Glen Urquhart School

GUS Sampler & Coffee with Future Head, Dave Provost: Friday, February 10 at 8:30 AM

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Do you ever wonder what it is like to be a student at GUS? What it is like to be taught by our faculty? Do you wonder how we use Smartboards in class? Would you like to know more about Open Circle or upper school homeroom?

Please join us at a GUS Sampler! This is an opportunity for our parent community to experience being students at GUS by attending a sampler of classes with other parents. And this year you will also get to meet our future head of school, Dave Provost.

You will participate in two classes of your choice, join in an Open Circle or homeroom activity, and engage with our faculty in action. In this unique class day, you will gain valuable insight into what and how your children are learning.

Please consider taking part in our GUS Sampler.

Invite a friend who would like to  learn about Glen Urquhart!

SummerScape, a Summer Camp Fair, is this Saturday, February 4th from 11:00 to 3:00

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

SummerScape is one of the largest and oldest summer camp fairs in New England, and the GUS Parents’ Association has been the host for the past 23 years.  It will be held again this year in Braemar on Saturday, February 4th, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  SummerScape features representatives from over 75 day and residential summer programs for youth and teens throughout New England, as well as from other parts of the U. S. The fair is free to the public, and SummerScape is our day to introduce GUS to over 1,000 members of the greater North Shore community who visit our campus to attend the fair.  Not only is SummerScape a valuable community service, but it is also a major fundraiser for the GUS Parents’ Association (and the only one where funds come exclusively from outside sources.)

Volunteers are always welcome!

Volunteers are needed to help organize the event and assist with set-up and breakdown. Please send an email to summerscape@gus.org if you are interested in helping.

Volunteer Responsibilities

February 3rd

Set up Braemar for the fair from 3:00 to 4:30 on Friday afternoon, the day before the fair.

February 4th

Beginning at 9:00, welcome the camps, and at 11:00 welcome the public. We will also need help with parking cars for an hour or two between 9:00 and 3:00.  Clean-up volunteers are needed from 3:00 to 4:30.  Please send an email to summerscape@gus.org if you are interested in helping.

For Camps Only (Letter and Registration Form)

Diversity Coffee and Book Discussion – Friday morning, February 3rd at 8:30 (immediately following morning meeting)

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Please join the Diversity Committee for coffee and conversation about our goals and initiatives followed by informal discussion of the book, Acts of Faith, by Eboo Patel. Acts of Faith is a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and testimony to one man’s work to ensure that different religions can and should live side by side.  Share your ideas about diversity and how to build a school community that celebrates and understands differences of faith. See Joanne Crerand for help locating a copy of Acts of Faith. For more information contact Melissa Buchanan buchanan.melissa@yahoo.com or Bob Carroll bbcarroll@gmail.com

Lexington Symphony Visits GUS

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Beautiful music wafted down the halls of the upper school building recently as four members of the Lexington Symphony performed for lower school students in the Nance Assembly Room.  Their visit provided a prelude to the upcoming “Orchestrating Kids through Classics” performance by the Lexington Symphony in Lexington next week.

This year will be the first that Glen Urquhart third, fourth, and fifth grade students will attend a performance by the Lexington Symphony.  Students have attended Boston Symphony and Cape Ann Symphony concerts in past years, but this year’s performance will be unique in that it will be a dramatic review of music from the last 500 hundred years to the present.

If this recent performance is any indication, the students are in for a real treat.  Each member of the quartet demonstrated selections on his instrument, the violin, viola, clarinet, or tuba, using stories and humor to impart an understanding of and appreciation for each instrument.  One musician related orchestral music to movies and video games.  Another told stories of Paginini’s excessive ego, and the tuba player shared his image of liquid chocolate flowing forth from the bell of the tuba. The students alternated between rapt listening, eager questioning, and hearty laughter.  Not only was their music beautiful…these musicians were FUN!

We are very fortunate to live in a part of the world with high caliber musical organizations that are dedicated to bringing music to youth.  If you would like more information about the Lexington Symphony, please check out www.lexingtonsymphony.org

Our Next Head of School

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

It is with a true sense of excitement that Glen Urquhart School announces that David Provost will be joining their community on July 1, 2012 as their next Head of School.

