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The Winchendon School

The best college prep school for students with significant unrealized potential

News

Robotics: Curiosity Gets it Done

It’s a bunch of nerds hanging out together.” – 2023 Robotics Team Member

This year, seven of the nine members of the Robotics Team are girls – a big change from the year when co-mentor, Kayley Irvine was a TWS senior and captain of the team – and we think that’s a story worth following.

Follow along on their Instagram account at : https://www.instagram.com/twsrobotics/

This program proves, yet again, that curiosity is all that is required to begin a journey in STEM. At each step during our build season, new ideas, perspectives, and ways of looking at the world are explored and developed. Students who might not have seen themselves building a radio-controlled robot, complete with autonomous and interactive code, motors, electronics, sensors, and pneumatic systems, now find themselves in the driver’s seat where blue sky is the limit of imagination.

Peter Blais, Chief Technology Officer and Robotics Mentor

This School is the Right School: Jesse’s Story

So anxious (and a little skeptical) to find a great school that would work, Jesse struggled to even interview with our admissions director. But five months later, he is thriving.

He recently earned his certification as a wilderness rescue first responder and this month was a student orientation leader for mid-year admissions. It’s true, the student who wasn’t able to interview was now leading the presentation introducing the newest students to iLab. 

At The Winchendon School, the academic year is sectioned into six iTHEMES. Each theme encompasses about five weeks. Students explore the theme throughout their curriculum. From English to math to science to history, students examine the theme as it relates to each subject. Recently, students began to dig into the “wealth” theme. Jesse and his classmates spent time with New York’s 9 Million Reasons nonprofit.

9 Million Reasons is New York City’s largest food pantry and is currently assisting Cuban asylum seekers bussed to the City from Florida. While onsite with The Winchendon School, Jesse was able to use his Spanish skills and volunteered as an interpreter. 

Helping teens find their place, is what The Winchendon School is all about.

The Intersection of Production and Creativity

When Sophie J. ‘18 came for her Winchendon School interview, she was painfully shy, so much in fact she’ll tell you she couldn’t even speak to the student tour guide (watch Sophie discuss it here as the student speaker at the 2017 Baccalaureate). Fast forward to this year, and Sophie has: graduated from college, moved on from her job at Hasbro as Nerf’s first Chief TikTok Officer, and is featured in Fast Company in an article celebrating “How Gen Z social media managers became the new CMOs”

Having created her social media persona, Sophie Lightning, while a student at The Winchendon School through our ColLAB program, Sophie took the expected route to the big-name business school for college. After a year, she knew that wasn’t the way to reach her goals. Time off and a family move later, the day she graduated from the University of Southern Maine, she received an offer from a start-up and left her job at Hasbro behind. 

The social media creator is one of the new and upcoming marketers at established companies, including Dunkin and Taco Bell. The idea is that platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are creators’ platforms and creators should be running the show. In a marketing shift, companies and agencies view working with creators as vital to growth.

At The Winchendon School, our role is preparing students for the jobs that don’t exist yet and those that do. 

Read the full article here:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90827081/gen-z-social-media-managers-tiktok-taco-bell-duolingo-dunkin

2023 is Already a Great Year!!!

2023 Joshua Weeks Invitational Tournament Winners

Hockey is off to a banner start in 2023 at The Winchendon School! The Varsity White (girls) team played in the championship game at our own TWS Invitational Tournament and the boys team plays this afternoon in the Joshua Weeks Invitational Tournament held at Tabor Academy. The boys controlled the game with St. Paul’s School out of Concord, NH, from the first period and ended with a 7-1 win for the championship.

This is a fantastic start to 2023!

Reflecting on the past two games that brought them to the finals, Coach Troy said,

“Coming back from the New Year break provided our group with a phenomenal opportunity in a great tournament to spend some time together and work to achieve a common goal. We’ve been blessed with a great group of student-athletes who’ve taken it upon themselves to be their best selves. We’ve played two amazing games this tournament getting contributions from every member. We’re really fortunate and grateful for the opportunity to play against a quality opponent in St. Paul’s School today at 3:00pm in the championship game. We can’t thank our families, friends, and Winch Nation enough for the overwhelming support.”

You can watch the livestream feed here: https://vimeo.com/event/2753746

New England Hockey Teams Come to The Winchendon School for Annual Invitational Tournament on January 1st and 2nd

Start the Year with Hockey at “The Ritchie”

The Frederick Gunn School, Lawrence Academy, The Williston Northampton School, and Cushing Academy join The Winchendon School White and Green Varsity Hockey teams in our annual invitational tournament.

The game schedule can be found here, and all games are live-streamed using our Playsight system here.

Visitors are encouraged to check out our Visitors’ Guide.

The Winchendon School Moves to 16U and 19U Girls Hockey Format for 2023-2024

Winchendon, MA: Today, The Winchendon School announced that for the 2023-2024 season the girls ice hockey program will move to the extended season, USA Hockey format with 16U and 19U teams and a nationally competitive hockey schedule. The move to this program will allow Winchendon to better meet its student-athletes’ goals of preparing to play at the highest collegiate level while pursuing a rigorous and innovative academic program.  The Winchendon School is known for its experiential learning and a strong record of college placement.

Under the leadership of Director of Hockey, Coach Jeff Pellegrini, the School announced the formation of 16U and 19U full-season hockey teams starting with the 2023-2024 season.

“We would be excited if every NEPSAC school added teams at the 16U and 19U level – because it will a)best serve the students, and b)again attract the best prospects back to NEPSAC schools.  Everything from cognitive research to what we hear from the coaches at the university programs suggests that student-athletes will benefit from this new strategy.   Under the current structure, the most aspirational female student-athletes are forced to stitch together a mishmash of different hockey and academic programs – almost always resulting in compromise and unnecessary anxiety, expense and travel.   Winchendon’s new program will eliminate much of that shuttling between programs and allow the students well-integrated academics, athletics, and conditioning throughout the year.   It’s about a higher quality high school experience and less stress!” 

Pellegrini continued, “We believe this approach will bring the best players back to the prep school model – over the past few years we’ve watched players leave to play at “hockey academies” at the expense of their education. We believe this model is the best of both worlds, a full season schedule wrapped around an education first philosophy.”

Since the girls ice hockey program’s inaugural season at The Winchendon School, team members have enjoyed strong matriculation to highly competitive colleges and universities where they’ve enjoyed continuing their playing careers. With this program in New England, we’re looking forward to more of our student-athletes achieving their goal of playing at the highest level. 

Since 1926, The Winchendon School has inspired, empowered, and elevated each student by creating a joyful and transformative learning experience, resulting in graduates who are better prepared for a lifetime of success. With a boarding and day campus near Boston and a day campus in NYC, The Winchendon School provides unmatched opportunities for students in grades 9 – 12, plus PG students.

“This is an incredible move forward for our School and program. We are thrilled the leadership at The Winchendon School recognizes the opportunity to develop competitive student-athletes and a national program,” added Pellegrini.  

For more information, please contact Jeff Pellegrini at 978-297-7905.

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