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Leadership Blog

Capstone Week 2024: Learn, Do, Share

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | April 12, 2024

Every year, the build-up to Capstone Week is palpable. Students carefully finalize their presentations, mentors shuffle schedules to ensure a final touchpoint with their mentees, and communication from the dynamic Capstone partners and guides Dean Spencer and Jen Friborg picks up in coordination and with a true anticipatory buzz. This week, Capstone arrived in all […]

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Seeing Science, Society, and So Much More in the Solar Eclipse

By Anthea Lavergne, Director of Curriculum and the Associate Teacher Program | April 05, 2024

Teachers and students are preparing to observe Monday’s forthcoming total solar eclipse. The excitement behind what’s on the horizon will fuel learning and ignite sparks of joy throughout our community. Our school’s approach to teaching and learning about the eclipse culminates with students in grades first through eighth adorning special lenses to experience, through their […]

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Blank Walls Transformed By Student Art, In a BIG! Way

By Jen James, Assistant to the Head of School; Registrar; Director of Special Projects | March 29, 2024

No doubt about it. This week has been dark, drab, and dreary outside our walls. It seems there are only shades of gray on Mother Nature’s palette as we say goodbye to March. Thankfully, inside our walls, we’re surrounded by a growing gallery of the vibrant colors we seek from spring.  From our school counselor’s […]

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Brendan Largay

At Belmont Day, the FOMO Is Real

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | March 22, 2024

As a head of school, you learn that when you take a bit of time away, there is never a “perfect” week for your travels. Something is always happening at school, something special that you will miss, a moment of learning, sharing, caring, and joy that you wish you had experienced firsthand. The school is […]

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Rachel Starks Chaves

Changing How We Talk About Math Adds Up to Positive Results

By Rachel Starks Chaves, Grade 8 Math Teacher | March 14, 2024

In my first teaching position, one of my seventh grade math students was a colleague’s son. The colleague regularly connected to assure me that her son was getting by okay in math, saying things like, “I don’t expect him to get great grades.” and “I always tell him: ‘I’m not good at math, and it’s […]

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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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By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

March 1, 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…
Connie Yepez

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…
Annie Fuerst

By Annie Fuerst, Director of Innovation |

February 9, 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…
John O'Neill

By John O'Neill, Director of Athletics |

February 2, 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…
Brendan Largay

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…

By Anthea Lavergne, Director of Curriculum and the Associate Teacher Program |

January 18, 2024

Last week in this space, my colleague, Jess Halton, beautifully wrote about how we, as a community, can honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through “Teaching, Learning, and Philanthropy.” Her words got me thinking about legacy and how closely connected…
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