On April 1, despite a snowstorm, 30 Upper School science students traveled to USM Gorham for the State Science Olympiad Tournament. Students competed on two teams of fifteen students each in 23 different science and engineering events ranging from building an electric vehicle that could arrive the quickest and stop the most accurately at any given target distance, to tests of knowledge and skill in fields such as Astronomy, Invasive Species, and Chem Lab. The Waynflete Green team placed 1st in the state, capturing 1st place finishes in 13 of the 23 events, and second place finishes in another 8 events. Notably, Althea Sellers, ’17; Willson Moore, ’17; and Callie Banksmith, ‘18 took home gold medals in every event in which they competed! Waynflete’s second team, the White Team, also placed 3rd in the state! It was a great day – full of hard earned success. The students spent hours and hours prior to the event studying, designing, building and testing in order to be successful in these events. Congratulations to all involved! Teams were coached by science teachers Wendy Curtis and Carol Titterton.
This year’s spirit week was full of liveliness and enthusiasm in the competition for the most points between grades. As our first year as highschoolers, freshmen were oblivious to the flow of spirit week. At the end of the week, the seniors came out as the winners, with 130 points. Sadly but expectedly, freshmen only got 60 points, making our class 2017’s spirit week losers. Each day there was a different theme, and an event to go along with it, the following is a summary.
Day 1: Looking from a distance at the Waynflete campus, there is the visibility of bits of animals. The school was full of students dressed as various animals and even some zookeepers attending their everyday classes and showing some spirit and fun. During activities, there was a game of musical chairs, accompanied by an enthusiastic and screaming crowd. At the end of the day, there was a 3v3 basketball tournament. Having been our first day in this new way of fun, we participated but reluctant to jump in.
Day 2: While this day was not an official theme, everyone came to school with big smiles ready for their own grade advising day. The freshmen all piled into a bus to got to a church in which we did activities to build and help support each other. Tuesday was meant for a day of fun as well as being in a warm community. After school there was a dodgeball tournament, in which teams were very competitive for the title of winners.
Day 3: Twin day was an especially fun day. There were many twins seen in the halls as well as even a few triplets, quadruplets and even quintuplets. During break, in the atrium the limbo competition was happening. The music blared with the accompaniment of fun and laughter. Basically, a dancer crushed it, bringing home the Sophomore class’s only win. Although he didn’t win, a 6’4” Foshay was the crowd favorite.
Day 4: Thursday was totally tubular, with a throwback to the 80s. During break, another dodgeball tournament ensued, although this time the grades were pitted against each other. The Juniors won against the Sophomores, while the Seniors and Freshmen had to go three rounds because of continuous ties. At the end of the day, the seniors won.
Day 5: Waynflete spirit day consisted of a lot of green and white (obviously). Some people went full out in terms of dress, wearing full sports gear. The best part of the day was the dance off. On one hand, the freshmen weren’t that great at all, with minimal participation and a dance which consisted of shuffling around in a mini circle that was created minutes before it was performed. On the other, the seniors took first place with a dance that was at least five minutes and consisted of almost every twelfth grader. This competition probably had the most hype, with almost everyone screaming and having a blast. Such smiles and happiness was amazing to see during spirit week. It was a wonderful break from the normal routine of a regular school day.
Lindsay Kaplan sent along some great updates from the Montreal trip that took place over the long weekend. Read her words below, and check out pictures from the trip.
Today in Montreal, everyone had a great time on the walking/bus tour that included a scenic spot where we could see lots of Montreal as well as some beautiful paintings on the sides of buildings. We continued our walking tour and ended up in Old Montreal. From there, we split up into small groups and explored Old Montreal! We saw lots of small shops and ate amazing food! After our free time, we walked to the Notre-Dame Basilica and were amazed of the view. We continued from there to the museum of Archeology and was again, amazed by facts leading back to when Montreal was first colonized! We watched a fascinating movie about Montreal’s history and how it has progressed. After that we took an hour long bus ride to the Sugar Shack, took a short ride in a horse drawn carriage and ate some amazing food, danced and sang! We learned about maple syrup and we’re told very funny jokes by the son of the owner of the property! We tasted Maple Taffy and slipped and slid our way back to the bus. We had a great day and so much fun!
