Welcome Class of 2016 to GPS!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

0 Comments

Welcome the class of 2016!

Enjoying Cat/Rat & a warm welcome on the 1st day of classes

Hats were all the rage on Tuesday, Aug. 18 as the senior class of 2010 and the sixth grade class of 2016 met each other and paired up for the Cat-Rat tradition. Matching swim caps, kitchen pots, baseball caps, straw hats, painted bandanas and even hot dogs were among the variety of creative designs by the seniors, who donned their signature styles and waited in the gym with their chapeaus on their heads, anxious to see which new student would have her twin headwear.

After each sixth grader found her new “cat,” and ate lunch, the sixth graders drew numbers from, where else, a hat, to determine when each senior will give their chapel talks.

The Cat-Rat retreat on Thursday and the traditional parade of sixth graders on Friday, Aug. 21 will be followed by a sixth-senior afternoon at Lake Winnepesaukah.

Eighty-one members of the new GPS sixth grade class were welcomed to the opening of school on Wednesday, Aug. 19. New and returning students in the 7^th through 12^th grades whistled, applauded, and shouted approval as the Class of 2016 paraded into the first day’s traditional morning assembly. Headmaster Randy Tucker noted that they made up the largest class of 6^th grade girls at any independent girls’ day school in the country. “In this school’s 104^th year,” he said, “our core values have remained very much the same as our founders believed.” The school’s mission, he added, “is to help each girl grow into an informed, active citizen who can make a difference” in society. “Don’t waste a minute,” he encouraged the girls. “Take a risk; try a challenging new course.”

Assistant Headmaster and Upper School Principal Rickie Pierce also welcomed the students back to school, adding that her three wishes for everyone were “to grow in their love of learning, to grow as women of integrity, and to grow in gratitude.”

Earlier in the morning, as the new students were dropped off by parents at the entrance to the Elizabeth Lupton Davenport Middle School building, the president of the GPS Parent Council and other staff members were on hand with black and blue balloons and a warm greeting for each girl, making sure she found her locker and her advisor’s room. New backpacks, the navy (class color) uniform. and a little nervousness made the newest and youngest members of the school easy to recognize.