February 2024
Dear families, alums, and supporters of the North Branch School,
We recently spent an afternoon writing and talking about what we love about our days here at the North Branch School, from the time of open doors in September to these icy woods of February. What do we treasure in our school and our being in here? What have we made that’s worth savoring? There seemed to be no end of answers.
Little moments, memories, daily rituals–these poured forth in profusion.
To hear the piano in the morning...the sound of the bus kids rumbling in with their backpacks and snow pants...the clack-clacking of keys when we are writing in the big room...snowballs flying by the windows on the patio...the word “Chiaroscuro” shouted in terrible Italian accents...or when the entire big room erupts suddenly from near silence with insane laughter, and feeling the sound and feeling of it reverberating around the room...to know and love that I’m not scared to stand up in front of the whole school and talk about Stonehenge ... to write little notes of things I found important while listening to a story, and use them to put together a note to the author... I come here to build fires in the snow....to hear Georgia reading a poem she wrote, her quiet voice echoing through the room... to run barefoot in the snow, or hide behind a Black Lives Matter flag in the loft...I come here because of all of these things. But I also come here because I know my life is changing. I would not be the same person in this place without all the crying, without the real stories, without teachers who care more about the relationships in the school than they do about kids saying cuss words, without people that aren’t ashamed to tell the school their feelings.
We make this every day – this boisterous concatenation, this beautiful formative chaos of living and life.
We are a small school, and we strive to keep our tuition as low as possible in order to make it affordable to all. We can not do this without your financial support – large or small. Any gift, of any size, is deeply appreciated and felt by the children here, who know that their school exists in large part because so many have supported it over the years.
We hope you will join us with a gift of support to this year's Annual Campaign, in our never-ending quest to keep doing what we are doing–making it new every day, making a place where children want to learn, grow, and be.
With love and gratitude,
Tal for the North Branch School
Dear families, alums, and supporters of the North Branch School,
We recently spent an afternoon writing and talking about what we love about our days here at the North Branch School, from the time of open doors in September to these icy woods of February. What do we treasure in our school and our being in here? What have we made that’s worth savoring? There seemed to be no end of answers.
Little moments, memories, daily rituals–these poured forth in profusion.
To hear the piano in the morning...the sound of the bus kids rumbling in with their backpacks and snow pants...the clack-clacking of keys when we are writing in the big room...snowballs flying by the windows on the patio...the word “Chiaroscuro” shouted in terrible Italian accents...or when the entire big room erupts suddenly from near silence with insane laughter, and feeling the sound and feeling of it reverberating around the room...to know and love that I’m not scared to stand up in front of the whole school and talk about Stonehenge ... to write little notes of things I found important while listening to a story, and use them to put together a note to the author... I come here to build fires in the snow....to hear Georgia reading a poem she wrote, her quiet voice echoing through the room... to run barefoot in the snow, or hide behind a Black Lives Matter flag in the loft...I come here because of all of these things. But I also come here because I know my life is changing. I would not be the same person in this place without all the crying, without the real stories, without teachers who care more about the relationships in the school than they do about kids saying cuss words, without people that aren’t ashamed to tell the school their feelings.
We make this every day – this boisterous concatenation, this beautiful formative chaos of living and life.
We are a small school, and we strive to keep our tuition as low as possible in order to make it affordable to all. We can not do this without your financial support – large or small. Any gift, of any size, is deeply appreciated and felt by the children here, who know that their school exists in large part because so many have supported it over the years.
We hope you will join us with a gift of support to this year's Annual Campaign, in our never-ending quest to keep doing what we are doing–making it new every day, making a place where children want to learn, grow, and be.
With love and gratitude,
Tal for the North Branch School