Every year a senior is selected by the English department to be Waynflete’s Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate reads poetry for the upper school assemblies and at graduation. Chloe Melchiskey was named this year’s Poet Laureate for the Class of 2017. At a recent assembly she read an original poem, We Know, which is linked here.
After the assembly I had the chance to talk with Chloe about her poetry. I found myself very interested in knowing what had introduced her to poetry. She noted that “poems are all around us in books and signs and people we see on the street. One day I decided to write it down.” Then I asked her what had inspired her to write We Know, the first poem she read at assembly. When hearing this poem, I was really always curious not only why she wrote it and but also what means it meant to her. She responded, “I like to think of writing as your mind trying to teach your brain something. So my question would be, what do you think inspired me to write this poem?”
I tried another approach and asked her about the connection between her poem and the world today. I had better luck this time. She said:
“Every human on this planet is made up of the same atoms and molecules; we share the common experience of being alive at the same time and seeing the same sun set each day from all over the world. I wouldn’t know how to write without writing about the world and the people and things that occupy in it. What’s beautiful about poems is that each person who reads it gets to have their own idea about what it means, but all of those ideas come from the same place and share a common source. Every human being on this planet is happening at the same time. This planet is big enough for all of us; it’s time we realize that.”
The Entrepreneur Club was founded out of desire for an outlet to talk about business at Waynflete. Jacob and I, the co-founders enjoyed talking to each other about the latest episode of Shark Tank and legendary entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. After starting the club in the second semester of our sophomore year, we found we were not alone in our enjoyment of business. In our first semester we recruited Head of School, Geoff Wagg, a budding businessman himself, to advise our club and soon we had five members going to Geoff’s office every Monday. With more success than we suspected, Jacob and I decided that in the first semester as a group we would come up with an idea, write a business plan, and pitch it to a panel of three local investors. However, we quickly realized as we tried to start this process that none of us knew what we were doing. So, as an entrepreneur might say, we pivoted.
Instead of coming up with a product, we learned all about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. About once a month, we would have an entrepreneur, accountant, or investor come in and talk to us about their experiences in the business world. Towards the end of the year, we met with the founder of a local seafood distributor, Bristol Seafoods, who, after retiring from his old company was in the process of starting a new company. He invited us to be his apprentices in his journey and we excitedly accepted. That has been the focus of this most recent year of Entrepreneurs Club. After almost doubling in size, we meet with him once a month as he talked us through his company, while giving us research assignments to do outside of the club. In the days that he was not there, we met with other people, who taught us such skills as writing a balance sheet or finding investors. We also read articles about companies that have either failed or succeeded, discussing why we think that happened, and what we would have done differently. Every so often, we’ll even watch an episode of Shark Tank. As the year comes to a close, we will be starting a long term project as a culmination of all we have learned in the past year in Entrepreneurs Club.
Update #4: You can now view the play in its entirety on Youtube! Scroll to the bottom of this post for the video, or click here.
Update #3: Henry Wasserman, The Stage Manger of THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY (a working title) is so tired he has fallen asleep while leaning against a set piece. This can happen when you load and unload a set into a rental truck multiple times on your way to drama fests all over the state of Maine.
We are happy to report that everyone had a wonderful time at the State Drama Festival at Yarmouth High School. The cast and crew gave a fantastic performance and were spirited and generous community members all weekend.
We received the following awards:
Judge’s Commendation:
Playwriting – Jesse Brooks
Allstate Cast: (acting award)
Tzevi Aho – for the role of Harry
Ben Millspaugh – for the role of Carnegie
Justin Gross received an unofficial award from another school for: “Best Audience Member”
Everyone went home tired and happy!
Update #2: Join us for “The Great Bank Robbery (working title)” by student playwright, Jesse Brooks ’17 at the State One Act Festival at Yarmouth High School.
