Going to a K-8 grade school has its pros and cons. Students come to an end and say goodbye to a school where they spent nine years and they enter high school. High school prepares them for the real world. I went to Horace Mann for eight years and all of us were close I came to high school only knowing a couple of them the rest of the freshman were strangers to me. “It was difficult because our elementary  only consisted of 60 kids and not all came to North and transitioning to North with 2,300 kids so it was hard to get used to the amount of kids that were here,” senior Rosalia Salazar said. Coming into high school just knowing the ones you went with was very difficult because you had to make new friends. Many didn’t have the same kids in the same class. “I always make sure to tell incoming freshman that going into high school everything counts if they fail a class then they do have to retake the class,” said Brett Kimber, Math teacher at Horace Mann. “I always tell my students they have to be responsible and make sure to do their homework.”

At Horace Mann they have consortium time. When class of 2019 was at Horace Mann consortium time was more to work on what they needed help with. Now consortium at Horace Mann is like AVID. “We have consortium now once a week and we talk to the 8th graders about being college ready and high school ready and during the that time we have high school counselors come and talk to the 8th graders and principals for preparation.” said Kyle Hall, another math teacher at Horace Mann.

Overall coming into high school was hard for those students who only knew those 65 students at there school. Going into a bigger school with students you have never seen before is hard but by the time you’re a senior you are probably going to know more than half of them. As seniors walk across the stage they are either surprised they have never seen some of those kids or glad they met new people.