News & Views
Students Gear Up for Groundbreaking Ceremony
Head of School Robert Macrae has been meeting with students from across all grades to share exciting news – in age appropriate ways – about the upcoming construction projects on campus, including the renovation of the Lower School and the construction of the new Susan Haigh Carver ’51 Dining Hall and Commons, both of which will begin this summer.
The Lower School renovation will be complete by the opening of school in fall 2017 and the new dining hall will open in fall 2018.
First, Dr. Macrae visited with Early Childhood classrooms to read aloud, such as Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site.
First, Dr. Macrae visited with Early Childhood classrooms to read aloud, such as Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site.
At the May 2 Lower School assembly, Dr. Macrae showed the students the golden shovel that has been used at previous ground-breaking ceremonies including their very own Welles Building, which was first built in 1968. He also announced that an official ground-breaking ceremony for the new Susan Haigh Carver ’51 Dining Hall and Commons will take place at the upcoming all-school Memorial Day assembly.
Head of Middle School Kirsten Rosolen, who recently oversaw a major renovation of the Middle School, passed her hard hat to Head of Lower School Meaghan Mallin and shared her excitement about the Lower School renovation. Director of Facilities Ed Kirk highlighted some of the sustainability aspects of the projects and Dr. Macrae spoke to the students about how the new dining hall will be a place to build community and focus on health and wellness.
Later in the week, Dr. Macrae presented the long-range campus master plans to the entire Middle and Upper School. He shared a brief history of major building projects on campus, emphasizing the thoughtfulness of intentional campus planning stewarded by prior generations of administrators and trustees. Mr. Kirk again spoke about some of the sustainability aspects of the upcoming projects. The students asked some great questions about the new spaces and were really excited about the flexibility which will be created in their daily schedules.
Dr. Macrae has invited faculty to think about how they might incorporate the construction projects into their academic curricula next year, such as inviting construction workers into the classrooms to talk about their jobs or using the construction as the basis to apply math or science lessons to a real-world scenario. Mr. Kirk also offered resources for teachers including time lapse video of the construction, hard hat tours of the site and a 3D computer modeling program.
New Canaan Country School
New Canaan Country School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin and are afforded all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, or disability in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid policies or any other school-administered programs.
