Birthday celebrations at The Beech Hill School are kind of a big deal. From time to time, students will bring in some food to share on their birthday – like cookies or cupcakes. One student used to bring in a grill and make hot dogs for the entire school to celebrate his birthday. But even those that don’t bring in anything still get recognition. During Community, the celebrant stands in front of the whole school, while the students and faculty serenade them with the traditional “Happy Birthday.”
This Friday, we celebrated another year of The Beech Hill School, with a day that we call Founders Day. The day begins like any other Friday – Community, Classes, a suspension of the dress code – nothing out of the ordinary. But at 12:30, the celebration begins.
The school first started celebrating Founders Day in 2021. Ten years earlier, in early June of 2011, The Board of Directors of The Beech Hill School met for the first time. At that time, there was no Head of School, no faculty, no students, no classes – just an idea. There was an idea that there should be an independent middle school, focused entirely on the middle school experience, and small enough to make sure that all students were able to connect with one another and the faculty. The idea was fairly straightforward, however, when one surveys the educational landscape, they find that a stand-alone, day school, serving exclusively grades 5-8 is extremely rare. Due to that condition of rarity, it could be easy to conclude that there are not more schools like this because they are unsustainable.
Emily Ricard, and the Founding Board of Directors, fortunately, believed that this model makes sense and could work. While it was not always easy to actualize the vision of the founders, the school was fortunate to attract families and faculty members believed. Now, 12 years after the Founding Board Meeting, the idea that students would thrive at The Beech Hill School has become a reality. Throughout the afternoon, students, faculty, and families ate well, played together, and enjoyed their time recreating and chatting. On Founders Day, we not only celebrated another birthday since the founding of the school, but we also celebrated the affirmation of a founding dream!
Happy Founders Day BHS Community!