This Saturday, Waynflete students competed in the State of Maine Science Bowl, a trivia competition held at the University of Southern Maine and sponsored by the Department of Energy.
Waynflete took two teams of five students each to the competition. One of our teams ended up in a three-way tie for first place in their division. After losing tie-breaker rounds, they ended up placing third in their division. The second Waynflete team placed fifth in their division.
George Bernard Shaw wrote “Saint Joan” in 1923, just a few years after Joan of Arc was canonized. When the Nobel committee awarded Shaw the prize for literature in 1925, they noted Saint Joan to be, “marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty.”
Junior Julia Fiori reflects on her experience participating in the show:
I am extremely proud of this show. This is truly a work of love, passion, and commitment to the life and legacy of Joan of Arc, patron Saint of France and renowned hero of the Hundred Years’ War. Throughout this process, we explored the modern day connections, historical influence, and symbolism of this story.
Under 15-year veteran coach Rich Henry, the boys basketball team had a very successful season. The boys earned the WMC Division Championship on their way to a 14-2 regular season record. The team recorded impressive wins over Class B powerhouses Cape, Freeport, Wells, and Yarmouth. The Flyers earned the #2 seed in Class C South and dispatched the #7 seed Old Orchard Beach 67-32 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals the Flyers fell to the #3 seed Hall-Dale Bulldogs by a score of 65-58. Solomon Levy ’20 and Dominick Campbell ’21 were named to the WMC First Team. Alex Saade ’19, Finn Scott ’19, and Askar Houssein ’20 were named to the WMC Second Team.
The February 2019 issue of Lit Mag is out, and for the first time, we’ve featured alumni content!
Eighth-grader Yenenesh is collecting eyeglasses to hand-deliver to a hospital in Ethiopia. Yen, who was adopted from Ethiopia at the age of 5, will visit the country with her parents at the end of March.
Life can feel overwhelming to the middle schooler who is navigating longer periods of focused attention on academics, working to balance extracurricular activities with homework, and beginning to chart a course toward adulthood and self-reliance—all while a large volume of highly stimulating, provocative information streams in at high speeds, through myriad devices, at every moment of the day. To empathize with the challenges that your child faces at this stage in their development, it is important for you to learn more about the middle-school brain.
Waynflete art department chair Judy Novey was recently recognized by the Maine Art Education Association in its annual Art Educator Awards and Recognitions Program. Judy received the Association’s “Outstanding Commitment to the Profession” award.
Congratulations Judy!
Chinese New Year—or Spring Festival—is China’s most important holiday. To celebrate this year, seventh graders performed a Dragon Dance at Middle School assembly. Check it out!
Early childhood students recently celebrated Spain (the subject of this year’s Lower School Global Focus week) with a retelling of the story of “Medio Pollito” (“Half Chicken”).
Check out some fun photos below!
The Upper School PRIDE students organized a week of events to promote LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion.
Students participated in creating a Waynflete PRIDE banner, donned their best “Rainbow-wear,” and assisted the Upper School librarians in identifying works that feature LGBTQ+ characters and themes.
On Thursday, Blake Hayes of the Coast 93.1 “Blake and Eva in the Morning” show spoke to Upper School students regarding his experiences as a public personality who identifies as an “out” gay man.
Waynflete hosted the school’s first annual Invitational Chamber Music Festival on February 10. Over 30 participants representing eight schools and studios gathered in the Franklin Theater for workshops and a public concert.
“The goal is to provide an annual opportunity for small ensembles—ranging from a trio to nine or ten players—to come together, learn, share their work, meet peers, and gain performing experience,” said Andy Happel, director of Strings and Chamber Music at Waynflete. “As our department grows, we want to bring Maine’s aspiring young musicians to our beautiful facility and give them a new and different opportunity to share their work.”
Click here to watch a video of event highlights.
In K-1, we have extended our Identity and Expression unit into conversations about the geography of where we live. We read books and drew maps of our rooms and of our K-1 space, and began a project where we drew pictures about the many places we live—starting small and getting bigger. Our first smallest circle was ourselves, then our house, our town, our state, our country, and finally our continent. We have put maps of our state, country, and world up in the classroom for students to explore.