Cast and crew will hit the stage on Friday, March 24th at 6:00pm
Tickets at the door $8.00 for adults, $5.00 for students
Update: “The Great Bank Robbery (working title)” was the overall winner in Class B of the One Act Festival this past weekend at Morse High School in Bath. Congratulations to Jesse Brooks ’17, writer of the incredible production. The cast received several other awards, including:
Student Playwriting: Jesse Brooks ’17
All Festival Cast (acting awards): Justin Gross ’18 as Andy; Randall Seder ’17 as Tasha; Emily Talpey as Samantha.
The cast and crew also received the highest honor of all “Ensemble Cohesion.” Congrats to everyone involved!
After a pair of incredible shows at Waynflete last weekend, “The Great Bank Robbery (working title)” is going on the road! Join us this coming weekend, Saturday March 11 at Morse High School in Bath. The day starts at 1pm and is a wonderful, creative event not to be missed! It looks to be a great show; read on for a note from the playwright, our very own Jesse Brooks ’17.
Eleven months ago I sat down at a computer with the idea that I would write a play with no prior knowledge of the struggles that went into actually writing one. Two months later, I still don’t know how exactly, I presented what I had of The Great Bank Robbery: a working title (a name that held no sense of irony at the time) to Tiki Fuhro in her office during the middle of exams, two weeks before the end of school. The draft was rough, almost twenty pages too long, and had no ending; my expectations were justifiably set low. Remarkably, and this baffles me even more, she liked it. What’s more, she made me the humbling offer to produce it, not only at Waynflete with a cast and crew of who had become my friends over years of working with them, but to also bring it out as our school’s One Act Festival submission.
Truthfully, the offer terrified me as much as it excited me, and I took on the task with an appreciation of the trust that had been placed in me to complete and refine what I had started. After six months of drafting, polishing, and stressing, we began the rehearsal process which has been its own remarkable, exciting experience. At every one of those rehearsals, I have experienced the enormous amount of talent and love that has gone into performing the characters and story that have lived in my head for so long, and I am endlessly grateful for the opportunity to see it all come to life. My sincere thanks to everyone who has put a piece of themselves into making this little idea of mine into a reality on stage; I owe you all more than I can express in a playbill blurb. This is, after all, the story of a young person who has dragged their friends into a situation that becomes a little more complicated than they all thought it would be…
We are fresh off Spirit Week in the Upper School! Students dressed up all week and enjoyed competitions between the grades. Seniors took the top prize in musical chairs, sophmores won the limbo. Dodgeball and the Dance-Off were hard-fought battles, but once again the Seniors prevailed. Theme days were hugely exciting: Monday, Zoo Day; Wednesday, Twin Day; Thursday, 80’s Day; Friday, Waynflete Pride Day. See the epic videos and photos below!
A few weekends ago, I went with my grandfather, dad, and older brother and stayed in a small hut for five hours to be able to say that I accomplished a smelting trip. Smelting is like ice fishing except you’re in a small, heated hut, and instead of catching any type of fish, you only catch smelt.
My dad wanted to go as early as possible, so I got the pleasure of waking up at 5 a.m.. Mind you, I could’ve gotten up at 6 a.m. but my grandfather wanted to have breakfast at a restaurant instead of just eating at home. Originally I wanted to go to IHOP while my grandfather was determined to go to Denny’s. Surprisingly, we didn’t go to Denny’s or IHOP but instead we ate at a diner.
When we arrived at the lake it was about 7 a.m. and freezing. Lucky for us, the hut had a furnace which was leaning sketchily to the left, seemingly about to tip over at the next breath of wind. My dad carefully chopped the bait of squirming blood worms. After putting worms on the two hooks, we all waited somewhat patiently for a tug on the line.
In the meantime, my brother, grandfather, and dad talked about construction. Beforehand, Lowell had advised me on how to contribute if they started conversing about sports, which I don’t care about. He suggested that I just appear interested by nodding my head for a few minutes, and then repeat what they had just said. He said the technique is a guaranteed way to earn the admiration of men and amuse myself. However, instead of sports, they began enthusiastically discussing construction, so when I repeated what they had just said about the different types of insulation and nails, I just sounded dumb. I guess that technique only works with sports.
