The first day of a new school year is an important marker in the lives of students and educators. New students, whether they be new middle schoolers, new freshmen or transfer students, arrive on the first day of school with a mix of emotions ranging from excitement to trepidation. School leadership teams, faculty and staff members can help make the first day of school a better experience for everyone by developing a strategy to welcome students to the school. This article describes four steps that you could include in your school’s welcome strategy. Take some time this summer to develop the strategy that will work best for your school so the first day of school can be more about excitement and less about trepidation.
The first step in your welcome strategy is some form of meeting and greeting your students as they enter your school and classrooms. At smaller high schools, members of the leadership team could greet students at the school entrances with a smile, a handshake or elbow bump and words of welcome. At larger high schools, leaders could greet just the new middle schoolers or freshmen. This gesture of welcome is more manageable if new students began school a day or a few hours before returning students.
New students and transfer students deserve special consideration in your welcome back planning. Adolescence is a time for students to figure out how they fit within important social groups. The first day at a new school can be a scary experience for some students, and all new students have a mixture of emotions on that first day of school. A Big Brothers and Big Sisters program is an excellent way for upper class members to engage in Christian service and to help welcome new students to your school.
You might consider having new students begin a day early or a few hours early to meet and greet their Big Brothers and Big Sisters and get acclimated to their new school. Learning how to open a locker, identify the location of classrooms and learn about upper class members’ experiences and positive stories are all things that can be included in this first meeting between new students and their new brothers and sisters.
If you decide to develop a Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, discern if it would be helpful to pair Big Brothers and Big Sisters with new students of the same racial and ethnic background. Certainly, we hope that students will have friends across many different groups. At the same time, on the first day at a new school, there can be something comforting about being welcomed by someone of the same racial or ethnic group.
Pairing up students based on racial and ethnic identity may seem unnecessary or even ill-advised. However, I make this suggestion based on research I conducted with my colleagues at Creighton University on how to better welcome Latino students in Catholic high schools in a United States diocese. In our study, Latino students reported that they would appreciate having a Big Brother or Big Sister who was also Latino to show them how to fit in at school. Read the full study findings. (Do a web search for “International Studies in Catholic Education” and do a site search for “Simonds”)
Table 1. Alignment of NSBECS Benchmarks with Welcoming Strategies
In addition to helping to welcome new students on the first day of school, Big Brothers and Big Sisters can help to continue the welcome and assist with inclusion throughout a new student’s first year. In the study I completed with my colleagues on welcoming and including Latino students in Catholic high schools, a group of Latino students we interviewed reported that they felt like a big effort was made to welcome them on the first day of school, but then the help and care quickly trickled down to nothing (Simonds et al., 2023, Understanding the Latino/a Student Experience in Catholic High Schools in a United States Diocese. International Studies in Catholic Education).
You can avoid this limited view of welcome and inclusion by developing a year-long program for Big Brothers and Big Sisters to connect with their little brothers and little sisters. Checking in twice a week, sponsoring an event and having a formal time to meet are all ways you could expand this co-curricular program beyond the first day of school.
Having a theme to focus your Big Brothers and Big Sisters program and some key events will help to bring your various welcoming strategies together in a focused way around your school’s mission. Your school may have a charism or core value that sounds something like educating the whole student, caring for each student, supporting student success in all areas, or developing Christian community. Each of these ways of speaking about care for each student and developing a caring Christian community can become the theme to focus key aspects of your welcoming strategy.
As the final step in your welcome back to school strategy, consider having a prayer service or Mass during the first day or first week of school. A focus on your welcome-back theme would provide an ideal way to select readings and focus a reflection or homily.
Scripture Reading Suggestions
Father Tom Simonds, S.J., Ed.D. is professor of education at Creighton University and prepares teachers and leaders for public, private and Catholic schools. He has 13 years of experience as a Catholic high school teacher, coach, leader and board member. He has authored and co-authored four books with the National Catholic Educational Association.
Father Tom Simonds, S.J., Ed.D.tsimonds@creighton.edu