The Beginning of the School Year
So much happens at the beginning of the school year here at Thacher.
So much happens at the beginning of the school year here at Thacher. The first students to arrive are the pre-season athletes. They are followed by the seniors and then returning sophomores and juniors. Finally, the arrival of the freshman marks the true beginning of school. We fan out for Extra-Day Trips (EDTs), then return to the New Year’s Banquet, and at last, the first day of classes. It’s a whirlwind beginning to a year filled with exploration and learning.
Pre-Season
Pre-season training gives fall sports teams some time together before the CIF season begins. It’s also a great way for teams to bond. This August, almost 70 student athletes from five teams attended pre-season: girls’ tennis, volleyball, and cross-country and boy’s football and cross-country. Athletes worked on honing their skills, shared intramural competitions between teams and watched movies together. Volleyball player, Piper ’19, said, "It was super fun to be out with these ladies again.”
Freshman Arrival Day and All-School Games
Arriving at school for the beginning of the year is both exciting and potentially scary. The Thacher seniors welcome freshman with open arms and guide them through everything they need, from checking out riding gear to meeting their advisors. The seniors also run the All-School Games (a series of goofy and fun group activities that help everyone get to know one another and reconnect). Wesley Porter ’19, one of the prefects in Lower School, the freshman boys’ dorm, had a key message he wanted to get share with the freshman he connected with, “I wanted all of them to realize the bounty of resources that they will have available to them for the next four years of their lives and to note the importance of taking advantage of these opportunities whenever they could.”
Extra-Day Trips (EDTs)
“Hope for the best, plan for the worst”—it’s the motto of our Outdoor Program, and one that we believe serves students for a lifetime. It’s with this in mind that we sent students off on Extra-Day Trips at the beginning of the year for six days of camping. As always, the freshman headed to Golden Trout Wilderness School while other classes broke into small groups for a variety of trips, from kayaking off Catalina Island to backpacking in the High Sierra. Brian Pidduck, the head of the Outdoor Program shared an insight about the experience, “It is the opportunity to be with friends, new and old, to laugh at silly stories, to share the challenges of a long day on the trail, to marvel at the how and why of juniper growing on an isolated ledge high up a canyon wall, and to delight in the pleasure of a bowl of instant ramen that was prepared by a companion.”
New Year’s Banquet
The New Year’s Banquet, held between EDTs and the first day of classes, is the first time the whole community comes together to share a meal and to set the tone for the coming year. Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992, the new head of school, gave an inspirational speech during the event. She focused on trust and possibilities as cornerstones of the Thacher philosophy and experience. You can see an excerpt of her speech here.
First Day of Classes
As has become the cherished custom, Head of School Blossom Beatty Pidduck CdeP 1992 read “The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell Holmes—a meditation on personal growth, change, and evolution—aloud at an All-School Assembly before students and faculty headed off for their very first class of 2018-19.
“Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.”
May this be, as they say, the best year yet!
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A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.