Dear Parents, Welcome to the exciting years of Middle School! This newsletter is meant to ease the transition to a new school for both you and your child. Your concerns are probably very different from your child’s concerns. You are concerned about them learning enough to be prepared for high school; They are concerned about being able to open their locker. You are concerned about their safety as they go to and from school by themselves; They are worried about whether they have the right hair cut. As the parent, your concerns are likely to be about the big picture while your child is more worried about immediate logistical concerns. Recognizing the difference in priorities will help you support your child while keeping an eye on overall progress. Here are some tips to get you both ready for this exciting new adventure. PARENT CONCERNS: Get Oriented On May 31st, your child will take a field trip to the school they will attend next year. Student ambassadors will tour the groups through the school, answer questions and talk about the different activities available. This will give the student a brief introduction to the school. You will also have another opportunity to visit in August right before school begins. There will be a PARENT meeting at 7:00 p.m. on May 31st where you will have a chance to meet your child’s team of teachers and have any questions you may have answered. Encourage the Buddy System If your child is worried about facing the first day of school alone, encourage a call to a friend who is attending the same school and arrange to meet before school or at lunchtime. Making plans for lunch can also help calm fears about facing the cafeteria alone. Help Your Child Get Organized Over the summer, help your child start a to-do list in a small notebook. This will get them ready to use the school agenda every day and get organized for the new responsibilities of middle school. You will also want to monitor progress on assignments fairly frequently. There may be more long term projects than before, or several tests to study for at one time. Your child might need your help at first to figure out how to get it all done on time. This does not mean you should do the homework. They need to get it done on their own. But you may need to advise them on how to approach it. Many teachers will also have class websites showing homework and test dates that will help your child keep on track as well. MCPS sponsors Parent Connect—a website designed for parents to keep up to date on grades and other important information. Make sure to sign up for access to this service once school is in session. Teach Time Management Teach your child to make the most of their time. Establish an evening routine that includes time for homework and any other obligations there may be. This will help avoid the middle school crunch that comes from having more homework and more time-consuming extracurricular activities. A regular and consistent bedtime schedule is also important. Communicate Even if your middle schooler seems like they don’t want to talk to you, it is important to keep the lines of communication open. Talk with your child frequently about the small issues. Try talking while driving or cooking. It can be less threatening for middle schoolers to talk if they don’t have to make eye contact. Kids won’t encourage you to keep communication with them and might not look like they are listening, but they really are. Be persistent!

MIDDLE SCHOOL PRIORITIES Parent Concerns . . . . Safety—getting to and from school alone Keeping lines of communication open Getting organized Time Management Bullying Student Concerns . . . . Combination Locks Being late for class Not having friends Facing the cafeteria Being too different Tough classes Teachers

Report Bullying Many children are afraid of being bullied in Middle School and it’s a growing problem nation wide. All MCPS schools have rules in place for preventing bullying. Teach your child what to do if a bully targets them. Suggest that they not show anger in front of a bully—it will just make the bully feel powerful. Ignore a bully and walk away. Teasing can be as much a form of bullying as pushing and shoving. Explain that when teasing gets out of hand and is making someone feel bad, an adult should be informed of the situation. Help your child understand how important it is to tell an adult (a favorite teacher, the principal, the counselor or you) what is happening. Emphasize that it is not being a tattletale to tell an adult about bullying. All of our 6th graders will receive anti-bullying training through NCBI. STUDENT CONCERNS Combination Locks Many preteens are terrified that they won’t be able to get their locker open. Worried they won’t be able to get the things they need for class or put things away they don’t need for the next class causing them to be late for class or miss the bus. With limited time between classes, it’s a legitimate fear. As mentioned in the Parent Concerns section of this newsletter, it’s an easy fix. Buy or borrow a combination lock for your child to practice with during the summer so they will feel comfortable and confident with the process by the time school starts. Being Late for Class Students have two minutes to get from class to class which seems like very little time to an incoming 6th grader, until it is realized that all grade level core classes are located in the same general area. The only time a student will leave that general area is for exploratories. If your child is still concerned, brainstorm ways to streamline the process. Help find ways to stay organized so the need to stop by the locker in between classes is eliminated. Give a gentle reminder that socializing is for lunchtime and after school. Encourage talking to the teacher or another student if he’s not sure where a particular class is located. Making New Friends While many classmates may continue on to the same middle school, your child will see many new faces as several elementary schools feed into one middle school. Apprehension about old friends and new friends is very common for middle schoolers. This can be an especially difficult time for girls given the rotating nature of girls’ friendships, the emergence of “queen bees” and the shifting social order. Sometimes it helps kids to voice their fears to a sympathetic listener. You may want to suggest new ways to make friends, such as signing up for Flagship or after school sports and reiterate areas where friends won’t change such as a church youth group, dance class or a sports league. Remind your child what being a good friend means as the meaning can get very blurry in Middle School! Facing the Cafeteria Many kids live in fear of walking into a crowded lunchroom and having nowhere to sit. Kids tend to separate themselves into recognizable groups with hard and fast rules of membership. Encourage your child to strategize ahead of time. Making plans to sit with a friend ahead of time circumvents the “where will I sit, where will I be welcome” moment. Tough Classes Many kids worry that middle school academics will be much harder than elementary academics. A child who is nervous about increased workload may worry that there will be too much homework or that they only received good grades in elementary school because the teachers liked them. There is certainly nothing wrong with acknowledging that the work will be harder, but assure your child that it won’t be anything that can’t be handled. Remind them that while being a good student is certainly important, they have other strengths as well (music, sports, art etc.) so their entire sense of self worth is not wrapped up in grades. Encourage them to let their teacher (and you) know if they don’t understand something or feel like they are falling behind. Clothing and Personal Style Middle school aged children are becoming more and more aware of personal style and may be concerned about how they are seen. Your child may want to consult with friends to see what everyone else is wearing. It’s also a good idea to not buy everything before school starts; this gives your child a chance to see this year’s “must have” fashions before the clothing budget is wiped out. Talk about self confidence, belief in oneself and not feeling the need to constantly “follow the crowd”. Give your child as much freedom in selecting a wardrobe as you can within the school dress code, but reserve the right to have the final say in what is appropriate. All MCPS middle schools have a dress code.

This newsletter was created by the MCPS Title 1 Office and derived From information from the following articles: Getting Ready for Middle School by GreatSchools Staff—GreatSchools.org Kid’s Biggest Middle School Fears: Ease the Transition to Middle School By Deborah Wilburn