Apparently there are some days that people catch hundreds of smelt, but this was not one of those days. My brother, grandfather, dad, and I drove the hour back home at the end of the day empty handed. Overall, smelting was not the most exciting experience, considering we sat on hard wooden chairs for five hours. However, I did get to spend some quality hours with my family. My expectation for the trip starting out was that it would likely degenerate into an extended family argument, but in the end, we actually had some fun.
Update #7: Check out the awesome Winter Sports slideshow below, put together by Sophia Mayone ’17! Final highlights from the Winter Season:
Boy’s Basketball made it to the semifinals; Girl’s Basketball made it to the quarterfinals.
Boys’ and Girls’ hockey both made the playoffs after an awesome season!
The Alpine Ski Team were Class A State Champs!
Willson Moore ’17 was the Individual State Nordic Champ in skate and classic; he and Ellie Chidsey ’17 qualified for the Eastern High School Championships in Vermont on March 18 and 19. Freshmen Nicholas Werner and Clara Sandberg both qualified for the U-16 New England Championships!
Two US Athletes were featured in The Forecaster‘s “Winter Athletes of the Year.” Congrats Willson Moore, ’17 and Annika Brooks, ’17!
Update #6: The nordic team competed in the New England qualifier on Sunday at Black Mountain. Four skiers qualified for the New England championships, (likely the most qualifiers Waynflete has ever had).
Seniors Willson Moore (2nd overall) and Ellie Chidsey qualified to compete in the Eastern High Schools Championship in Vermont on March 18th and 19th.
Freshmen Nicholas Werner and Clara Sandberg qualified to compete in the under 16 New England Championship next weekend in Farmington.
Congratulations and good luck to them all!
Update #5: The Falmouth/Waynflete Boy’s Alpine Ski Team are State Champs! Parker Seeley, the lone Flyer, helped secure the Class A title.
Willson Moore is the Class C State Individual Nordic Champion in both Nordic and Classic skiing! The Boy’s Nordic team placed 5th out of 12 teams, and Ellie Chidsey led the Girl’s team to an amazing 4th place finish in the Class C Championships. Ellie placed 6th in Classic and 4th in Skate. Congrats!
Boy’s Hockey (SoPo/Waynflete/Freeport Cooperative) qualified for the play-offs as the #7 seed in Class A South. They play Wednesday against Cheverus.
Update #4: Boy’s Basketball was beaten by Madison in the Semis, 52-47. Game story here.
Update #3: Girl’s Basketball fell to Monmouth in the Quarters 45-40; Boy’s moved on to the Semis beating Richmond 57-52! Game story here.
Update #2: Boy’s Basketball had a thriller against Old Orchard Beach and came out on top, 51-46. On to Augusta!
Update #1: Girl’s Basketball bested Traip on Tuesday, and will play Monmouth Academy in the quarterfinals on Monday at 11:30am at the Augusta Civic Center. Read the story on the great Traip game!
Original Post:
#6 seed Waynflete Girls Basketball will host #11 seed Traip Academy on Tuesday at 6:00 pm.
#7 seed Waynflete Boys Basketball will host #10 seed Old Orchard Beach on Thursday at 5:00 pm.
Girls swimming placed 9th at the South Southwesterns meet on Saturday. Kiera MacWhinnie won both the 100 Freestyle and the 100 Backstroke. Boys swimming competes at the Southwesterns on Monday. Kiera was also awarded “Swimmer of the Meet” honor as voted on by the coaches. Congrats Kiera!
Both boys and girls nordic ski teams placed 6th at the WMC championship meet on Saturday. Willson Moore paced the boys team with a first place finish in the skate and a 2nd place finish in the classic. Ellie Chidsey paced the girls with a 13th place finish in the skate and a 9th place finish in the classic.
Girls hockey fell to Scarborough 5-1 in the south semis. Congratulations to head coach Bob Mills and the team on a great season. Their final record was 10-10. Boys hockey is currently in 7th place in class A south with 4 games to play.
Senior Yai Deng has had a great run with the Boy’s Basketball team in his four years as a member. Check out the wonderful piece by WCSH6 on this standout Waynflete student! Yai has now been inducted to the WCSH Varsity Club; click here to view the clip.
