TICKETS ARE NOW SOLD-OUT. The Middle and Upper School proudly presents the Fall 2015 Musical, Ragtime, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov 19-21. Tickets are free but must be reserved here. Ragtime, based on a book of the same name by E.L. Doctorow, weaves the stories of historical figures and fictional characters at the turn […]
A Visitor from Oaxaca shares his talents with young student artists. Folk artist Fernando Félix Peguero García estimates that about 3,000 people live in his hometown in the pueblo of Santa María Atzompa in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, and that 90% of them work in clay. Fernando, at the request of Visual Arts teacher Ellen […]
Two years ago Middle School parents Kathryn Scott and Wenda Gu made a philanthropic gift to BFS, and asked that it be earmarked for the school’s nascent Mandarin language program. The request might seem unusual given that the couple were new to the school and that their daughter, now a 7th grader, isn’t yet old enough to […]
Middle-Upper School Dance teacher Jesse Phillips-Fein ’97 traveled as part of an impromptu relief effort to Haiti in April, 2010. She was already planning the trip to the beleaguered country with her Haitian dance teacher Peniel Guerrier, and when the earthquake struck in January BFS dance teacher Jesse Phillips-Fein ’97 and her colleagues decided not to cancel […]
Outspoken science teacher Janet Villas has a mission to make sure BFS students grow into environmentally active adults. Through her leadership in the IB Environmental Systems class and the schoolwide recycling program, she’s become our “go-to” person on all things green. Middle and Upper School Science teacher Janet Villas has taught Environmental Systems in the Upper […]
New Middle School Head Glen Pinder grew up in Willow Grove, PA, a suburb two miles north of Philadelphia. One can’t live that close to William Penn’s City of Brotherly Love without exposure to Quakerism, and Glen was no exception. “Abington Friends was close to where we grew up. My grandmother enrolled us in the […]
The Middle School continues integrating technology into the curriculum in ingenious new ways, among them taking part in the global “Hour of Code” movement. In addition to directing academic technology for Kindergarten through Grade 12, Elizabeth (Liz) Harnage has been the Middle School’s Academic Technology Integrator for the past six years. Liz teaches fifth through […]
Technological experiments and innovations have become the norm in many schools across the country. No where is this more evident at BFS than in the Lower School. It’s a brave new world of immersion into technology across kindergarten through grade 4 classrooms and library. The arrival of 160 iPads for student use in the fall of […]
IT’s Everywhere Innovative thinking from the school’s Information Technology (IT) staff, along with a recent push from a philanthropic parent, continue to move BFS forward in bold, new directions. Over the past several years, technological experimentation and innovation have become the norm in many schools across the country. The changes are evident at BFS, too, […]
by Laurice Hwang This year the middle school focused on stewardship. Stewardship is not just taking care of the environment, but taking care of the people in our community. Service learning in 6th grade incorporated a bit of both: the Billion Oyster Project, which the whole middle school participated in, focused on environmental stewardship. The […]
by Laurice Hwang The Service Learning program for the 5th grade has been focused this year on two central themes – the elderly and (dis)ability. These two areas of focus have been integrated intentionally into the curriculum through specific units of study to raise awareness and inspire action. The first theme developed because of a […]
Our first two themes, “ART OF WORDS” and “BOOK ARTS” have activated the BFS Lower School! All students in grades K through 4 are involved in our library Maker Month. With design thinking as a framework for jumpstarting making, we invite students to try new skills and share old ones, while thinking about the processes of […]
