How H-B’s middle school differs from others in APS

H-B Woodlawn is usually perceived to be very different from other APS schools. Some of the reasons why include students having the freedom to leave campus, to call teachers by their first names, and specific traditions such as Town meeting. 

One of my friends (Wyatt Mahen) from elementary school who wanted to get into H-B is now at Thomas Jefferson. When asked about why he wanted to go to H-B, he said, “I wanted to go to H-B because it is smaller and I don’t like really large groups of kids”. H-B does have large groups of kids and graduating classes are admittedly smaller  than schools like TJ, but the school still has a considerable amount of students. Another interesting fact is that Wyatt finds it difficult to navigate TJ. “It is like bricks packed in a wall but the bricks are super random,” he says. Instead of being next to your friends like in elementary school, you could be talking to a 6th grader one minute then the next you are up close to an 8th grader trying their best to get to your next class on time. While H-B might be somewhat cramped, it is still fairly easy to move around and get from class to class when you are in middle school. (High school students may say something different about our 7-story building.)

The traditions of H-B are like no other. These include town meeting, where students have a say in what goes on in the school from activities to how certain classes will operate. Additionally, it is an enjoyable experience to have annual traditions like Halloween and Feb-fest. And getting to call teachers at H-B by their first names is especially cool considering it not being customary at any other APS school.