9:38 AM each day marks the beginning of the high school’s daily tradition. What stemmed from a need for a short break during the day has evolved into a close knit group of students and teachers there to support each other.
Dr. Jamie Chisum, principal of the high school, said “The goal of advisory, sometimes reached, sometimes reached partially, and sometimes not reached at all, is to provide each student with an adult that hopefully they can build a relationship with, who doesn’t grade them or is not responsible for grading them during that time.”
While the advisory program has been in place for around thirteen years now, it was initially phased in for the first six through a pilot program, a short-term and relatively small scale experiment. After 3 years, the pilot ended when the contracts of Wellesley High School staff were officially settled.
“We talked about lots of different models when we explored it,” said Chisum.
In the beginning, class periods were longer and neither advisory nor homeroom was a part of any schedule. According to Dr. Chisum, through referencing various other programs in surrounding towns, the District eventually decided that there was enough demand from students for a shorter, more personalized class period.
When the program began, each advisory was sorted based on a shared school counselor. Though the idea to integrate different grades into advisory was pitched, it was eventually replaced by the Journeys program, which gives the opportunity for juniors and seniors to mentor freshman and sophmores. The one thing that has stayed constant throughout the evolution of the advisory program is the four year structure, where students stay with the same group of people through all four years.
For students, this consistency allows for bonding.
“Advisory gives me eight minutes where I talk with people I normally wouldn’t,” said Bridget Duffy ’27.
Almost every faculty member, barring some administrators, has an advisory. Because of this programming, there is a smaller student per teacher ratio which allows for a greater connection.
“I see you day in and day out for eight minutes a day. If you came in and you looked different I would notice. I notice when kids in my advisory don’t look right. I notice changes in them and that can be useful to support them,” said Chisum.
With these eight minute periods, there isn’t a lot of time to do more than decompress, eat a snack, or have a conversation.
But that’s all students need to create a healthy environment for each other.
Addison Kinney ’26 said, “It gives us a place to relax and check in every day at the same time, which helps prevent stress.”
On days with extended advisory, such as half days, the opportunity to connect through group activities such as building a gingerbread house or making a bridge out of straws is offered through cooperation with the Advisory Board.
Mr. Zachary Nicol, a history teacher, Ms. Erin Sullivan, a history teacher, and Mr. Collin Shattuck, assistant principal, make up the Advisory Board. This group meets every other month to check-in about activities and plan new content for student enjoyment.
“Most of it stems from the pandemic,” said Nicol. “We were told when we came back from the pandemic that the goal of advisory was to be more community building, but like fun community building and less serious lessons, nothing super academic.”
Since these activities aren’t mandatory, advisories have the opportunity to opt in and out, but this wasn’t always the case. Before the pandemic there were more structured lesson plans, based on social and emotional learning, that stemmed from a formal curriculum made by the original Advisory Board. As it began to lose popularity there was space for new, fun activities to take the place of old curricula.
Nowadays the decision making for the current advisory curriculum is based on student response to activities and what can be both feasible and entertaining.
Nicol said, “We replaced it more with fun stuff to try to bring people together. I always look at advisory as a place where kids can come and have somebody to talk to.”
As advisory evolved the goal was to help students create a safe environment to talk about difficult topics or to lend a helping hand to one another.
“Hopefully, you have a space that you can relax and talk to friends and maybe get something you need in terms of a question answered or just to check in with somebody,” said Chisum.
