What You Should Be Focusing on in 7th Grade to Help Prepare you for High School

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As the high school process starts to get in full swing, it’s tempting to focus on grades, test scores, and future applications. But 7th grade is also about building the skills students need so high school doesn’t feel like a shock to the system. 

  1. Building friendships is seriously important to seventh graders. Kids are figuring out how to navigate changing social dynamics, occasional (or not so occasional) drama, and what it means to be a good friend. These sometimes messy lessons are setting them up for high school, where social bumps in the road happen, but kids can hopefully bounce back quicker.  

  2. Executive functioning - our favorite two words! These skills become even more important in high school as homework piles up, long term assignments become more common, and discovering a project the day before it’s due becomes a big problem. Seventh grade is a great time to practice organization and time management before the stakes get higher. 

  3. Experimenting with interests should be encouraged! Not every 12 year old has a passion for something. Try new activities, clubs, books, subjects. This helps kids figure out what they actually enjoy instead of what their friends or enjoy, or what they think will look good on paper. 

  4. Fostering Independence this is the quiet goal behind everything else. Kids should start taking more responsibility for the schedules, schoolwork, and communication. It’s a great time to make sure your kid is emailing their teacher instead of you! Confidence grows when kids realize they can handle hard things. 

The Ant and the Grasshopper: Why you should plan now for HS admissions

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By Audrey and Abigail

The Ant and the Grasshopper is one of Aesop’s most familiar fables, and it comes to mind often as the high school admissions cycle ramps up. The ant diligently collects food throughout the summer, while the grasshopper plays and mocks the ant for working too hard. Come winter the consequences of each choice become clear. 

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What happens when middle and high school offers come out?

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By Joyce Szuflita

First, patience is a virtue.
High School offers come out on Thursday, March 6.
Middle School offers come out on Wednesday, April 9.
View the DoE’s tutorial about getting your offer and info about the waitlists.

Generally offers are released after school through your MYSCHOOLS account, but roll out is often very haphazard.

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essential prek information

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By Joyce Szuflita
Here is what you need to know about placement:
You will be ranking up to 12 choices on your MY SCHOOLS application through March 16, 2020. Don’t wait until the last min., the website often gets glitchy. Take screen shots of any trouble you have and of your final list, just in case you have difficulty. You can always fix it at the Family Welcome Center if you tell them of your troubles in a timely way.

  • The biggest misunderstanding about prek is that you will be attending at your zoned school. There are about 75,000 kids on a grade in NYC. There are around 30,000 prek seats in public schools. Those seats, depending on the neighborhood, will go first to siblings of zoned students and then occasionally to some zoned students. The other 40,000 seats will be in a variety of places; NYCEEC’s, Prek Centers, a few Un-zoned schools and a few Charter Schools.

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