Educating leaders, shaping an institution
Nightingale educates young women to become leaders. Students gain confidence as they learn from their successes and tenacity as they learn from failures. They assume leadership roles in clubs and on boards beginning in Middle School, and by Upper School are leading assemblies and writing school policies on topics like sustainability, equity initiatives, and hiring practices for teachers. Nightingale girls are secure in their ability to help shape the institution.
Lower School
Serving the community
At Nightingale, learning is closely tied to community service. In a longstanding relationship with All Souls Church, Class IV students volunteer to serve lunch on Fridays several times a year and organize school-wide food drives. Giving back can mean creating friendship bracelets for migrant children or sending thank you notes to the city’s essential workers. Whatever the action or expression, an ongoing love of giving is instilled in students celebrating and supporting the community.
At Nightingale, learning is closely tied to community service.
A day to give back
Ideals Day is a school-wide day of service, inspired by our partnership with Round Square. Since Central Park is a natural extension of Nightingale’s classrooms, Kindergarteners last year decided they would clean it up! They studied recycling in science, learned recycling terms in Spanish, and used the Makerspace to design and build their own trash-collecting tools. As they swept through the park, people cheered. Ideals Day builds character through experience.
Ideals Day builds character through experience.
Middle School
Developing a strong voice
A coin is tossed into the air to determine which side to argue. Middle School debate teammates delve into topics, defend points of view, and listen carefully to others. Nightingale has a mandatory Debate class in Class V, and girls can be part of the Debate club, too. Debate allows students to find their voice, shape an argument, then share it. These are skills useful far beyond the classroom.
Debate equips students to find their voice, shape an argument, then share it publicly.
Students speak up
Our Middle Schoolers build on their studies of differences and similarities with student-led assemblies centered on essential topics like Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, or LGBTQ+ issues. Assembly topics range from students informing their peers on current political races to showcasing hidden talents that nobody knew they had. Students create forums of discussion and discovery that bring people and ideas together through assembly while gaining tools for living fearlessly in the future.
Students create forums of discussion and discovery that bring people and ideas together.
Upper School
Leadership blooms at the top
After years of empathizing with the community and understanding society, Upper School students learn to leverage their strengths and continue to develop leadership characteristics. They lead critical engagements around topics of race, equity, and social justice through the Student Diversity Leadership Conference, the Diversity Awareness Initiative for Students, the Latinx Youth Conference, the School for Ethics and Global Leadership, and The Student Leadership Challenge. When they finally leave the blue doors, they leave as compassionate thinkers, powerful speakers, and agents of meaningful change.
They lead critical engagements around topics of race, equity, and social justice.
Leading by example
The vast majority of Nightingale’s unique assemblies and community events are planned and organized by the ambitious Upper School Student Council. Peer-elected student government members play a critical role in setting the goals for the entire Upper School. They are the leading representatives and spokespeople for their classmates across every discipline. Leadership and vision manifest as students participate on the hiring committee and help craft Nightingale’s honor code.
They are the leading representatives and spokespeople for their classmates across every discipline.