By Charlotte McDevitt

Moving can be hard, especially for kids moving to a different school, with new peers and teachers. Last year, Northwestern Regional 7 started a program to make the incoming seventh graders’ transitions a little easier.

The program is called WEB, which stands for Where Everybody Belongs. WEB leaders are chosen from among eighth graders who have written an essay to express their interest. Those who are selected take the future seventh graders on a tour around the middle school, introduce them to teachers, demonstrate the lunch procedure (and join them for lunch) and even invite them to sit in on one of their classes.

Although there used to be a buddy system in place before WEB to show the younger students around, it didn’t function all year. WEB does. WEB leaders also meet throughout the year to discuss the program and to devise additional opportunities for interaction, such as lunchtime meetings with the new seventh graders and “get-to-know-you” games. WEB leaders wear neon-green T-shirts on the first day of school, and other specified days throughout the year, to help identify themselves and to make it easy for their buddies to find them in a crowd.

When asked what she thought of the program, Makayla Williams, a former WEB leader, said, “I think the program is very helpful to the incoming students, seeing as the seventh graders are paired with kids from other towns in groups so they can meet different people within their grade.” The four towns that send their sixth graders to Regional 7 are Barkhamsted, Norfolk, New Hartford and Colebrook.

The first day of school this year is August 29, and the WEB leaders will be on the job. making sure their buddies feel at home.

Photo: Makayla Williams, a former WEB leader at Regional 7, is modeling the neon-green t-shirt that makes leaders easy to spot in a crowd of students. Photo courtesy of Williams family.