Not knowing what to expect on her first day as a freshman at Petal High School last week, Abby Bass was understandably nervous to start a new year at a new school.
But Bass – along with the entire freshmen class – was put at ease with Freshmen First, a new initiative at the high school designed to allow incoming freshmen a day to get acquainted with the campus and its customs before mixing in with the school’s 1,200 students.
“I wasn’t as nervous (during Freshmen First), because I knew that it was just going to be me and my classmates,” Bass said at last week’s meeting of the Petal School District Board of Trustees. “I knew we’d have the opportunity to learn our schedule, see our classes and meet our teachers without all the upperclassmen there.
“We also had an amazing opportunity to get out on the practice football field and learn about all the different clubs that Petal High School has to offer. I’ve loved every minute of high school, and I think a lot of that has to do with the Freshmen First day.”
Joel Bowman and Amanda Garcia, who serve as assistant principals at the high school, said the idea for Freshmen First came about when officials from the district’s transition teams put together ideas on how the high school could be more welcoming to freshmen.
“Within the transition team, we had the idea to survey last year’s freshmen to get their perspective on starting high school,” Garcia said. “Through that survey, we saw some common anxieties, fears and struggles, particularly the cafeteria – everybody was scared to death of the cafeteria.”
Throughout the day, ambassadors and student council members from the high school walked with freshmen from class to class, even showing them where to sit and the correct lines in the cafeteria. Freshmen also had the chance to be introduced to clubs, activities and sports available to them.
“These students, when they come to us, they’re in classes with students that they’ve never been in classes with before, so that can be an intimidating thing,” Bowman said. “And that freshman year can really set the trajectory not just for high school, but really for their future.
“So we wanted to ease them into that – to acclimate them to the high school, and stress to them the importance of what they’re stepping into.”
In addition to the student activities, teachers got a chance to partner together as well.
“Some of the teachers who don’t exclusively teach freshmen were partnered with teachers of freshmen throughout the day, so that they could have another familiar face around campus,” Garcia said. “One of our teachers approached me and said that he had read all the research about the importance of the first day, and Freshmen First gave him the opportunity to see three different teachers on their first days.
“So on his first day with upperclassmen, he had picked up some strategies to welcome them to into the classes.”
At the end of the day, a survey was given to students in which they were asked three questions: three things they learned from the day, two things they wondered about the day and one thing the school could change.
“Overwhelmingly, the response was positive,” Garcia said. “They really appreciated the day, they thanked us and they said they wouldn’t change anything.
“There were some students who said they wished there were some signs around campus, so we’re going to work on that. They noted how welcoming teachers were, over and over again, so that was nice to see.”
