It’s August in San José, so that means one thing: it’s back-to-school season. Summer vacation here always seems impossibly short, and this year was no exception: William’s first day of sixth grade—and his first day of middle school—was August 7, which feels incredibly early. As always, there are pictures.

Will’s introduction to middle school actually started the week before with WEB (“Where Everyone Belongs”) Day, the official orientation for incoming sixth graders at Willow Glen Middle School. At WEB Day, the kids learned some of the nuts and bolts of middle school, including key information like: how to get from class to class; where to find lunch; and the school dress code.

On the actual first day of school, William walked around the corner from our house to meet up with his friends Elsa and Soren on Malone Road. The three of them were gracious enough to allow Julie and me to accompany them all the way to the corner across the street from the school, but not a step further. William is generally an agreeable kid, but he is nearly twelve, and his tolerance has its limits.

His first day went smoothly, as have the days since. He’s still mostly socializing with his friends from Booksin, but I expect that they’ll start to mix with kids from the other schools that feed into Willow Glen Middle soon. William has always been socially adaptable, so we don’t expect any real problems on that front.

The end of the set includes a couple photos from the KCAT Film Festival, which is an end-of-summer celebration for kids who went to summer camp at KCAT, the local television station run out of Los Gatos High School. The film festival presents the short films made by the campers over the course of the summer. KCAT is William’s favorite summer camp, by far—he attended several week-long sessions this year—so he was excited to see some of his work on the big screen. I’m sure he’ll want to return next summer.

Gallery: Back to School 2025