Congratulations to the Upper School Jazz Combo for achieving a I (One) Rating at tonight’s Maine Music Educators Association District II Jazz Festival. The high ranking qualifies them for the State Jazz Festival coming up in two weeks! Recognized as outstanding performers were:
Julian Abbott (tenor & soprano sax)
Sophi Aronson (keyboards)
Will Black (tenor sax)
Owen Gervais (guitar)
Tafari Makinen-Hall (drums)
Toby Nye (upright & electric bass)
Other members of the Combo who performed at the festival are:
Owen Ardell (baritone sax)
Eliza Cox (alto sax)
Alan Wen (alto sax)
Four members of Waynflete’s Debate traveled to Brunswick High School on Saturday, January 29th to compete in the State Championship Tournament. Patricia Janick and Maddie Polkinghorn, two of the three senior co-captains, took part in the Varsity Public Forum Category as a team, and compiled a very creditable record of two wins and two losses. Junior Bodhi Small, who was taking part in only his third debate tournament, competed in the Novice Lincoln-Douglas category. He made it all the way to the semi-finals and ended up taking 3rd place in the state for his division. Arija Forsyth, the third senior co-captain of the team, competed in the Varisty Division for Lincoln-Douglas debates and for the second year in a row won the State Championship!
Overall, the Waynflete team of four students, competing again over twenty-five schools from around the state, placed fourth.
Our trip to the annual jazz band festival in Berklee, Massachusetts, began on a little yellow school bus, overflowing with kids and instruments. We had not yet mastered our packing skills, with high school students spilling over the dingy seats, and instruments threatening to tumble out of their assigned placements. As a freshman, I didn’t come into this experience with any expectations, since I had never done this. However, I had gotten tips from my older brother. I wasn’t sure what would happen once we arrived, but it was exciting and with nerves flitting around in my stomach, I was ready.
We started the evening by going to a Fuddruckers and then watching the recently released Lego Batman Movie. Now I’m not going to give it any ratings or reviews, but this was probably the most interesting, yet odd movie I have ever seen. After watching the movie, we were driven a short distance to our hotel, where we spent the night in preparation for the next morning. Now going into this, I knew little about what it would be like, including how our performance would turn out.
The next morning, we woke up early to go to the festival, so that we could have time to unpack all of the instruments. My main job on this trip was carrying other people’s baggage and making sure instruments stayed on the cart. Luckily no instruments fell on my watch, but I can’t say the same for a few students who let the drum set clatter to the floor.
Entering one of Berklee’s cavernous halls, it took a moment for us to get used to the long passageways leading to different rooms, where jazz bands, combos, and even choirs competed behind closed doors for the jazz band title. We walked through a long hallway finally arriving at an old airplane hanger supplied with numerous tables in which we could place our many instruments. Since the combo went first, we had about five minutes to set up the instruments and then about twenty minutes to perform, with time for critique.
The combo performed three pieces, and then we all shuffled out until it was time for the big band to play. Before we performed, we all had some free time, which we used to seek out other bands and choirs. During those many hours, my friends and I could roam pretty much all around the building. There was an attached mall where we could get food and there were three floors worth of shops. Limitless places to go and explore.
While Waynflete didn’t get first place, we had so much fun seeing all of the other jazz bands and getting the opportunity to be able to participate in such a fun and lively event. I look forward to participating in the jazz band festival for the years to come. For more information and pictures about the event, click here.
Next week is US Spirit Week! There all sorts of fun activities and theme days, check out the full rundown by Student Government Co-President Caroline Hastings ’17 by clicking here.
Having heard about Waynflete’s reputation for excellence since I was a teenager in Portland, I was thrilled to be offered a job here teaching French. I knew that I would need to make some cognitive adjustments when I got here, as well as some professional adjustments, because everyone kept telling me how different Waynflete was. Ok, I thought. Different. Fine. I can handle that; every school is different.
Looking back, I can be honest and say that what I really thought as I prepared myself to transition to Waynflete was, “There’s a subject, there is a textbook, there are students, there is a teacher, there are grades. How different can it be?” I thought Waynflete was probably a pretty good place with a bunch of exceptionally enthusiastic cheerleaders. The thing about cheerleaders, though, is that they do the same routine when the team is losing as they do when it’s winning, so it’s hard to gauge the reality of the game just by looking at them.
