March 9-13, 2026

It was almost 90 degrees on Wednesday then it snowed like crazy on Thursday, when the campus went from green and vibrant to completely white in less than an hour, as if Narnia’s White Witch had suddenly come through the wardrobe to blanket us. Perhaps it was a collective dream as we were back to mostly green by 4pm. Other than the weird weather, it was a busy week that included new 4th quarter projects, our annual state tornado drill, comment writing for teachers, meetings for sports, college admissions case studies (details and photos below) and parents of seniors, an exciting lunchtime launch of rockets (details and photos below), and first games today and tomorrow for V Girls Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee and MS Track teams. Lunchtime today brought a clothing swap in the Pavilion and the Blue Room was crowded with students and faculty watching junior Hayes B run in the New Balance Nationals indoor track meet (details and photos below). For anyone following March Mammal Madness, junior Fletcher L currently leads the on-campus competition.

In Middle School, 5th graders are working on a Roman deity project and learning about Mexico. 6th graders are reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham and learning about Ibn Battuta. 7th grade is conducting a lab simulation of the effect of natural selection on the light and dark moths (Biston betularia) of industrial England. 8th grade is beginning a unit on matter: What is an atom? What is it made of? How did we figure any of this out? Finally, Middle Schoolers are abuzz about tonight’s dance!

In Upper School, 9th graders are reading The Interpreter of Maladies and starting on their fun PEEP into History projects. Sophomores are working on second drafts and revisions to their seminars. Juniors are finishing up with The Great Gatsby. Seniors are preparing for Senior Project presentations that begin in two weeks. An in-house Math Olympiad hosted by Liz Larson on Thursday found four teams of two competing during Community Time - the winning team was Nati Y and Zeke L who, with five other Upper Schoolers (Addie T, Aoife K, Annie R, Peter D and Eli H) will be competing at UVA’s math tournament all day tomorrow with Liz Larson is their faculty sponsor. Good luck!

Today’s Community Time showcased an all Upper School Open Mic in the Community Hall and a Middle School practice Math Olympiad competition in the Pavilion. The Open Mic featured the house band (Jude G, Alexander K, Jack J and Van W), synth music by Gabriel S, songs by math teacher Trefor Davies, art teacher Amanda Nelsen, and sophomore Hazel L and more. Middle School Math Olympiad club members (grades 6-8) held a practice in-house Math Olympiad in preparation for spring competition - watch for a winner announcement on Monday.