CRESTVIEW — From finding their way around a bigger campus to the mystery of a locker combination to starting school for the first time ever, North Okaloosa County students who have moved up to the next level of education are preparing for a myriad of challenges.
For high school freshmen, there’s a greater range of opportunities, but also a substantial increase in personal responsibility.
For new kindergartners, there’s the more regimented life after pre-K. For middle school students, there’s more freedom than elementary school.
“The biggest change is that they are held more accountable for their own actions,” Shoal River Middle School Principal Gary Massey said of his incoming sixth-graders.
“They’re responsible to write down their homework and make sure they’re following through,” he said. “We’re going to talk to them a lot about holding themselves accountable and the teachers are going to work with them on it, too.”
ORIENTATIONS & CAMPS
With school opening Aug. 10 for the new academic year, area middle and high schools are holding these orientation camps for new students and open houses for new and returning students:
●Baker School orientation: Kindergarten, 9-10 a.m.; third through fifth grade, 10-11 a.m.; middle school (sixth grade), 6-6:30 p.m.; and high school, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Aug. 8
●Crestview High School Bulldog Challenge for incoming freshmen, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Aug. 1-3; freshman and new student open house, 7-8:30 p.m. Aug. 8
●Davidson Middle School Panther Camp for incoming sixth-graders, registration 8:15-9 a.m.; camp 9 a.m. to noon (no parents, please); parents’ program: Coffee with the Counselors, 11 a.m. to noon, July 28. Open house, noon to 1:30 for seventh- and eighth-graders; 5-6:30 p.m. for sixth-graders, Aug. 8
●Laurel Hill School open house, 4:45 p.m. for secondary and high school students; 5:30 p.m. for elementary students, Aug. 8
●Shoal River Middle School open house, noon to 1:30 for seventh- and eighth-graders; 5-6:30 p.m. for sixth-graders, Aug. 8
Programs will include things like school and campus tours, practical advice, introduction to co-curricular clubs and sports, and often a chance to be paired with an upper class “buddy” to turn to throughout the year.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: North Okaloosa school orientation programs set