Last week the Irish-American author Colum McCann came to Portland on a mission. He wanted to tell the story of Narrative 4, an organization of authors and artists dedicated to mending our social fabric through cultivating “fearless hope” and “radical empathy” in youth (Colum co-founded Narrative 4 and currently serves as president). He also came to hear the story of Waynflete, because of what he had been told about the school.
Colum held a public talk in Franklin Theater in the evening, in which he read from several of his novels, including his most recent one that is just now heading to publication, and discussed Narrative 4. Narrative 4 had sent an advanced team to train 27 Upper School students as facilitators of their signature activity, the story exchange. In his talk, Colum referred to Waynflete as a “visionary school” for our work promoting dialogue as an essential skill and mindset, which he saw as well aligned with the goals of Narrative 4. (more…)
Congratulations to Performing Arts jazz instructor Ray Morrow for leading the Upper School’s Jazz Ensemble and Combo group at the Berklee Jazz Festival for 30 consecutive years! Ray’s contributions were recognized with a ceremony at this year’s event.
Eliza Goodwin ’20 and Tzevi Aho ’19 received Gold and Silver keys respectively at the recent Scholastic Exhibition at the Maine College of Art (part of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards).
Five Waynflete students’ work is currently on display at the Portland Museum of Art during the Youth Art Month Celebration. Waynflete’s student artists are Keane McGrath ’28, Porter Beaule ’25, Keza Ineza ’24, Kate Bramley-Simmons ’22, and Milo Schair-Rigoletti ’19.
The show features work from students from the entire state. The exhibit is located on the lower level of the PMA and runs until March 31.
Pictured above: Keza Ineza and Waynflete art teacher Mimi Olins, with Ineza’s piece “Catching Chicken.”
Last week, the New York Times published an article by David Brooks entitled “Students Learn from the People They Love.” A Waynflete parent shared it with her children’s teachers, with a kind note of acknowledgement. The article quickly went viral among Waynflete’s faculty and staff. Brooks’s piece affirms what so many of us appreciate about Waynflete and what makes the school unique: the relationships. Teachers and students “learning to learn, side by side.”
It has been such a pleasure for me to give tours of the new Lower School this year. Prospective families appreciate the beautiful space as much as we all do! Seeing students and teachers in action in purposefully designed classrooms allows parents who are considering Waynflete to see how their children will spend their time: exploring, playing, questioning, connecting, thinking, and learning in relationship with the materials, the space, the teachers, and one another.
But the magic of Waynflete is not about the buildings. The magic is about the relationships.
The phrase “I’m Just a Bill” will likely bring back memories for many Generation-Xers and late Boomers. Now with children of their own, today’s parents might be surprised to discover that the classic “Schoolhouse Rock!” feature hasn’t gone out of style. The lo-fi graphics—coupled with just the right amount of pratfall—still resonate with today’s Minecraft generation.
“I’m Just a Bill” helped kick off a recent exploration of participatory democracy in Waynflete’s 4-5 program. With the November midterm elections in the news, students examined the inner workings of the three branches of government and how senators, representatives, and the president pass laws. Typical of Waynflete’s hands-on approach to learning, each of the program’s home stations transformed into a committee to debate how to make 4-5 a better place for its “citizens.” Students brainstormed possibilities, selected one cause to work up as a bill, then wrote proposals to share at a community meeting of the entire 4-5 program.
At the most recent meeting of the Upper School team, I asked each advisor to tell a brief story that illustrates their happiest moment at work over the past two weeks since the start of the new year. When it came to my turn, I could honestly say that my favorite moment had just happened—listening to their stories. Those stories clearly illustrated the truth of what one advisor had said, which is that “the special sauce of Waynflete is alive and well.”
Based on those stories, the sauce ingredients include:
Chloë Rowse ’12 spoke with Upper School students this week about her experiences hiking the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail in 2018. Chloë counseled students to “never underestimate what you are capable of doing.”
Here’s full story:
