It was so nice to have our school community together to kick off the new school year at Shelburne Beach! It was a beautiful evening in an idyllic setting to connect with new old and new friends. We are so excited for the year ahead and all that lies in store!
School News
Welcome to the 2023-2024 School Year!
Hello! We are so excited to commence the 2023-2024 school year, Vermont Day School’s 9th year of providing academic excellence and inspired learning for our students!
VDS Installs New PreK Playground
We are thrilled to announce that we have a new playground, specifically for our PreK students! Thank you to all who made this possible via contributions at our annual Benefit Bash. The new play structure is a fantastic addition to our school campus!
VDS Partners With King Arthur Baking Company for CLIC Week
VDS Students Win State Essay Contest
Four Vermont Day School Students Place in State Essay Contest
Congratulations to Vermont Day School 8th grader Oonagh Guyer (South Burlington), the winner of this year’s Lincoln Essay
contest! Hosted annually by Hildene, President Lincoln’s family’s estate, 8th grade students from across the state were asked to submit essays focused on civil discourse and difficult subjects. The topic of this year’s essay was censorship and the rise of book bans in the United States.
VDS Delivers Over 1,000 lbs of Food to Shelburne Food Shelf
Vermont Day School Delivers over 1,000 LBS of Food to Shelburne Food Shelf
Students at Vermont Day School loaded boxes of donations onto their school bus and delivered 1,005 pounds of food, including fresh produce, to the Shelburne Food Shelf. The Food Drive is an annual event for Vermont Day School with this collection surpassing their goal of 1000 pounds!
The 4th and 5th grade class led the initiative along with their teacher, Becca Auritt. ”The Food Drive is an authentic leadership opportunity for our students, and a great way to teach students to be active and supportive community members,” said Auritt. The 4th and 5th graders inspired fellow families and students to participate in the Food Drive by presenting to the whole school at an assembly, posting signs around school, and charting the school’s progress towards meeting their collection goal.
The food drive was the culmination of the 4/5 class latest Global Studies project based learning unit where students learned about food insecurity in the United States. They met with local nonprofit leaders, visited the Statehouse and sat in on a working session to pass the school meals bill, visited a grocery store to predict a weekly food budget and culminated their learning by designing the drive for the Shelburne Food Shelf.
Join us for Spring Benefit Bash!
VDS to Host Invention Fair – Student Inventors Invited to Compete!
Vermont Day School will host the first Young Inventors’ Program Invention Fair in Vermont on Saturday, March 11. Student inventors are needed to participate!
The Invention Fair is open to all K-8 students in Vermont. Participants come up with an invention, create a poster and prototype to show their idea, and present it to a team of judges. Top finishers in each age group have the opportunity to go to the regional Invention Fair at the University of New Hampshire. All participants receive an inventor’s journal and certificate.
For more information click HERE.
Register HERE by March 1st.
VDS Middle School to Travel to Costa Rica
If you see our Middle School students washing cars, selling plants, or making spaghetti dinners, it means they are actively fundraising for their opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this spring.
Students in grades 6-8 will be experiencing an 8 day environmental conservation travel experience in Costa Rica. There, they will assist biologists with vital wildlife conservation projects in the Cloud Forests of Monteverde, zipline through the rainforest on a Cloud Forest canopy your, track endangered jaguars and ocelots using remote camera traps, visit a local school, tour an organic cocoa and coffee farm, and more!
Learn More: Vermont Day School Costa Rica Itinerary 2023
Middle School STEM: Finding Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture
Middle School students kicked off their first STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) project of the year at the Shelburne Farms Market Garden. The driving question for this project is, How can we reduce the impact of our food-growing systems on the environment?
We live on a planet with limited resources and a growing population. Growing enough food to feed the global population requires a lot of resources, and meeting global demand and nutritional needs sustainably is a grand challenge that many people are working hard to find solutions for.
In this unit, students will think critically about the ways our agricultural systems are impacting our environment and about what will happen to global food supplies if we continue with business as usual. Together, they will research and explore different sustainable food-growing methods that farmers might be able to use to reduce environmental impacts.
Working in groups, students will then apply their research to design an experiment that tests two approaches to growing vegetables. We will be implementing these experiments in class and students will be responsible for collecting data, analyzing data, and sharing their findings in a lab report. Each group will then produce a photo essay that educates local food-growers about sustainable food production.
Welcome New Faculty!
We are thrilled to welcome these exceptional educators to the VDS Faculty this school year:
Orli Handmaker, M.S. STEM Teacher
Orli is a passionate STEM educator, eager to help students engage their curiosity to learn about the world around them. She earned a B.A. from Skidmore College and an M.S. in Natural Resources Science and Management from the University of Minnesota. Before joining the Vermont Day School faculty, Orli taught elementary science at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in Minnesota, served as a National Science Foundation Fellow, and taught Spanish at the Lowell School in Washington, D.C. Outside of the classroom, Orli enjoys knitting, adventuring outdoors, baking, practicing banjo, and spending time with her family.
Danarose Weaver, B.A. Spanish Teacher
Originally from Brandon, Vermont, Danarose graduated from Castleton University with a degree in Sociology, Cultural Anthropology and Spanish. She has spent the last three years living in Valencia, Spain teaching at a local elementary and middle school. Danarose believes in interactive, inquiry based methods that accentuate the joy in learning and develop students’ knowledge of Spanish language and culture. In addition to teaching in the classroom, Danarose is an avid rock climber and has worked as a youth and rock climbing coach in both Vermont and Spain.
VDS Offers Merit Scholarships!
Vermont Day School is pleased to announce the addition of a Merit Scholarship program for prospective students entering 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. Scholarships are awarded to motivated learners with strong academic skills, who exemplify the guiding principles of Vermont Day School.
Vermont Day School is proud to have provided in person learning during the global pandemic, but recognizes the need of students who experienced learning loss due to COVID in other school settings. We hope that merit scholarship awards will be a Vermont Day School education more accessible to more families in our community.
See the Merit Scholarship Program page for more details and to apply!
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 15
- Next Page »