On Tuesday eighty-five families congregated by the fountain in the courtyard. Eighth graders, both continuing and newly matriculating into Parker next year, milled around toting name tags and blue Parker bags, eating ice cream, chatting with friends, and introducing themselves to future classmates they don’t already know. After their ice cream social, they sat down in the auditorium to hear from administrators and learn about their class options and the registration process for the 2017-2018 school year, their first year of high school.

The eighth grade has historically completed the same scheduling process as the rest of the Upper School during a similar time-frame, going to the same Curriculum Morning Ex to learn about their class options; getting recommendations from their teachers for their Math, Science, and Foreign Language classes; and turning in Upper School registration forms a short two weeks after the rest of the Upper School, at the end of March.

This winter, though, Interim Upper School Head Ruth Jurgensen, Eighth Grade Team Leader David Fuder, and Middle School Head John Novick changed the scheduling process.

According to Novick and Fuder, the eighth graders already at Parker used to attend the Curriculum MX with the rest of the Upper School while their parents had a separate meeting with the Upper School Head, the Upper School Dean, and the Upper School department chairs. Starting this year, however, every student matriculating into Parker for freshman year–both new and returning—and their parents attended the same meeting, on Tuesday, which included all the information previous years’ eighth graders and their parents received, plus the ice-cream social, so students could meet each other before the freshman retreat in August.

Although the changes are significant on the Middle School side, Upper School Registrar Matt McCaw says his timeline is not all that different from those of previous years.  “Really, there’s no big change for me,” he said. “I’m doing 10th through 12th and then fitting 9th grade in later. They’ve always turned their registration forms in a little later…we just gave them a couple extra weeks to give time for the incoming families to meet and learn a little bit about the process and the school before the rising 9th grade registration forms were due.”

The main reason behind the change was to provide those coming to Parker from other schools with a chance to meet continuing Parker students before the next school year starts. “We think it’s a way to create a strong sense of belonging and community and new identity for the class, as we  blend those two groups together,” Novick said. “Our current eighth graders get the same level of advisory support through the course placement process they’ve always gotten. They’ve just moved the timetable back a little bit.”

Fuder agreed. He said, “We feel like that it’s more equitable for everybody and starts things off on the right foot for the rising Class of 2021.”

Freshman Jared Saef, who was new to Parker this year, thought the rising-freshman-wide meeting was a good idea. “I wish I had that opportunity because it was a bit overwhelming when, on the retreat, all the new kids had to meet all the other kids from Parker,” Saef said, “and I think this night would assimilate the new kids more into Parker.”

Freshman Claire Levin, who has been at Parker since Junior Kindergarten, thought the same thing. “I think that would be really nice,” Levin said prior to Tuesday’s gathering. “I wish it was optional, so kids can choose to be involved or not, and if they don’t want to, they could just do what we did last year, but I think that it’s a really, really good idea.”

Novick cited another reason for the changes. “We’ve found that our current eighth graders–they’re not really in that mindset in February,” Novick said. “They’re still very much, ‘We’re going to DC, we have this test’…they’re very much ‘what’s going on now.’ So we felt like it created a lot of anxiety for them, thinking about high school so far in advance. So we moved it to April to reduce some stress and pressure.”

Levin didn’t see the need to push the timetable back. “I don’t think I needed more time,” Levin said “because a lot of it was pretty clear, because very few of the classes are tracked in your first year.”

Regardless of timing, eighth grader Julia Polsky thought the new ice cream social idea was a positive change.  Polsky said, “It’s more inviting than what last year’s eighth graders did.”

Eighth grader Aziza Mabrey-Wakefield also looked forward to the occasion prior to Tuesday. “I’m excited to meet the new kids,” Mabrey-Wakefield said. “And for the ice cream.”