Are You Ready for It? Preparing Students for Life After Westview

BY: 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.

It’s hard for anyone to put their best foot forward in those circumstances, so we knew that providing support in this area was something we wanted to do

Something as simple as looking at pictures of the school before visiting can help our students feel more comfortable and confident going into a visit day.

It is important for our students to feel empowered, helping them understand that their opinions matter. Group sessions may include discussions about what school qualities students like or dislike. This allows them to consider these qualities while on visits or having conversations with their parents, helping them participate in decision-making.

With the help of various Westview staff members, the group conducts mock interviews in which students go into different offices around campus to emulate the interview experience at a new school. The interviewers can provide immediate feedback that we can take back to the group to discuss and practice.

The experience and personalized feedback send our students to their real interviews feeling more prepared and confident. The less concrete, but equally important, part of the group is the processing portion. Whether a graduate has been at Westview since age two or for only one year (we’ve had the entire range in only two years of running this group!), they are bound to have some emotions about leaving. An important aspect of the group is assuring these students that any emotions are okay and that it’s even normal to feel several different things! From excitement to sadness to nervousness, big transitions often bring along big feelings, and we want to make sure our graduates have the chance to feel, process, and discuss anything that comes up for them.

There are countless different paths that our graduates may go down, and parents and teachers work hard to try to ensure that each student ends up on one that suits them well. No matter the path, though, the process of leaving Westview and starting high school with new classmates and teachers is challenging, and this group ultimately intends to ease as much of that challenge as possible.