Team Saturday Program Information

Mission statement

Team Saturday offers a psychologically and physically safe environment where children have opportunities for new experiences, for learning new skills, and have time for individual attention, through small groups with dedicated teachers and enthusiastic 8th grade assistants. Children are recommended through school guidance counselors in public elementary schools in western Loudoun County and northern Fauquier County; they are selected on the basis of family need (i.e. family in economic or psychological stress) or on the basis of a child’s demonstrated need for support and enrichment.

Program Goals

• Provide a safe and predictable and stable environment;

• Offer, through small groups, positive relationships with adults, older children, and role models for problem solving and socialization;

• Offer opportunities for new experiences and skill development; and,

• Provide ongoing support and to serve as s source of referral for the children and their families

About Team & TEEN*

The Hill School of Middleburg, Virginia, runs a program on fifteen Saturdays during the school year for children in 2nd through 5th grades. This program, called Team Saturday, is not affiliated with area public schools. It runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., usually on alternating Saturdays during the school year and allows peer interaction in small group settings. The students rotate through three activities - usually sports, cooking, and art. There are special days for activities like Tae Kwon Do, and dancing. The program is free of charge. Lunch and transportation to and from The Hill School are provided.

In TEEN* Saturday the emphasis, in this middle- and high-school program, continues to be on providing a safe, predictable place, new opportunities though small-group learning, with added focus on self-esteem issues, conflict resolution and leadership development. For many years, some of the teens have participated in the National Kite Festival in DC and earned top prizes for their entries.

The program is dependent on its volunteers; all 8th graders at The Hill School are trained to work in the program, and each student commits to working on at least three consecutive Saturdays, assisting the teachers with their presentations, shepherding the children to activities, playing with them on the playground, and sharing conversations at lunchtime.

Program History

Team and TEEN Saturday programs were developed at The Hill School during the winter of 1994-1995 in response to the school’s informal association with Loudoun Families for Children (LFC), a volunteer foster care organization. A number of children in foster care had attended the school during the previous few years, and the school administration was acquainted with the goals and dilemmas of LFC. One of the dilemmas was the growing number of children who were identified as “at-risk”, not for imminent child abuse, but for unhealthy functioning, due to stress within the child’s family. These were generally children living either with elderly grandparents or caretakers, or with single parents in low-income, adverse family environments.

Initially, the Team and TEEN Saturday programs were designed by school administrators to address what were perceived as the needs of the is group by providing a stable, safe environment in which these children could work in small groups with experienced adults and have opportunities for close relationships with the adults as well as for new experiences and skill development through a variety of age-appropriate activities. The goals were enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence.

One of the most important components of the program to its original designers, who continue to be involved, is its stability, its capacity to continue operating and responding to the needs of its children without interruption or threat of interruption.

*Currently we refer to Team Saturday  as "Team Junior", and  TEEN Saturday as "Team Senior".

Team Saturday

Kindness and Respect Always

Siempre Amabilidad y Respeto