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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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Brendan Largay

By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

November 3, 2023

The upcoming State of the School is a favorite event of mine because it allows me to discuss features of Belmont Day’s curricular philosophy now, and look forward to the future our students will inhabit. As I prepare for that…
Betty Chu Pryor

By Betty Chu Pryor, Lower School Head |

October 27, 2023

Most Wednesday mornings, as school opens, the Erskine Library is a quiet, tranquil space. However, this Wednesday was buzzing with activity—a staging ground for our fifth graders as they dropped off piles of sleeping bags, boots, duffle bags, flashlights, toiletries,…
Amy Sprung

By Amy Sprung, School Librarian |

October 19, 2023

When Raul the Third’s newest ¡Vamos! series title was released recently, lower school head Betty Chu Pryor immediately selected it as a book she wanted to donate to the Erskine Library. I, of course, was delighted by her gift and…
Connie Yepez

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

October 13, 2023

You may have noticed that what we used to call equity, inclusion, and belonging is now, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at BDS. While it would be easy to think of this as a small change, it’s important to note…

By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

October 6, 2023

A frequent question from prospective and new families, especially those with students entering sixth grade, is, “When will my child no longer feel like the ‘new kid’ at school?” Remarkably, children can often move through the ‘new’ stage more quickly…

By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

September 29, 2023

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. – Meg Wheatley A question that I get this time of year from prospective families considering where to send their children for these fundamentally critical…
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