Friday, May 31, 2019

Getting Them Ready For Middle School


One of our favorite days of the year is when we have the incoming 5th graders come over to WGMS for part of the morning to start getting them ready for the transition to middle school. Yesterday we had just under 200 students visiting us for about an hour, becoming familiar with the building, meeting staff and talking to current 6th graders about what middle school is really like. This group of students were polite, respectful and they asked great questions! We are looking forward to officially welcome them as 6th graders next school year.

In addition to having the students visit with us yesterday, last night we had our 5th Grade Parent Night to help the parents with the transition from elementary school to middle school. Like a lot of things in life, our kids often handle change better than we do. We had a packed cafeteria of some veteran parents, but a significant number of parents who are sending their first child to the middle school. Hopefully after our presentation we settled some nerves and parents are confident that their kids will be in good hands. The presentation focused on what middle school is all about and the structures that we have in place to help support students and their parents. Some of the major areas we discussed were communication, the daily schedule, Team structure, Interaction Time, Clubs & Activities, and preparing our students for their future. You can view the presentation by clicking on the link:

Another key piece of getting our 5th graders ready for the transition is having our 6th grade School Counselor visiting each of the 5th grade classrooms to meet with students in a more intimate, comfortable setting on their turf to answer questions and provide an overview of 6th grade. We also have a Locker Night in August for students to come into the building, walk around and put supplies into their locker if they would like. This year our Locker Night is on Wednesday, August 28th from 3:00 to 6:00 PM.

We are so excited to welcome the Class of 2026 to West Genesee Middle School!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please give me a call or send me an email.

Continued Success,
Steve Dunham
sdunham@westgenesee.org
Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms