Celebrating Excellence Across Our School Community

We are excited to continue the 2024-25 school year with focus and intentionality, guided by the high aspirations of our Portrait of a Graduate. Below, you’ll find key updates from each of our divisions. From innovative learning environments to inspiring student achievements, we celebrate the progress and possibilities as we seek to live out the ideals of our Portrait. Together, we are shaping a vibrant community where students flourish body, heart, mind, and soul.

Lower School (Early Childhood Program)

We are thrilled that the newly renovated Early Childhood Program natural classrooms are fully open for learning. These spaces help us to live out our Portrait of a Graduate, starting with our youngest learners, cultivating curiosity and creativity and nurturing a connection with the natural world. In the hands of our expert early childhood educators, the natural classrooms provide an ideal foundation for our innovative outdoor curricula. Programming has already begun to expand the use of the natural classrooms to the whole school community, too. K – 4 Science makes regular use of the Quarry (STEM lab) and Pinecone Valley (science lab). Our little libraries in the meadow and programming in the Art Lab for all divisions is already taking root, and we look forward to ex panding community-wide use. In addition, we are excited to move to a full-day program for our Twos next year. We hope this further enhances our offerings for this foundational age group while also being inclusive of more families.

Lower School (K – 4)

Students continue to thrive with energy and a joy of learning in our Kindergarten through Grade 4 classrooms. After expanding The Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction from Kindergarten through Grade 2 over the past two years, this year we introduced morphology study for Grades 3 & 4 to deepen students’ language, vocabulary, and spelling development. Additionally, we’ve expanded our field trip program. In fitting with our Portrait of a Graduate, these experiences provide students enhanced opportunities to engage diverse perspectives, inquire thoughtfully, and develop cultural literacy. We are also proud to have implemented a new civics unit and a digital citizenship curriculum for K – 4, which emphasizes responsible technology use, online safety, and practicing ways to be active participants in our broader communities. The arts curriculum continues to grow as well, with every student in the Lower School having an opportunity to take the stage through Music & Movement performances, the Poetry Festival, and more. As a final highlight in a very full academic program, student voice continues to play a key role in our Chapel programming, fostering shared leadership and connection among peers.

Middle School (Grades 5 – 8)

Middle School students have truly embodied this year’s Chapel theme, “Engage,” in all aspects of their school lives. More students are participating in leadership opportunities in programs like Quest, Silver Key Ambassadors, Community Meeting, and Chapel; challenging themselves in Mathletes, athletics, district choir, Junior Regional Orchestra, and LEGO Robotics; and serving their communities through Special Olympics, Lower School intern Quest, International Neighbors, and monthly service with Ronald McDonald House. As educators, we know that the more students are nurtured and nudged to take risks and try something new in these developmental years, the better their long-term trajectories. Already this year, one-third of Grade 6 students have led in Chapel or Community Meeting, and 85% of Grade 7 and 92% of Grade 8 students have participated in two or more optional co-curricular experiences. We are heartened to see more students deepen their engagement with their learning as they grow and move through our Middle School. And per the aims of our Portrait of a Graduate, we are bolstered by the fact our students are learning when to lead, when to delegate, and when to follow, practicing serving others and doing good, and working to understand and meet the needs of the community.

Upper School (Grades 9 – 12)

In the Upper School, students continue to live out our Portrait of a Graduate by embracing challenge, developing resilience, and pursuing knowledge and wisdom to generate positive impact. This year, our new Pathways Program is providing students with the opportunity to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in areas of passion while contributing to the greater good. The students co-piloting this exciting initiative with us will earn a special notation on their diplomas upon completion. Every detail of the Upper School program is intentionally designed to foster each student’s full potential — such as custom designing each student’s schedule with the input of the student’s advisor, director of college counseling, dean of academics, and division head; our four-year advisory program; our comprehensive college counseling curriculum with built-in test prep; and parent/guardian programming such as Wednesday Wellness and chats with members of the Upper School administrative team. The six-week modular schedule enhances the ability for students to engage more broadly in the curriculum while extended periods allow time for meaningful experiential learning and give flexibility for students to collaborate meaningfully with faculty and peers. The fact that 88% of our Class of 2024 were admitted to their first or second choice college, and the successes we are already celebrating this year in athletics and academics point to the success of our intentional, student-centered program.

(Read related story: “Upper School Honors Academic Life and Scholarship in a Special Community Forum” at bit.ly/4hzD4Dp)