News

Academy Hill Composer's Work Performed Nationally

Download an article (pdf) about how one Academy Hill eighth grader's original composition "Five Vignettes for Piano Trio" was recently performed at Carnegie Hall and will be performed soon on both NPR and PBS for the radio and television versions of "From the Top," a nationally syndicated program featuring the nation's top young musicians.  The piece was performed for radio by musicians from the Juilliard Preparatory College and for television by the Luna Trio of the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory School.

Community Service Teams Launch Successful Initiatives This Year

Academy Hill's Middle School Community Service Teams have launched several successful initiatives this year.  They expanded our school-wide recycling program to include containers and composting, they volunteered in building and grounds cleanups, and they ran several drives for charity.  Here, one student describes the charity drives:

"This year the Community Service Poverty Team had a very productive year. We completed a drive every trimester and will finish up the year with education for the Lower School to teach them about why poverty awareness is important.

In our first trimester we decided to do a winter coat drive.  We teamed up with the Parent Association to expand the drive to include all winter clothes and got quite a good result. We were able to donate to both the Grey House and the Open Pantry.

In the second trimester we ran a second drive to donate dry and canned goods to the Open Pantry. The Open Pantry sent us a thank-you note stating that we donated more than 240 pounds of food. Once again, the generous nature of our school community is revealed through the success of our drives.

This trimester, we'll round off the year with education for grades K-4. We'll illustrate poverty by breaking the students into "countries" and giving them Goldfish "food." However, some of the countries will not have as much as some of the others, thus demonstrating how poverty works in the world. Together we will talk about how the more fortunate countries feel when they see less fortunate countries, and how we can work together to reduce poverty around the world and in our community.

The addition of Community Service to the curriculum has been a successful one for our group. Every time we finish our drive and deliver the goods, we feel proud about what we've done. The generosity that has been shown and the good that comes out of it are truly inspirational."

Norton Juster Makes a Surprise Visit

Norton Juster, the award-winning author of children's classic, The Phantom Tollbooth, made a surprise visit to Academy Hill. In Forum, our Middle School's public speaking program, a fifth-grader was presenting on the life and work of the author.  Juster came to watch and agreed to be interviewed by the presenter and the audience.

High school acceptances are rolling in...

High school acceptances are rolling in for Academy Hill's graduating eighth-graders. Acceptances include Choate-Rosemary Hall, Walnut Hill, Westminster School, Wilbraham & Monson Academy, Pomfret School, Loomis-Chafee, Suffield Academy, the Hartsbrook School, Williston-Northampton, Northwest Catholic, and Holyoke Catholic.