First Day Jitters

One of the things we've tried to do this year as a Board is think about transitions.  A lot of kids have a hard time with transitioning to a new school.  In Vernon a new 6th grader for instance is going from one of five different elementary schools to a new, combined Middle School. They not only have to deal with being the youngest kids in the school now, they also have to deal with not knowing 4/5ths of their classmates.  At RHS they at least know their own classmates but there is a such a huge difference in both age and maturity between a Freshman and a Senior.  These changes can make for a really difficult fist few days of school.

My colleague Kyle Percy mentioned to me last year that he had heard about a program that Manchester had implemented to make the first day of High School a freshman-only affair.  We talked about this as a Board and with the Superintendent and I was really pleased to see in the proposed calender for this year the suggestion was taken seriously.  9th graders have the opportunity to get in to the High School a day before everyone else.  They can learn the schedule, where their lockers are, and just generally how to get around what is going to be a confusing environment.  I'd give them a week if I could, but I'm very happy we are giving them that day.

And since we thought it was such a great idea we decided to extend it to the 6th graders as well!  They will also get a day to learn their way around a brand new environment without the pressure of dealing with upper classmen.  Thankfully we had enough days in our calender to make this a possibility.  We sincerely hope this experiment will be a positive one for the students.  I'd love to hear your feedback of how well you think it worked so we know if we should plan it again for next year.  And we will continue to think of ways to try and make these transitions easier for the students to help them be ready to succeed regardless of grade level.

-The opinions expressed here are strictly my own and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Board of Education.