Dave received his B.A. from Union College and his M.Ed. from Lesley University.  He will be joining Glen Urquhart after serving as Head of School for the Nantucket New School for the last eight years.  His experience in independent schools goes beyond that, however, having previously served as a classroom teacher and in various administrative roles.  Dave is also a professional musician.

Glen Urquhart began its search after the current Head of School, Raymond Nance, announced that he would be retiring after 15 years on June 30, 2012. Raymond was instrumental in helping Glen Urquhart move to its current position of strength, where academic expectations are high, creative thought is valued, and individualism is celebrated. Under his leadership, the school was recognized with the 2006 NAIS Leading Edge Award for Global Understanding.

Throughout the search for a new Head of School, Glen Urquhart was impressed by the strong response for the position, reflecting the school’s excellent reputation in the independent school marketplace and the sense of aspiration quality candidates had for leading Glen Urquhart to itsnext and promising set of achievements.

Glen Urquhart School is an independent, K-8 day school in Beverly Farms that is known for cultivating original thinkers and inspired learners with a global perspective.

2012 GUS Arts Block Evening

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

8th Grade Art Show & Dance Performances

Thursday, January 26, 2012

*Snow date: Friday, January 27, 2012

• Opening reception at 5:30 pm in Nance Assembly Room

• Student presentations at 6:30 pm in Nance Assembly Room

• Dance Performances at 7:30 pm in Braemar

• Art Exhibition on display January 26 – February 25, 2012

GUS Greenhouse & The Food Project

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

What do you do with your food scraps when you finish your lunch? If you’re a GUS student, you toss them in your classroom compost bin. Composting, reusing, and recycling are not new at Glen Urquhart. The students began making these environmentally conscious practices part of their daily routine several years ago-long before it became fashionable to be green. And that’s not the end of the story for those leftovers.

GUS has always been committed to teaching students to be responsible citizens of their community. The greenhouse curriculum-formulated around the renovated greenhouse on campus-is just one school-wide example of this mission. The students in kindergarten through third grade plant seeds that connect to their classroom topics: wheat for the bread unit in kindergarten, flowers for the butterfly garden that is part of the life cycle unit in first grade, and herbs and corn to enhance understanding of colonial times in second grade. The third graders, stewards of the compost bins, transplant cabbage plants and plant cacti seeds during their desert study.

Not only do GUS third graders take your food scraps; the fourth graders gather your glass, aluminum, and plastic; and the fifth graders recycle your paper, juice boxes, and ziploc bags. In fact, the bags will be collected school-wide and sent to Terracycle to be “upcycled” into lunch boxes and other new products. In other greenhouse activities, the fourth grade will study aquaculture and ecosystems while maintaining an aquaponics system, an integrated fish tank and hydroponic growing system. The fifth graders will explore their theme, the land, through hands-on experiments with basic components of soil (clay, sand, and silt) to determine the ideal mixture for a farm.

In addition to supporting these curricular enhancements, the greenhouse also deepens the school’s commitment to community service through collaboration with the Food Project. The Food Project, started in 1991, has built a national model of engaging young people in personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. GUS middle school students participate in the Food Project’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Seedlings are started in the GUS greenhouse, grown at Long Hill Farm in Beverly, and distributed through farmers’ markets and hunger relief organizations across the North Shore. Each year over 40,000 pounds of vegetables are grown in the greenhouse for distribution to local area food pantries and for sale to CSA members.

GUS students in sixth through eighth grades participate in educational workshops aligned with their grade-level themes. Sixth graders explore the social problems created by how we grow and distribute food. Seventh graders attend a workday on the Food Project Farm, trace the journey of a french fry from food to table, and learn the pros and cons of a global, industrial food system and a local, sustainable food system. Eighth graders also attend a workday on the farm and consider how the decisions they make about what they eat impact the world around them.

