Thursday, December 10, 2009

Rumsey Hall


Rumsey Hall is a co educational boarding school is currently located in Washinton, Conneticut. This is about 1. 5 hrs from Hatford. A parent visiting this campus needs to have a rental car or a transport to get to campus, its very rural in its location. It has moved with the rapid need for more space and a greater number of students to attend this pretigous school. The school is well know in the community for its excellence in education, working with student from varied states and varied countries around the world.

I had the pleasure of visiting Rumsey, during my regularly scheduled fall tour with other consultants. The consultants came from all over the world for the tour, which was very well coordinated by the Marvelwood school. This tour included several schools and great kids. Rumsey Hall resembles a upper school, but surprizingly its has grades k-9, with about 300 students and a 1:5 ratio of student to facultyof the students, who were simply wonderful. I loved the campus and the students were equally gracious and mannerable.

We started with a music and video performance, followed by the chorus of students from all grades. This is really a top notch group, with an equally committed faculty and staff. We proceeded with one of the students in our tour of the entire campus. Student have a way about presenting the facts to consultants, which makes the tour even more delightful. The focus of the curriculum we found is on language skills and flows from writing to organizationanl skills, essential to learning.

The campus has a large area, more than any schools this size and the faculty walked us through the changes on the campus, which included a new athletic center, changes in the construction of the girls dorms, and the proposals for upcoming years.

Most parents visiting this type of school, might be surprized the school really looks like a upper school. This boarding school ranges in grades k-9 which is commonly the start grades for lower school than upper schools. The campus is very accomodating with dorms decorated for this age group or girls, teddy bears on the bed, super heros for the boys, video games, dolls for the girls, and just a very warm feeling for the students.

The girls were terrific, polite, mannerable and just the kind of kids every mother and dad wished they had. There are various activiites for the girls and boys and most students including : athletics, art music, fine arts, just to name a few, were all part of the entire school. I believe a new constructed auditorum for class meetings, was very tastefully decorated in school colors, and the campus had great study areas for the children.

The right student for Rumsey Hall would be a younger student entering or prepared to enter a upper school. A day student would also be a good match, but they possibly might consider being a boarding student in the near future. The children have field trips, socials, all sort of events all year around. There is no "bordem" here, the kids are busy all the time, and they don't have time to think about missing home. Home for many of the students is Rumsey Hall, the the faculty and staff make sure the kids re taken care of.

There is a dinning room, decorated with taste and all students eat together, While our tour says the food is "pretty good"-well the kids know better than I do! Smile. I am just a visitor-right, Most students are from the east coast. Other students are from near and far.

The variety of activites range from ice hockey, to baseball, basketball, soccer, their are so many other activities to keep this young population active. While the teacher ratio of 1:5 the class sizes equally small. Would you send you child age 7 to a boarding school? What are some things about Rumsey Hall you like? What is the curriculum about? Having heard nt comments would you go to Rumsey Hall? Would you send you son or daughter to this school?