News

We are so proud of eighth-grader, Campbell Hudkins, 13, of Farmington, Connecticut, who was recently awarded the USHJA (United States Hunter Jumper Association) Youth Leadership Award. Campbell has demonstrated leadership and positivity in her equestrian endeavors and has enjoyed success in the Hunters, Jumpers, and Equitation, including winning the 2020 EMO Insurance/USHJA Jumping Seat Medal Final – East. Campbell is involved in the day-to-day care and management of her horses on her family farm. She has also engaged in charitable work benefitting the USHJA Feed Aid initiative providing aid to purchase feed for lesson horses in the hunter/jumper community financially impacted by COVID-19.

We are so proud of Griffin Santopietro ’20, who is featured in this West Hartford News article for his work as an actor. Griffin recently starred in the Netflix show “Cobra Kai” which is based on “The Karate Kid.” Griffin is a 2020 graduate of Renbrook. Click below to read the West Hartford News article.

We are so proud of eighth-grader Campbell Hudkins for her recent equestrian accomplishments at the Capital Challenge Horse Show held at the World Equestrian Center in Wilmington, Ohio. Campbell won the fourth annual EMO Insurance/USHJA 3’3” Jumping Seat Medal Final – East on Saturday, September 26.

Avon Old Farms: May 12
Miss Porters : May 13 and May 20
Westminster: May 28

Charlie Mitchell, the director of secondary school placement at Independent Day School, is hosting a Zoom meeting about boarding schools. Several boarding school admission reps will be on hand to answer questions you might have about the boarding school experience. Mr. Mitchell will provide the meeting link upon request and will also collect any questions you would like the panel to address. Contact Mr. Mitchell here: mitchellc@independentdayschool.org

It’s time to start checking that out. First, the hull must be glued onto a wooden mount inside the bottle. The “seas” will be installed around the mount before the hull is glued in place. But it’s time to start “dry fitting” everything before gluing. No one wants surprises when using glue.

There is an old saying that it’s better to design with a pencil than with a saw. Resist the temptation to start carving right away.

Decide what kind of boat you wish to build in your bottle. I recommend a “fore-and-aft” rig for first-time sailboat bottlers rather than a “square rig” like my brigantine. Common fore and aft rigs are catboats, sloops, cutters, yawls, ketches, and schooners. See the illustrations to the right of each type of rig.

In the “days of wooden ships and iron men” sailors passed idle hours building ship models, sometimes building ships in bottles. When confined as prisoners of war during the Napoleonic wars, sailors built ship models using scrounged materials, even beef bones. Finding myself facing idle hours and confinement I will be spending the next several weeks building a ship and a boat in a bottle. I have some experience at this. See the photo to the right of a little brigantine I built for my wife many years ago.

Insights from our Use of Time Survey
by Kara Ashley
Upper School Head

Author Elise Broach visited Renbrook this week to talk about what it is like to become a published author. Elise is the author of The Wolf Keepers, Missing on Superstition Mountain, Masterpiece, and Shakespeare’s Secret.

Give Back Day 2019 was a huge success!! The rain held off just long enough for us to get a whole lot done! From cleaning classroom furniture, writing thank you notes, classroom organization, bulletin board design, raking, clearing the pond, picking up branches, tree-planting and more…Renbrook loves to give back!!! See more pics at: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmAJ4Jt8 or watch our video.

Seventh and eighth grade Latin students took the National Latin Exam in mid-March. Results are in and Charles G.(8th) and Ciaran G. (7th) won “Summa Cum Laude” – the highest honor on their respective Latin I and Latin II exams. CONGRATS!!