Have you ever been super overwhelmed in school and need a break? At Washburn Rural Middle School, we have FAST days, to ensure that all students are never too overwhelmed to do school. FAST stands for Falcon Additional Support Time.

The 8th-grade principal, Mr. Dial, created FAST days and said, “Many times in a school our size, the students who show up to school, do their work, stay out of trouble, don’t always get to have time to enjoy some time and activities they prefer to do. Secondly, we also know there are a few students who struggle and need some time to have more support from their teachers.  Not all of them can stay after school because parents can’t pick them up, and when the teachers have a smaller group, it is easier for them to reteach and help the students out that are missing assignments.” 

FAST time is during the school day, to ensure that a student who may have an after-school sport or activity can still participate as long as they are trying their best in all of their classes. 

Every student has their own preference, so the school provides many different activities for all 7th and 8th graders to choose from. The most common activities are playing a sport outside and hanging out with your friends on your phones in the cafeteria. 

When asked what his favorite part of FAST days were, Coach C, who is 1 of 3 PE coaches, said “Seeing kids in activities that don’t usually get to compete against one another since they are in different PE classes.” 

When 8th grader Junior Herring was asked if he enjoyed FAST days he said, “Yeah, because we don’t have to do school work.”

FAST days usually last about just over an hour and occur one time per quarter. As of now, Dial intends to continue FAST days at Washburn Rural Middle School, “I thought it was important to find a way to recognize those students who come to school every day and follow the basic expectations.”