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Leadership Blog

Liz Gray, middle school head

The Quiet Power of Narrative Nonfiction

By Liz Gray, Middle School Head; Grade 7 Social Studies Teacher | March 08, 2024

Last week, I attended the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference in St. Louis (my hometown!), where the theme was “thrive.” Speakers, presenters, and attendees like me found renewed joy and inspiration in the work we do in independent schools. The most profound lessons from this great conference came from a talk by a […]

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Where Art Thou, Mr. Largay? Teaching Shakespeare!

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | March 01, 2024

Over the summer, Jen James, my assistant and masterful keeper of my calendar, asked me: “So, are you planning on teaching Shakespeare again this year?” As with most questions Jen poses, she already knew the answer. In this case, it was a resounding “yes!” Now, in my twenty-fifth year in independent schools, I have taught […]

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Connie Yepez

Accountability: A Key Ingredient for Growth, Learning

By Connie Yepez, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging | February 16, 2024

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou As human beings, we are fallible; we are imperfect. At some point, we will all make mistakes that hurt others or that we wish we could take back. Our core values of honesty and responsibility are […]

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Annie Fuerst

STEAM Learning: A Wonderfully Messy Process

By Annie Fuerst, Director of Innovation | February 09, 2024

Downstairs from my office in the Barn, what looks like a mess is growing out from the door of our IMPACT Lab. Students sit and work between piles of cardboard and yarn. They reach in all directions for haphazardly folded papers covered in mysterious scribbles. The floor is now an abstract canvas, sectioned off with […]

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John O'Neill

The Big Win of Our Friday Night Tradition

By John O'Neill, Director of Athletics | February 02, 2024

The Barn gym may be empty as I write this, yet I can see and hear the excitement—”Let’s GO, BDS!” is ringing out, flashes of blue and gold are everywhere, players race back and forth between the lines, and familiar faces surround the court, chatting, laughing, and cheering.  Tonight, our varsity basketball teams take the […]

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Brendan Largay

The Value of a Different Perspective

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | January 26, 2024

I attended the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE) heads’ retreat and winter board meeting in Portsmouth, NH, this week. It was inspiring, reinvigorating, and a worthwhile pause and reflection during another busy school year. This spring, after two terms over six years, I will step off of AISNE’s board, where I serve […]

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By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

May 26, 2023

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” –Jhumpa Lahiri It’s Memorial Day weekend, and so I offer one of my favorite annual traditions: my summer reading list. What follows is shared with you in…

By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

May 19, 2023

After a wonderfully full week that has emphasized community, connections, and celebrations at every turn, I’m taking a brief break today from offering my own words, to instead offer in this space, the beautifully constructed words of someone else–the poem,…

By Brendan Largay, head of school |

April 28, 2023

Years ago, before I arrived at Belmont Day, I was fortunate to attend a professional development conference in Hillsborough, CA, at the Nueva School. The conference featured the process of design thinking as a novel and alternate method of delivering…
Brendan Largay, head of school

By Brendan Largay, head of school |

April 14, 2023

During opening remarks for this year’s presentations, the culminating part of our eighth graders’ seminal Capstone experience, Jen Friborg, who coordinates the program like a symphony conductor, explained that Belmont Day might have the longest-running Capstone program in the country.…
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