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''This is about St. Paul's School in the United States. For other schools, see the disambiguation page.

St. Paul's School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire affiliated with the Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1856 by George Cheyne Shattuck of the Choate family of Massachusetts. The 2,000 acre (8 km²) New Hampshire campus currently serves around 530 students. The school became co-educational in 1971 and is one of six remaining 100% residential boarding schools in the U.S. The student body hails from all over the United States and the world.

St. Paul's is part of an organization known as The Ten Schools Admissions Organization. This organization was founded more than forty years ago on the basis of a number of common goals and traditions. Member schools include St. Paul's, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Hill School, The Hotchkiss School, The Lawrenceville School, The Taft School, The Loomis Chaffee School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Phillips Academy Andover.

The school's endowment stood at $353 million as of June 5, 2005, or just over $660,000 per student.

Millville

The school's rural 2000-acre (8 km²) campus is familiarly known as "Millville", after a now-abandoned mill whose relic still stands in the woods near the Lower School Pond.

Though the school owns 2000 acres (8 km²), the overwhelming majority of the land comprises wild and wooded areas. The campus includes four ponds and the upper third of the Turkey River.

There are 18 dorms, nine boys' and nine girls', which each house between 25 and 40 students and are vertically integrated: every dorm has members of all four classes. The architecture of the dormitories varies from the collegiate gothic style of the "Quad" dorms to the modern style of the Kittredge building.

Classes are held in six buildings: language and humanities classes meet in the Schoolhouse; math classes in Moore; science classes in Payson; visual arts in Hargate; music and ballet classes in the Oates Performing Arts Center; and theatre classes, in the New Space black-box theatre. The Schoolhouse, Moore and Payson form a quadrangle, along with Memorial Hall, the 600 seat theatre used for all school gatherings not suited to the chapel space.

The Ohrstrom library, constructed in 1991 houses some 70,000 books and overlooks the Lower School Pond. Across the pond from the library, students sunbathe and swim off of "the Boat Docks," so called because they were once used for crew.

Perhaps the focal point of the campus is the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, also known as the New Chapel. Constructed in the late 19th century, the Chapel was the first gothic revival chapel in America.

The Structure of the School Year

Most students (approximately 100 out of 140 in each graduating class) enter St. Paul's as freshmen. Freshmen are known as Third Formers. Originally, St. Paul's accepted students at age 12, and these students were known as "First Formers." The school stopped accepting First Formers when it began to accept girls in 1971. Another 30 students enter the school as sophomores – Fourth Formers – and fewer than 10 enter as juniors – Fifth Formers. St. Paul's does not accept Sixth Formers as new students nor do they accept post-graduate students. The academic year is divided into three terms: Fall Term, which runs from the start of school in early September till Thanksgiving break; Winter Term, which runs from after Thanksgiving break until Spring Break at the beginning of March; and Spring Term, which runs from after Spring Break until the end of the School Year in the second week of June.

Daily Life

Like many private schools in its area, St. Paul's operates on a six-day school week, meaning that classes meet on Saturday. Wednesdays and Saturdays, however, are half-days, with athletic games in the afternoons.

For Paulies, as St. Paul's students are called, most school days begin with Chapel. The mandatory interfaith half-hour meeting involves a reading, speech or music presentation, and community-wide announcements.

St. Paul's conducts all its classes (with the exception of science and some math classes) using the Harkness method, which encourages discussion between students and the teacher, and between students. The average class size according to the School's website is 10-12 students.

Rather than offering a Physical Education class, St. Paul's requires all its students to play sports for all six terms of their Third and Fourth Form years, and for any three terms during their Fifth and Sixth Form years. These sports range from a world-champion crew to an intramural club hockey team.

Twice a week, students attend Seated Meal. Seated Meal requires formal attire. Seven students and a faculty member are randomly assigned to each table, and the table is excused only after everyone has eaten.

In the evenings, meetings are held for clubs and activities including music ensembles like the Chorus and Band, theatre rehearsals, a cappella groups (the all-male Testostertones, the all-female Mad Hatters, and the co-ed Deli Line), the Debate Team, and other extracurriculars.

The hours of 7:30-9:30 are officially "study hours," although students are not required to be anywhere in particular or do homework. Not coincidentally, these hours are the only time students can visit peers of the opposite sex in their rooms.

Traditions

St Paul's is home to many long-standing traditions. Near the start of the school year, the Rector announces a surprise holiday – Cricket Holiday – in morning Chapel. Classes are cancelled for the day and the Rector leads new students and faculty on a tour of the woods surrounding the School. The Cricket Holiday tradition dates back to the first Rector, Henry Augustus Coit, who preferred cricket over baseball as a "more refined sport."

Winter and Spring Terms also have their own surprise holidays. During February, the Missionary Society (the school's community service organization) plans and announces Mish Holiday. The holiday is announced the day before, the evening is given over to a theme dance, and the next day is a day off from school. The Missionary Society is known for using extravagant stunts when announcing its holiday, which in recent years have included fireworks over the Lower School Pond, or a plane trailing a "Happy Mish!" banner. Late in Spring Term, the Rector calls another surprise holiday, called Rector's Recess.

Students who participate in club sports (intramural) at St. Paul's are assigned to one of three teams for their entire school careers—"Isthmian," "Delphian" or "Old Hundred." Students also are assigned to one of two "Boat Clubs""—"Halcyon" or "Shattuck." If a descendant of a graduate attends the school, she is assigned to the same clubs as her forebearer.

The Annual Inter-House Inter-Club Dorm Run takes place late in Fall Term, usually in early to mid-November. Students are invited to earn points for their dorm and club by running in a 2-mile cross country race. Pizza parties are awarded to both the dorm with the fastest runners and the dorm with the most participation.

During a weekend in the Fall Term, the Student Council holds Cocktails, a dinner/dance formal. No alcohol is served, but each dorm's prefects set their students up with members of the opposite sex from other dorms.

On the last night of every term, students gather in the Chapel at 9 p.m. for the Last Night service, a short service held on the last evening of every term to conclude the term before vacation. At the Last Night service for Spring Term, which is also the last night of school before summer vacation, the entire Faculty lines up outside the Chapel after the service and students shake hands with every member as they exit.

A more emotional Last Night service than this one occurs on the Sixth Formers' Last Night at St. Paul's, the night before graduation. Seniors gather as a Form in the smaller Old Chapel. At the conclusion of the service, the rest of the student body is waiting outside. This is generally when Sixth Formers say their emotional goodbyes to the rest of the student body.

During Anniversary Weekend, held on the first weekend of June, alumni converge on the school for get-togethers, reunions, and the annual Alumni Parade. Each Form (class) marches down Chapel Road in chronological order, starting with the oldest living alumni. In the back of this long column is the about-to-be-graduated Sixth Form.

St. Paul's students once had a close relationship with jam bands like the Grateful Dead. According to "Skeleton Key" by David Shenk and Steven Silberman, much of the lingo peculiar to St. Paul's originated in 1978 as the "Pyramid Dialect" among St. Paul's alumni on tour with the Grateful Dead in Egypt. Phish played in the Upper (the school's dining hall) on May 19, 1990.

Athletics

Malcom Gordon coached ice hockey at the school for 29 years, and noted World War I ace fighter pilot Hobey Baker played under him. America’s first racquets and squash * courts were built at St. Paul’s in 1883.

St. Paul's crew team won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in the Henley Royal Regatta in 2004, beating Winchester College, St Paul's School (UK), Pangbourne College and Abingdon School.

Notable alumni

See also

External links

Boarding schools | High schools in New Hampshire | Independent School League | Anglican schools | Concord, New Hampshire

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)".

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