Walls Rolls Out Brand New All-Freshman Advisories

The 2025–2026 school year opened with many new changes, one being the brand-new all-freshmen advisories. In previous years, SWW operated with advisory classes consisting of students from all four grades. This system promoted cross-class communication, which was especially beneficial for underclassmen who did not have many other opportunities to get to know their older peers. Furthermore, within changing and overwhelming schedules, advisories provided students with a stable community that would continue throughout their journey at Walls.

Advisory was a chance to relax, unwind, and find a slow moment in an otherwise very busy day. Humanities teacher Laura Webster, who has taught at SWW for three years, had been an advisor for all of them. One of her favorite parts of advisory, she said, was getting to know students outside of normal classes. “Advisory let me get to know some people more, like their social habits and what they cared about,” she said.

This year, she was given the opportunity to be an advisor to one of the all-freshmen advisories. Ms. Webster and her co-advisor Mr. Ghazi used this new system to their advantage by starting helpful conversations with information specifically targeted toward freshmen. “I did think it was a nice opportunity for us to teach some wonderful things that might be confusing to ninth graders. We were going to do a lesson on how to use Canvas, and how to have an open gradebook and not freak out about it,” Ms. Webster said.

Another way this advisory system could be helpful was in allowing ninth graders to get to know their fellow classmates. When asked if her advisory class had made her feel more connected with her grade, Nebiat Fantahun (‘29) said, “Absolutely. I felt like if there were sophomores, that would have been overbearing on me, and I wanted to get to know the freshmen.” She also did not recognize the issue with the lack of upperclassmen in her advisory, noting that her two elective classes already provided this experience for her.

Even though most of her classes were made up fully of freshmen, Fantahun noted that advisory specifically had allowed her to make new friends. “This girl, we became closer because I didn’t really have any classes [with her], but I knew her from outside [school], and I felt like this class really grew our relationship,” Fantahun said.

Information was not provided on whether or not this advisory system would be maintained.