Head of School Jan 12, 2024
After a restorative holiday break, the school year roared back to life again this past weekend.
Friday night’s Lower School Spirit Night brought out a capacity crowd for the introduction of our Lower School winter athletes and for two decisive victories by the girls and boys varsity basketball teams.
On Saturday morning, Seven Hills hosted the First Lego League competition. Two Lower School teams from Seven Hills competed against teams from eight other area schools. Each team had to design a robot that could be programmed to navigate a prescribed course and perform a series of tasks. In the Innovation Challenge, each team identified a social challenge in their school or in the community-at-large and designed an intervention to address it. At the tournament, the teams presented their innovations to a panel of judges and then faced off in a series of elimination rounds to see whose robot could perform the assigned tasks with the greatest speed and accuracy.
The robot competition helped students to acquire a basic understanding of design and engineering principles as well as computer coding. The Innovation Challenge called for vision and creativity as well as teamwork and presentation skills. Even more importantly, the competing teams demonstrated their commitment to the First Lego League’s core value of “gracious professionalism” by working together to compete at the highest levels while graciously celebrating the efforts of the other competing other teams.
At the same time, in our new Wyant Family Squash Center, Seven Hills hosted a weekend competition against students from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh. It was exciting to watch our Upper and Middle School students compete in this sparkling new facility, which, in spite of some frustrating supply chain delays, is now ready for play on two courts, with two more expected to be finished by the end of the month.
We are thrilled that, thus far, 45 student athletes in grades seven to 12, have opted to play squash during the winter season. It is even more exciting to contemplate the effect this new facility will have when we add squash to our physical education rotation and expose a new generation of students to this wonderful lifetime sport.
I hope the new year is off to a great start for you and your family!
Christopher P. Garten
Head of School
Key Dates & Events
Monday, Jan. 15 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day. No School.
Monday, Jan. 15 — Flexible Tuition Forms Due
Wednesday, Jan. 17 — Board of Trustees Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 22 — Re-enrollment Contracts Expire
Week of Jan. 29 — Prevention Solutions Week
February — Black History Month
Wednesday, Feb. 7 — Parent Community Board Meeting, 8:30 a.m.
Friday, February 16 — Faculty Professional Development Day. No Classes.
Monday, February 19 — Presidents Day. No School. All buildings and offices are closed.