Established 1904 Grades K-9 Phone +1 212-289-2878 Founded 1904 Colors White, Red | Headmaster Stuart H. Johnson, III Gender male Founder John Card Jenkins Lowest grade Kindergarten | |
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Motto Perge sed caute(Proceed, but with caution) Address 4 E 98th St, New York, NY 10029, USA Profiles | ||
St. Bernard's School, founded in 1904 by John Card Jenkins, is an elite, private all-male elementary school on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Contents
School
The school shield depicts an eagle (representing the United States of America), a lion (representing Great Britain), a book (symbol of education), and a cross (representing a tradition of Christianity).
Although the school's name is spelled (though not pronounced) the same way as that of the breed of dog, which is also its mascot, it was in fact named for the rue St-Bernard in Brussels, Belgium, where a relative of one of St. Bernard's founders had also founded a school.
The school's yearbook is named the Keg, and is edited each year by Grade 9.
Many team sports are played at the school, including soccer, swimming, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, and track. Fencing has recently been re-introduced after a long hiatus. Furthermore, sports such as bombardment (a form of dodgeball) and capture the flag are played in gym class. The ice hockey program is run by Saint Bernard's parents and begins in kindergarten.
The current headmaster of the school is Stuart H. Johnson III (born August 14, 1954). A graduate of Yale University, he previously taught at St. Bernard's, and at Groton School, before becoming headmaster in 1985.
Traditions
St. Bernard's is home to a number of traditions. The most noteworthy (and oldest) of these is the annual Shakespeare Play, performed by the entire eighth grade. Other important traditions include:
Students
The school has three divisions: the Junior (or Lower) School consists of grades K through 3, the Middle School grades 4 through 6, and the Upper School grades 7 through 9. Mondays through Thursdays, boys in the Junior School, must wear St. Bernard's polo shirts (polo shirts with the school shield emblazoned upon the chest) in either red, white, or blue, khakis, and a blazer. Boys in the Middle and Upper schools must wear a polo or oxford shirt, accompanied by khakis and blazers as well. On Fridays, all boys wear jackets and ties (with the exception of the Kindergarteners).
St. Bernard's offers motivated young boys of diverse backgrounds an exceptionally thorough, rigorous, and enjoyable introduction to learning and community life. The school "aims to inspire boys to appreciate hard work and fair play, to develop confidence in themselves, consideration for others and a sense of citizenship, and to have fun while doing these things." St. Bernard's educates boys from grades K-9, and is seen by its students, faculty and friends as a bastion of old-fashioned values (in terms of education and teaching methods), which are often very British in tone.
St. Bernard's alumni, known as Old Boys, earn admission to a wide range of the finest secondary schools in the United States and the United Kingdom, both day and boarding. The schools attended with greatest frequency include Andover, Collegiate, Deerfield, Exeter, Groton, Horace Mann, Lawrenceville, Loyola, Regis, St. Paul's, Stuyvesant, and Trinity. There have also been a number of students who go on to English boarding schools, which can be attributed to both the high number of students with English parents and the overall Anglophilia of the school.