Are You Ready for It? PREPARING STUDENTS FOR LIFE AFTER WESTVIEW ELISABETH DAWKINS, M.S, LPC-ASSOCIATE
The transition from middle school to high school, and all of the changes that come with it, can present challenges for any teenager. For some Westview students, those challenges might be heightened for a variety of reasons. In the Fall of 2022, Westview noticed an opportunity to help with this sometimes tricky transition by creating a “support group” of sorts for the coming Spring’s commencing middle schoolers [or graduating class]. We’re now nearing the end of our second year of running this group and supporting our students in going on school visits, attending interviews, and processing the changes they’ll face when they leave Westview. The group focuses on two main goals: preparing students for the process of visiting, interviewing with, and choosing between different high schools, and discussing and processing all of the feelings that may accompany leaving Westview and starting fresh at a new school. Before forming this group, we realized that many of our students were going into this process having yet to learn what to expect- leaving for a visit day knowing nothing about the school they were visiting or going into an interview without even knowing that was the plan.
Our Time to Shine | Winter 2024
Page-24 | Wildcat Chronicle
