30/5/13 – Riverdale Country School

Today I was collected at 9am by the Headmaster’s own chauffeur driven ‘town car’ that took me up Manhattan , across the Harlem River and over to the Bronx for my visit to Riverdale Country School. Riverdale is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school and according to Wikipedia one of the most competitive private schools in the nation. It is located on two campuses covering more than 27 acres (110,000 m2) in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York.

Founded in 1907 by Dr. Frank Sutliff Hackett (Riverdale's Hackett Hall is named after him), Riverdale is one of the oldest country day schools in the United States. The present-day institution traces its origins to The Riverdale School for Boys, which was established in 1907 by Dr. Hackett. In 1920, the Neighbourhood Elementary School was founded, followed in 1933, by the Riverdale Girls School.

In 1972, the three schools combined to form a single educational community shaped by their common goals and ideals. Riverdale Country School aims to cultivate the unique talents of its students and to nurture their intellectual, creative, physical, moral, emotional, and social development. 

Riverdale houses two campus areas: the River Campus (grades Pre-K–5 known as the Lower School), and the Hill Campus (grades 6–8, known as the Middle School, and 9–12 known as the Upper School). The River Campus received its name because of its location beside the Hudson River; the Hill Campus, overlooking Van Cortlandt Park, was named for its location as well.

 

Riverdale currently has an enrolment of approximately 1050 students (River Campus, 365; Hill Campus, 685), who come from all parts of the surrounding region. The buildings on the Hill Campus include: Hackett Hall, Mow Hall, Lindenbaum Center for the Arts, the Rachel Lloyd Building (aka the 9 10 Building), the Day Care, Vinik Hall (the Admissions Building), the Weinstein Science Building, and the Science Annex.

The buildings on the River Campus are the K-3 building (includes the gymnasium and classrooms from kindergarten to third grade), the Senior Building (includes chorus classroom, pullout reading, Spanish classroom, and honours math classrooms), the Perkins Building (includes a theatre, 4-5th grade classrooms), the Admissions/Junior building (includes various music classes, admissions office, nurse's office, Riverclub office, and lunchroom).

Both campuses have a gymnasium and tennis courts. The River Campus also has a pre-Kindergarten room and a playground (Jolly Run Playground). The Hill Campus has three playing fields (upper field, lower field, and football field), as well as a pool, wrestling room, fencing room, workout room, two drama rooms, and three floors of rooms devoted to the arts.

Riverdale founder, Dr. Frank Hackett, shared a deep commitment to "scholarly, intimate teaching; rigorous, uncompromising academic standards; abundant play in the open; and a care for the best influences." The curriculum in the early childhood program is designed to develop basic academic concepts and social skills. In Grades 1–5, a strong, sequential approach to skill development in reading and math is balanced with literature, writing, and math problem-solving. The Middle School is housed in the fully renovated Frank S. Hackett Hall, but students use arts, science, athletic, and dining facilities in common with upper schoolers, and the schedules of the two divisions permit teachers to teach classes in both.

The Upper School curriculum is a coherent sequence, co-ordinated with the Middle School program. It features numerous elective courses for juniors and seniors, including honours courses in language and mathematics; recently though, AP courses as a whole became no longer offered, leaving all maths and a few languages with advanced courses under the title of honours. Innovative courses are required of all juniors and seniors: juniors are required to take a co-taught, combined American history/literature course called "Constructing America"; seniors take a multi-taught course, "Integrated Liberal Studies," with readings and assignments covering Western culture, surveying classical philosophy as well as the history of science, and featuring literature, religion and arts components.



Foreign languages taught at Riverdale are: Japanese, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin. Riverdale also teaches Study Skills instead of a language in the Middle School. In the Lower School, half a year of French and half a year of Spanish are taught in third and fourth grades. In fifth grade, students choose either French or Spanish. In the Middle school, one language is chosen, and in the Upper School, students have the opportunity to take a second language.

To earn a high-school diploma, students in Grades 9–12 must complete 4 credits in English; 3 credits in a single foreign language or 2 credits in each of two languages; 3 in history; 2.5 to 3.5 in mathematics; 2 in science; and 3 in the arts. Seniors must also earn 1 credit in Integrated Liberal Studies, and meet various requirements in health, technology, and physical education. Each Grade 6-12 has a Dean of Students who coordinates academic programs and serves as a liaison among students, parents and the school. Students in Grades 6–12 must complete from 10 to 18 hours of community service yearly, depending on age, with two-thirds of the requirement to be fulfilled off-campus.

Most students exceed these academic requirements, and go on to a diverse selection of nationally ranked universities and colleges. Among the most popular destinations for Riverdale graduates in recent years have been: The University of Chicago, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Northwestern, Cornell, Bowdoin College, Washington University in St. Louis, Vassar, and Oberlin.

Riverdale has an extensive arts program, offering courses in music theory and composition, acting technique, studio art, and film analysis. At least 3 arts credits are required for graduation. Upper School students mount one musical and one play each year in the Jeslo Harris theatre. Studio art classes take place in the Lindenbaum Arts Centre, and are often taught by visiting artists. Riverdale students participate in the jazz and concert bands, orchestra, chamber music ensembles, chorus, and the a cappella singing group.

Riverdale also supports an extensive offering of clubs and activities, which enable the students to: form student-government organizations; produce school newspapers, arts magazines, and political publications; perform service to the community; and provide a meeting place for like-minded students, interested in a host of current topics, to meet, compete with other schools, air their views, and organize events important to school life.

