Hartsbrook High School Week at a Glance

ULTIMATE–UPDATE
Students (and parents) are having a difficult time being on top of when they have extra curricular activities, especially, sports. Faculty and staff expect students and their parents to keep track of these activities and know what time they are leaving for games. Every day, several students come to ask what time they are playing and where. I tell them that I am going to the same website that they can go to in order to look it up. Please help your students (and yourselves) to look up their sports activities the evening before they expect to play.
We have begun the long and much loved Ultimate season. Our students are Ultimate champions and are devoted to the circuit of tournaments. Please go to the athletic calendar on the Hartsbrook website to keep track of these. http://www.hartsbrook.org/athletics/athletics-calendar/  There are tournaments on most weekends in the spring.

SPRING INTENSIVE LEARNING WEEK – MAY 13-17–UPDATE
You should all have received itineraries with contact phone numbers in your e-mails. Please contact the faculty member in charge of the trip with questions.

• 9th Grade:  Moby Dick at various seafaring and whaling historical sites in New England with Mericconeag and Monadnock Waldorf schools. Contact people: Cherrie Latuner and Thomas Heineman

• 10th Grade:  Surveying in Cape Cod with Mericconeag and Monadnock Waldorf Schools. Contact: Steve Haendiges

• 11th: Grade: Botany at Glenbrook with Monadnock Waldorf School. Contact: Alex Workman

HIGH SCHOOL PROM UPDATE:
When: May 18
Where: Bramble Hill Farm in Amherst
Time: 6:30- 10:00 *after this there will be clean-up*
Cost: $20.00

There are many ways in which the prom is quite different from that at other  high schools. Our prom is simple and relatively inexpensive.  Most years, all students attend. Most often students do not attend as couples, but as single individuals. Each student can bring a friend, who does not have to be a student at Hartsbrook. It is sometimes attended by former students who have gone to a different school for high school. The cost is $20 per person.  It comes to about 1/3 of the cost of local high school proms. Students do  get quite decked out in finery. Boys wear suits and ties and girls wear evening dresses. Everyone looks elegant. Again, breaking the high school prom trend, students do not spend a fortune on dresses and limousines. Frequently one of the students or a parent organizes an exchange of formal clothing and shoes. Folks bring in all their old dresses,  suits, dress shirts, ties, shoes, etc. and make a swap. This is a delightful event. Last year it happened at lunch with the girls trying on dresses and the boys wondering if they would chance to see their classmates in a different than usual garb. A few days later, the boys were vying for shoes and choosing ties, proudly wondering what “looked best with their eyes”, tongue only partway in cheek the whole while. Prom begins around 6 pm and dinner is served to the students by the faculty. On the Friday before the prom, grades 9-11 spend the afternoon setting up, ferrying plants and decorations to Bramble Hill to create an enchanted garden environment. Others join in to the catering team, preparing a nutritious and tasteful dinner. The Senior Class is featured in the prom and they have a promenade through the “garden” photographed by Mr. Weems. We hire a DJ and there is dancing after dinner. All help to deconstruct after the event is over.

LANGUAGE  ARTS SHOWCASE –UPDATE Changed time
Wednesday, May 29  11:00-12:30 -Assembly Hall and Lobby

SENIOR CLASS PLAY
May 30- June 1.

The senior class has begun rehearsal for our production of Edward Bond’s The Sea. It promises to be both funny and provocative. Performance dates are May 30, 31 and June 1. Leslie Ritchie-Dunham has agreed to be production manager and will be in touch with parents over different ways they can help.

Details coming… Watch Week At a Glance and, ESPECIALLY FOR SENIOR PARENTS,  your emails for updates.

WHOLE HIGH SCHOOL TRIP TO CAPE ANN
June 3 & 4. The whole high school will be going overnight to Cape Anne, Virginia McWilliams’s home stomping grounds. There will be ocean, eating, sunning and fun together….. Watch Week at a Glance for updates

SENIOR BANQUET
Thursday, June 6
Seniors, their parents, faculty and special guests will gather in the Assembly Hall to reminisce and say farewell.  Ninth Grade parents and students are the servers and set up and clean up crew. Please contact Cherrie Latuner and Steve Haendiges, the class advisers for more details and watch your email for updates and sign up sheets. Students should arrive having eaten supper. There is a dress code of black pants or skirts and white tops….Watch Week at a Glance and your e-mails for updates.

HIGH SCHOOL FINAL ASSEMBLY
Friday, June 7, 8:45 am in the Assembly Room. This intimate assembly in the high school begins the morning of the last day of school. All parents and friends are welcome to attend. Student, faculty and parents have an opportunity to reflect and anticipate the changes that lie ahead.

ALL SCHOOL FINAL ASSEMBLY UNDER THE TENT
Friday, June 7 11 am. This is the culminating event of the school year. It is an impressive sweep of grades 1-12 offering a bit of their work to parents and friends.

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
Saturday, June 8 10 am. All high school students are required to attend graduation. They are offering singing and musical presentations. They are also required to help set up before the event and serve food afterward. All parents and friends are welcomed and encouraged to attend graduation. Graduates make, often impressive speeches, speaking to the elements of their Waldorf education over the years. Many lower school parents who have attended over the years have commented on the fact that the high school graduation has given them the best picture of the wide scope of Waldorf education.