My learning curve that fall was steep. I was surprised by so many things: cupcake trucks and celebrations, faculty/student hugs on the first day of school, the Advising Olympics (I think I can safely say I wasn’t the only person surprised by that day), the conviviality of the year’s beginning. I could go on and on.
The real turning point, however, to understanding (and embracing) the Waynflete culture and community had to do with my name. As a scholar of literature and history, I understand perfectly well how important names are. So I made the decision at the beginning of the school year to allow students to use my first name, Lindsay, or to call me Madame, which they were already comfortable with because of their previous French teacher. I thought this would encourage the students not to think of me as someone learning the ropes at Waynflete, but instead to have the impression that I was a great fit here from the get-go. Many chose to call me Madame, but just as many chose to call me Lindsay.
Though I was satisfied with myself for taking this step, it took a really long time before I was comfortable with it. When a student said my first name, it set off alarm bells in my mind. Quite a few times I found myself whirling about, ready to reprimand a student’s cheekiness, only to be reminded by the offending student’s calm, expectant face that the behavior was both permitted and encouraged.
One day, mid-whirl, I realized why I just couldn’t get past the first name thing: it felt so intimate. Tumbling after this realization came the second one: that’s the point. I recalled that someone had told me at the beginning of the year that Waynflete strives to help students build respectful and trusting relationships with non-parental adults. To this end, some of the traditional trappings of authority relationships are left behind in favor of more community-oriented behaviors. Does this mean I don’t have authority in my classroom? Of course not. But it definitely changes the way I view that authority, along with my job, the students, and even my content area. The same, I now see, is true for the students.
What does this mean? I’m still not totally sure I can articulate it all, but here are some preliminary findings:
Everyone is moving in the same direction. I don’t mean we are all the same, but that we all have the same project, which is that each student not only succeed, but also define what success means for him or herself.
Waynflete is a YES place. Experiencing YES has made me realize how much of the world is actually made up of NO. I don’t mean that the school is too permissive, but that within this community the expectations and perceptions of students and for students are overwhelmingly positive and supportive. My job as a teacher is to guide students toward success, not to prevent them from failing. Wow! Success is an assumption, not a dream. Because so much of reality is formed by perceptions, especially in a child’s developing brain, a YES school prepares children for a YES life. This is awesome. I don’t know why parents don’t jump for joy every time they set foot on campus.
At Waynflete, I have the time and the space to connect with my students as individuals. When there are thirty students in a French II classroom, everything takes longer. Relationships are slower to develop. All teachers in those circumstances have less of a chance to scrutinize the performance and the capacity of each student, and therefore are less likely to be able to provide a truly differentiated learning environment capable of reaching all the students. But we have small classes here. That means that each student gets the attention they need, each student participates, and each student has a voice and learns to use it.
When my students go out into the world, they will look for and demand to be taken seriously. They will seek accord, not opposition, from their mentors and superiors in college and in the workplace. They will expect YES, so they will hear it. It is not possible to overstate the importance of this difference in the life of a child. It’s also hard quantify the importance of it in my life as a professional, but I will say that the ripple effects of my own changing perceptions about the school experience are reaching all the corners of my life, from my work day to my home life, and even the way I relate to my own son.
Shortly before vacation the Upper School Jazz Ensemble & Combo made their annual trek to Boston in order to participate in the Berklee High School Jazz Festival. Although neither group placed, they played well and had a wonderful experience! Julian Abbott ’18 received the Judge’s Choice Award as Waynflete’s top performer in the Combo. Jacob Greene ’18 landed the honor for the Jazz Ensemble. The following students made the trip:
Julian Abbott
Ruby Adams
Avis Akers
Owen Ardell
Sophi Aronson
Will Black
Henry Bukowski-Thall
Niall Calvert
Andrew Clark
Eliza Cox
Ellis Dougherty
Owen Gervais
Jacob Greene
Nick Hagler
Mykel Henry
Leeza Kopaeva
Miles Lipton
Tafari Makinen-Hall
Lilu McNiff
Toby Nye
Damien Royer
Bodhi Small
Nick Wagg
Alan Wen
Ike Wilson
