News & Events

Please join us to celebrate the exceptional creative work of our students!

Come join us for an artistic showcase event on April 1st! Students have put together an evening of fine and dramatic arts. Students will perform one act plays they have written over the course of the year. Our tech crew is busy building props (see photos) and sets from recycled cardboard to create a cohesive look for our four one act plays. Other artisic efforts from our students will be on display throughout the school, including stained glass, paintings, collages, and more! Join us for an entertaining evening. 6pm: Art display, raffle, and snacks Check out the art throughout the school and eat delicious snacks prepared by students. Buy raffle tickets and win prizes such as homemade crafts and treats! 7pm: One Act Plays and Raffle Drawings Students will perform the four 10-minute student written plays listed below. In between each play, we will do a raffle drawing! The Seven Mysteries of Rock Point School by Madeleine M., Grade 12: One enthusiastic Rock Point student drags her less willing friend on a journey through the school to see if there's any truth to the seven legends she's heard. The Border of Winning a Heart by Katie K., Grade 12: Set at the German border in World War II, a young woman tries to save her friend, with the help of a dangerous smuggler. A Lively Production, by Clare B., Grade 10: A student tries to come up with an idea for an original play -- and the audience is taken inside her wild, and sometimes dark, imagination. The Prince and the Assassin by Maria D., Grade 10: A Prince and his assassin are on a quest to slay a dragon, but they don't realize how much they have in common. Hope to see you there!

For the fifth year in a row, we will be hosting a Maple Brunch! Come taste the maple syrup we make here at Rock Point and drizzle it on everything from pancakes to bacon to yogurt! If you'd like to work up your appetite before brunch, we will have a fun 5k run through our beautiful lakeside property. As usual, tours of our sugaring operation and sugar house will be available throughout the morning. See the schedule of events below. We hope you can join us!

The Rock Point School students are celebrating Pi Day a little early by hosting a make-your-own mini pie event on Saturday, March 12th from 2:00-3:00 pm. Students will be available to help youngsters fill, bake, and enjoy their own individual pies. Please forward this message along to those who may have little ones excited to participate! RSVP to Kate McKernan ( kmckernan@rockpoint.org).

Our travelers returned from Nicaragua on February 24th with lots of stories to tell! Students spent a week immersing themselves in Nicaraguan culture and learning from the people they met. Through Compas de Nicaragua, students spent time with Women in Action in Managua, learning how they support their families and community. Students also traveled to La Paz and worked on a variety of projects including: helping a family build an indoor shower, putting roofs on houses, creating a gray water system, and using manure to make methane gas cook stoves. Other highlights of the trip included:

It's time to get ready for our annual dramatic peformance! For the past several years, we have performed student written plays in conjuction with the Vermont Young Playwright Festival. This year, our production has evolved even more! The plays have become a focus for our Project Based Learning. Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge, skills, and experience by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question, problem, or challenge. Teachers are working to include more project based learning in their individual curriculums and we also wanted to create a school-wide project. In this case, the challenge is collaborating to produce a performance and event!

(photo taken at the Yelardy-Morganstern home before they took off for the airport)

Each year our staff members (headed by Emily Skoler) compose a Valentine poem to the students and perform this poem at a school wide event. This year, the students outdid the staff and wrote a sweet (and funny) poem dedicated to the staff! Seniors Max and Micah read the poem and even joined the staff wearing sparkly Valentine accessories. We love this silly, fun tradition and hope to keep reading ridiculous rhymes to one another for years to come. Here are few verses from the student written poem:

Like many people, we do not take Martin Luther King Day "off;" instead we chose to honor his legacy through service. This year, our history teacher, Gus, had students listen to King's most famous "I Have a Dream" speech and then led a discussion on social justice and preserving/promoting rights. Students discussed the roles of bystanders and collaborators, and the differences between empathy, pity, and sympathy.

Because of the overwhelming response to our event last month, The Enigma of Adolescence: Decoding our 21st Century Youth with Dave Melnick, we are hosting a follow-up dialogue on January 27th to focus on the challenges of growing up, parenting, and working with adolescents in the digital age.