Fall Orientation Trips

Every year during the first week of school, each grade goes on an overnight orientation trip. The time and effort behind planning these trips is substantial, and most schools do not send every grade on an orientation trip every year, focusing instead on orienting the main “entry” grades. At BCDS, however, the grade trips are an important autumn tradition designed to accomplish far more than just orienting new students, although they do serve that purpose, especially in the middle school where more students are new each year. (In 2007, 59 students are new to the middle school, and 47 joined the upper school, including 37 in the 9th grade.)

Each grade’s faculty team sets specific goals that tie into the school’s core standards and values, and they strive to keep the momentum going the rest of the year. Faculty are assigned to travel with a grade based on their advisor assignment (in the upper school) or on their grade team assignment (in the middle school). Although the trips mean time away from their own families (and bunking in rustic cabins with high-spirited teens!), teachers find that spending an extended period of time with students outside of class helps them get to know students as individuals and understand how they relate socially to their peers. For returning students, the trips provide a chance to catch up with friends they haven’t seen all summer and to get to know their new classmates in a more relaxed setting than a classroom. For new students, the trips offer an opportunity to get awkward introductions out of the way so that when classes resume the following week new students have already made a few friends.

Other  Trips

Each April, the 8th grade visits Washington, DC, for five days as the culmination of their "Facing History & Ourselves" curriculum; the 7th grade spends three days in New York City after studying immigration; and the sixth grade takes an overnight trip to Boston.

During March break, there are normally trips planned (at additional cost) by the language department (e.g. to France or Spain) or by the Hiatt Center for Community Service and Social Change (e.g. to New Orleans or NYC). 

There are regular field trips in both the middle and upper school. Taking advantage of our proximity to educationally and culturally rich neighborhoods, BCDS students have visited:

    • The home of Jack Kerouac, Lowell, MA
    • The Boston Globe
    • The Museum of Fine Arts
    • Walden Pond in Concord, MA
    • Chinatown in Boston
    • The Museum of Science
    • Quincy District Court and Brookline District Court
    • New England Aquarium
    • Ecotarium in Worcester, Mass.
    • Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
    • The Museum of Modern Art in New York
    • Chelsea Galleries in New York
    • Whitehead Institute at M.I.T.
    • Museum of WWII in Natick, Mass.
    • Harvard Square
    • Decordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA