trust,” Hartley said. “So, this is one initiative that we’re hoping helps us accomplish that goal.”

Hartley said this trust between staff and students is helpful from a “if you see something, say something” standpoint.

“We need students to feel comfortable having a staff member in the building that they can go to for anything, whether they need help personally, whether they have a concern globally within the school,” Hartley said. “I think that we can create that kind of environment where every student has somebody.”

 

Growth of the program
“We are just hoping this is an idea that continues to grow and evolve and improve over time,” Hartley said. “I credit our staff, teachers and staff members for grasping onto an idea that students brought forward and running with it, and I’m excited to see it continue to grow and improve moving forward.”

Umbarger said after the first Nest meeting, staff shared ideas with each other and gave each other inspiration on how to raise the bar for the next meeting.