Academics
Upper School (Grades 6-8)
Our graduates enter secondary school knowing how to think critically, to speak and write clearly, and how to conduct themselves with poise and confidence in leadership roles.
Comprised of the middle school, Grades 6-8, the Upper School at Renbrook provides a rigorous, enriched program of academic excellence. As students move from childhood into adolescence, they gain opportunities for achievement in academics, the visual and performing arts, service, sports, and more.
Traditions like the daily Morning Meeting are uniquely Renbrook, kindling a collective sense of community while providing daily occasions for individual growth. In these meetings, students come to the podium to share news about school teams, clubs, and accomplishments. These daily experiences strengthen public speaking skills, peer recognition, and leadership development.
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Upper School: A Transformative Education
Renbrook is a dynamic, intellectual community where learning is rigorous, student-centered, collaborative, experiential, and applied. History takes on new meaning when our eighth graders recreate a Civil War encampment as Connecticut Volunteer Infantry regiments, modeled on the actual companies that marched into battle. Math empowers when our sixth graders build a 3D scale-model building, keep a checking account, pay bills, set prices, and conduct other transactions for fictional businesses as part of their “Math Town.”
As part of their interdisciplinary study of ancient history, sixth graders write and present their own “Greek” play. After using Renbrook’s Pond Sanctuary for ecological studies, seventh graders make digital presentations about their research on a related topic. Across the curriculum and in every grade level, Renbrook helps students to become active and inquisitive readers, clear and sophisticated writers, and confident speakers and presenters. We believe that the foundation for success in secondary school is solidified in these all-important middle school years. -
Renbrook's Ideal Educational Environment
Learning for middle schoolers at Renbrook is not limited to the classroom. With a ropes course, woods, trails, sports fields, and cultivated gardens, our campus is a safe, varied and beautiful outdoor classroom and learning laboratory. -
Renbrook's Balanced Education
At the heart of a Renbrook education is the meaningful relationship that takes placebetween our accomplished and deeply committed faculty and our inspired and engagedstudent body. Renbrook School is synonymous with academic and intellectual rigor in allaspects of our challenging and ever-evolving curriculum. In addition to core subjects ofEnglish, mathematics, science, and history/social studies, Renbrook Upper School students learn French, Spanish, or Latin, and participate in music and the visual and performing arts. -
Community Connections & Service Learning
A connection to the community, both within and beyond Renbrook, is an integral part of the Renbrook experience. Working with others to accomplish shared goals is an essential part of a Renbrook education. In Upper School, community work can range from buddy class with other grades to social service projects on and off campus, that benefit area agencies, shelters, hospitals, and soup kitchens. -
Prepared for College and Beyond
To see where some of our students have gone on to college, click here.
Eighth Grade Civil War Living History Day
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Civil War Living History Day 2019
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Renbrook’s Civil War Day is part of the eighth grade history curriculum. “Civil War Living History Day really encompasses our School’s mission which includes bringing learning to life. The day focuses on experiential learning activities which really brings the horrors of war to life and they realize that freedom is never free”says Jacqueline Nickeo, Renbrook School History Department Head.
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Sixth Grade Heifer International Marketplace
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Sixth graders show their support for Heifer International every year with their International Marketplace on campus. Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Renbrook is the only school in Connecticut that offers an entire curriculum around Heifer International. Students learn to write letters asking for donations and practice public speaking for the marketplace where students persuade visitors to donate.
Upcoming Events:
Seventh Grade Fidelco Fundraiser
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Seventh Grade Fidelco Fundraiser
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The annual Fidelco Fundraising Project serves as the culminating event for the Dog Unit in seventh grade Life Science. In addition to inviting well-behaved family dogs to visit their class, the students welcome representatives and their dogs from the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation and Oak Hill, an organization that helps people with disabilities.
The seventh graders planned, prepared and executed a business plan for the fundraiser whose goal is to generate enthusiasm for donations to Fidelco. The entire school was invited to attend the big event where seventh graders organized a number of activities, including a "blind obstacle course," a dog trivia game, and an auditory challenge.
Renbrook School is a co-ed private day school serving students in Preschool through Grade 8 in West Hartford, CT.
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