GUS Coaches Teach Life Lessons

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Glen Urquhart is very lucky to have the broadly skilled and much loved athletic director, Bruce Emerson, a veteran of twenty years, as well as a coaching staff who inspire a love of sports and a healthy, active lifestyle. Annie Barton, a native of the North Shore, and John Barbour, a two-time Olympic qualifier, have both coached at GUS for many years.
John Barbour’s love of running began with a race he watched with his father on the Stanford University track when he was six years old. He remembers seeing the runners up close, rather than from a seat high in some stadium, and believes the immediacy made a huge impression. John qualified twice at the Olympic marathon trials, in 1988 and 1996, placing him in the top eighty long distance runners in the country. One need only talk to John for a short time to discover his passion and love of running.
John has coached at all levels, middle school, high school, college, and adult competition. His goals for his runners are to build endurance, discover a rhythm, and begin to set their own standards to improve their performance. He inspires in his soft-spoken manner, urging individual students, whether novice or proven runner, to raise their running to a higher standard. John enjoys coaching middle schoolers because, in his words, “I love their spirit. Many of them have never run before and it is a pleasure to watch them experience that thrill of discovery. Each year I see runners who discover their ability to become stronger and faster, and others who become fully committed to racing and adopt distance running as their sport. I enjoy coaching both.”
Running is a defining element in John’s life—following competitions, writing for New England Runner, and participating as a much admired member of the New England running culture. Glen Urquhart students are quite fortunate to benefit from the discipline, high standards, and passion that John shares with them as their coach.

Annie Barton, a self-defined “sports nut,” has coached all three seasons at Glen Urquhart for the past nine years.
Annie attended Groton, where she played field hockey and was captain of the varsity lacrosse team. She also played lacrosse at the University of Vermont. In her life before coaching, Annie was director of development at the Peabody Essex Museum and worked in the development office at Phillips Academy. Annie enjoyed this work but wanted more involvement with children. At GUS she has merged her love of kids and her passion for sports and become a valued and motivating member of the faculty.
Annie coaches the upper school girls in soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. She relishes her tasks of encouraging team cohesiveness, inspiring confidence and risk, and instilling the rules and technical skills of the games. She particularly enjoys observing the students’ confidence
and ability evolve over their three years of upper school.
In Annie’s words, “I love working with this age! Team sports broaden friendships and allow girls to bond as a team. Every student is encouraged to learn a game, develop skills, become more physically fit, and learn to be a supportive team member.” At Glen Urquhart, all students have the opportunity to learn about themselves as athletes.

Alumnae/i Reunion for Classes 2005-2011

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

Alumnae/i Reunion for Classes 2005-2011
Please join Raymond Nance, Head of School, and the Class of 2012 to renew friendships, tour the campus, and say “hello” to the GUS faculty!

Sunday, December 18, 2011: 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Reunion festivities will be held in the
Nance Assembly Room.
Light refreshments will be provided.
RSVP by Wednesday, December 14 to:
Susan Hepler 978-927-1064 x 117 • shepler@gus.org

Dr. Christine Draper 2011 Recipient of the Tadler Grant

POSTED BY: Lisa Kent

What do a toothbrush, a yellow foam kneeler, and a telescope eyepiece have in common? They are all tools that Christine Draper used this summer as she crisscrossed the country for her “Stars and Stones” project on archaeoastronomy (cultural astronomy). She began at the Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest (CAASW) in Albuquerque, went on to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Education and Public Outreach Conference in Baltimore, and ended at the Abbe Museum archaeological field school in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Christine Draper, sixth and seventh grade social studies teacher, was awarded the Richard and Donna Tadler Grant for a two-week study anywhere in the world. The grant, for which all GUS teachers may apply, is awarded based on the potential for the experience to have a positive and lasting impact on the school’s program. The expectation is that the award recipient will play a lead role in program development at GUS for two years following completion of their study.

Draper’s summer learning experiences included viewing petroglyphs at CAASW; attending a workshop on building a telescope and safely viewing the transit of Venus (hence the telescope eyepiece); acting as a star in a hands-on lesson in what it means for the sun to be in Gemini; cleaning artifacts that were discovered at the Abbe Museum (hence the toothbrush); and uncovering thousand-year-old stone points and fish vertebrae while kneeling over her one-meter square on an archeological dig (hence the yellow kneeler).
So, what now? According to Draper, “I expect three outcomes from these learning opportunities. The first is curriculum innovation. I would like to continue to improve and revise the sixth grade Prehistoric People curriculum and make tight curricular connections with the planetary science curriculum in Sixth Grade Science.” The “second outcome would be a new community service opportunity. It may be possible to arrange for the students to work with Wabenake, Penacook, and Wampanoag leaders to help identify and protect cultural landscapes in our region.” Draper hopes the third outcome will be a Professional Development or Graduate Institute for Teachers, in the form of a one-week summer seminar on incorporating the prehistory of Essex County into curriculum.

Written by Christy Doxee