September 24, 2025
Category: Academics, All School Meeting, Camping Trip, Earth Day, Endterm, Performing Arts, Student Travel
At first glance, Waring may appear similar to other middle and secondary schools, with backpack-clad students walking in groups on a beautiful 32-acre campus, a “Wolfpack” scoreboard standing tall on the athletic fields, and academic buildings dotting the wooded hillside. Upon closer examination of Waring’s long-held traditions and evolving narrative, it becomes clear that this close-knit school fosters a unique approach to learning and experiencing the liberal arts in community.
At Waring, we “shape and maintain our culture, and it requires that we have integrity, that we be honest, that we be caring and that we be courageous.” From small moments between classes or during Focus-Flex when students enjoy a game of chess or a chat about their lives, to more significant Waring traditions like the annual Camping Trip, travel programs to Montreal, Alabama and France, music and theater performances or the community-wide planning of Special Day or Earth Day events, we ‘practice’ community with intention and authenticity between students and adults alike. Some point to the shared learning of the French language, faculty and students communicating on a first-name basis, the no-cell-phone policy, the unique experiences of Endterm activities, or the daily All-School Meetings as the glue that bonds this community together.
Practicing community doesn’t happen with one tradition or one event, but rather through the culmination of so many moments, both large and small, that make our community special. At the 2025 Convocation, for example, Marika Whitaker, Dean of Community Life, spoke of the intentional nature of community building; Head of School Tim Bakland spoke of Convocation (a calling together and “ceremony of voice”) being part of the school’s arc and evolving narrative, more than simply a tradition. Here are just a few of the traditions and milestones throughout Waring’s academic year that our students and faculty look forward to the most.
Throughout a Waring student’s educational journey, they will be a part of a mixed-age tutorial group led by faculty members. These groups form a smaller, more close-knit community with the larger Waring community, where students can solve academic issues together and have the opportunity to take part in friendly tutorial competitions like the Tutorial Cups, a year-long, good-natured competition among tutorial groups featuring everything from whole school Spirit Week tasks, to smaller All-School-Meeting music quizzes. These tutorials become an integral part of both daily life and special events like Camping Trip, where tutorials bunk together.
Community is forged through shared goals, active participation in community-driven projects, and fostering deep relationships through shared experiences. Waring’s daily All-School Meeting is just another way we encourage this community.
During these 30-minute, end-of-the-school-day meetings, the entire community comes together in the ASM room where both faculty and students share announcements, recognize recent achievements, discuss global and community issues, engage around presentations, compete together in trivia games and plan school-wide projects like last year’s passion project, the Dona Nobis music video project.
The practice of ASM is rooted in the earliest days of the school, when Philip and Josée Waring had all their students sit around a table for “Morning Meeting” to discuss current events, read poetry, listen to music or sketch. Since that time, All-School Meeting has continued to be a cornerstone of the Waring community experience and one that is shared by generations of alumni and our newest students.
Camping Trip Kicking off every school year is the much-anticipated four-day Camping Trip to the North Woods Camp on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. This year marks the 41st year of camping to start the academic year, where new and returning students and faculty can be (re)acquainted in an authentic life experience in the White Mountains. Modeled on the idea that our older students are at their best when mentoring younger peers, we use our mixed-age Tutorials as our cabin unit, while also enjoying activities at grade/group level (such as the 9th-grade hike of Mt. Flagg) to foster community both vertically and horizontally. This shared experience brings our entire community together around themes and goals for the year, while living out our values authentically as we transition into the academic year.
For two and a half weeks after the seniors have graduated and while the juniors are in France, the Waring community dedicates time to mixed-age, experiential learning and a chance for students to pursue a passion – often in interdisciplinary liberal arts fields– through Endterm offerings. In past years, different Endterm groups have focused on areas such as film-making, chess, Shakespeare, photography and all things bicycles.
Endterm allows Waring to delve into mixed-discipline areas of passion, a core tenet of the liberal arts. Too often, schools treat subject areas in ‘silos’; Endterm allows teachers from all disciplines and departments to work together, co-creating (along with students) an organic experience where skills and passions can be integrated across subject areas and where we learn for the sake of learning.
Throughout the year, students have multiple opportunities to showcase their musical and theatrical talents, including the fall, spring and honors plays as well as musical performances in the form of more relaxed, all-ages Soirée events to the more formal orchestra performances in our theater and in downtown Beverly at the Cabot Theater. Both students and faculty come together in their shared passion for the arts through performances that showcase the richness of making art in community.
Organizing groups of people is a skill learned through practice and our students do just that as they take the lead in planning “special days” on campus, including the day before winter break, when seniors treat the Waring community to a homemade pancake breakfast and activities throughout the day.
Students also have a hand in planning and executing Earth Day activities on campus that showcase their commitment to sustainability and actions like planting, recycling and reusing items across the campus. Students choose from a variety of events, led by students, that help clean the campus, ready the garden for spring planting, organize a clothing swap and visit the harbor for learning more about ocean cleanups.
At Waring, we believe that travel and life experiences are as central to learning as any core subject or discipline; therefore, Waring students participate in annual trips as an integral part of ‘school.’ As a part of the Waring French Immersion curriculum, these trips give our students real-life language immersion, as well as creating authentic cross-cultural exchange. Waring students sketch, journal and engage with their surroundings in meaningful practice, rather than simply pulling out a phone to take selfies. Students are taught to see the world while making constant connections with their classroom learning in all areas of the curriculum.
Our Core (6th/7th grade) students travel to Montreal for three days and two nights to deepen their understanding of the coursework and engage in daily exchanges where they hear and practice French. Group 1 (8th grade) students head to Montgomery, Alabama, each spring for a four-day Civil Rights trip where they visit key landmarks such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the location of Rosa Parks’ arrest, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, with each student delivering a presentation at the actual site of their study. Our 9th graders participate in a French Exchange program in Orléans, France, where they are paired with a French correspondent approximately their own age and share a range of linguistic and cultural experiences. The Junior Trip to France (traveling through Paris, central France, and the south) is an opportunity for our juniors to step into their new roles as senior leaders and utilize their French-speaking skills to navigate places on the itinerary.
From formal traditions such as the no-phone policy and the milestone events throughout the school year, to the less formal traditions, such as Tutorial Cups or Earth Day events, Waring builds a vibrant community that continues to shape the school’s narrative. Explore all of our traditions and events on our website and find out more about how you can become a part of this robust and welcoming community.