The classes taught in the Lindenbaum Centre for the Arts include Strings (violin, viola, cello, bass, etc.), band (trumpet, clarinet, flute, drums, etc.), chorus, painting, sculpting, photography, and many more. The building also has a dark room and a computer lab, which is open to students (other computer labs are the Mayo Lab, the Language Lab- used for foreign languages, and the 9/10 Lab.) Co-curricular include clubs that provide the students with an opportunity to produce publications, hone their debating skills, participate in activism and much more.

Among the many clubs are Asian-American Alliance (AAA), Ski and Snowboard Club, Chess Club, Coalition for the Homeless, Computer Club,  Yoga Club, Environmental Club, Chipotle Appreciation Club, HOLA (Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness), SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), Students of Colour Coalition (SCC), Student-Faculty Council and Photo Club.

The school magazine ‘Impressions’ has published the visual art and creative writing of students in the Upper School for almost 30 years. Past Editorial Boards have sought diversity, experimentation, imagination, and honesty in personal expression in soliciting poems, short stories, essays, paintings, graphics, photographs, sculpture, and mixed media submissions. The Editorial Board and staff review submissions anonymously and set a direction for each year’s content and design. Students work after school and publish online, working with both the Adobe Photoshop and InDesign programs.

‘The Riverdale Review’ is Riverdale's student-run paper. Published once a month, the Review is managed by two editors-in-chief chosen by the students and an editorial staff of about ten others. The editors and writers meet weekly to decide the content for the next issue and cover a wide variety of issues from school news and world events to new films and music and what to do on the weekend.

‘Crossroads’ is Riverdale’s Middle School Literary and Art Magazine. The poetry, stories, memoirs, book reviews, sketches, and collages are all by sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.

‘The Falcon Times’ is the newsletter of the Middle School. Printed quarterly, it aims to represent the opinions and interests of the Middle School. Run by a small group of dedicated students, it serves as a source of entertainment and local, national, and world news.

Interscholastic Athletic Teams include for Boys – Baseball, Football and Wrestling, for Girls – Field Hockey, Gymnastics, Softball and Volleyball and for both – Basketball, Cross-Country, Fencing, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Squash, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Ultimate (Frisbee). Ultimate Frisbee is the only co-ed sport.

Kennedy children after they left Riverdale and moved to England when Joe was US Ambassador

Notable Riverdale alumni include:Richard Blumenthal (U.S. Senator from Connecticut), Chevy Chase (Actor), Edward M. Kennedy (U.S. Senator from Massachusetts), Ed Rendell (Governor of Pennsylvania), Cesar Romero (Actor), Carly Simon (Musician), Joss Whedon (writer, director, and executive producer; creator of several television series (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity)), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Actress), David Yazbek (Composer, lyricist, writer of Broadway shows and TV including The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Tim Zagat (Restaurant critic), John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy attended Riverdale's Lower School (until they moved to England), while Francis Fukuyama attended the Middle School. Vincent Price and Nathan M. Pusey taught at Riverdale Country School, as did Peter Schickele, as a substitute teacher in the early 1960s.

I met with Dominic Randolph the Head of School in his rather interesting office – no big desk and wood grained panelling here! Instead he had a work station, a conference table and a couch. The wall behind his work station was covered in ideas penned on the wall. Outside his office was another large ‘graffiti wall’ where all of the graduating class had left their individual messages to the staff and students.   Dominic told me about the school’s work with character development (Mind, Character, Commitment and Community are their four pillars) and described the programs they are running that look at innovative ‘Design Thinking for Educators’. See: http://www.designthinkingforeducators.com/.

I was pleased and impressed to learn that Riverdale has a large endowment program which allows the school to support students who perform well in the entrance exams but who otherwise could not afford to attend a school as expensive as this. (At $40,000 per annum its fees are currently the most expensive of any private school in NYC.) Many students are on scholarships and this makes for a vibrant and culturally diverse student population. Overall I was very impressed with Dominic. He seemed a ‘good guy’ and I look forward to keeping in touch with him. 

 

After my fascinating discussion with Dominic I met up with two of the enrolment staff who took me on a tour of the very impressive campus (In particular, given I have been living in Manhattan’s ‘concrete jungle’ for the last six months the space and grass was just lovely). I was pleased to see their Cindy Chang ‘before I die wall’, the ‘my neighbourhood photo wall’ and ‘TV art’ protesting gun violence on the way around.

 

I then met KC Cohen the MS Counsellor who's done some really interesting work with student well-being and in finding ways to encourage students to take responsibility for their learning journey. You might also like to check out one of the school’s excellent blogs - http://blogs.riverdale.edu/wellness an informational blog focused on social, emotional, and health-related topics designed for parents of MS-aged children. KC then took me into the canteen for lunch. This huge space provides a wonderful selection of healthy foods. Interestingly, lunch for all students is included in the fees.

After lunch I was joined by Sean Dagony-Clarke the Director of Academic Technology. Sean was a young man with lots of good ideas particularly regarding supporting staff with being up to date with the technology that meets the needs of the students here. Interestingly this is not a ‘one to one’ school even though technology is used constantly. Sean and I agreed to keep in touch as there seemed quite a few possibilities for working collaboratively here. Of particular interest to some might be the blogspot he maintains at http://blogs.riverdale.edu/learn365 where one can hear from a different community member each day about what he/she learned that day.

All in all a very productive day and I was quite pleased with myself as I sat in the back of the ‘big black car’ on the way home and set about writing some notes on how we could use some of these ideas at Wesley.       

ps. you can now get an app here that hails a cab for you and calculates the most time and cost effective route to be taken. Needless to say it is currently being challenged – (a) because this is NYC and every new idea is challenged here and (b) town car services are cut out of business and up in arms!

Pps. I saw an ad on TV today that promotes, as a selling point, a vehicle that has a 24/7 PA service – and the guy says…..oh I forgot our anniversary please book a restaurant and send flowers to my wife …..