The school consists of a kindergarten and nine grades. There are three divisions: the Junior School, Kindergarten and Grades I through III; the Middle School, Grades IV through VI; and the Upper School, Grades VII through IX. Kindergarten has two classes, and Grades I through III are divided into three sections. Grades IV through VIII are divided into two sections, with aproximately twenty boys in each section. There is one ninth grade class.
The Junior School introduces boys to reading, writing, and arithmetic, to science, computer, and the arts, and to the very nature of school work, the habits of study, and cooperation. From the start boys do a considerable amount of creative writing, including poetry. With the support and encouragement of their teachers, it gives them a sense of the pleasure of learning.
Kindergarten offers readiness activities in reading, mathematics, writing, and social studies. Classes in science, music, athletics, and visits to the library also figure into the curriculum. The arts are crucial to early development, and in addition to studio art and music, the school offers Junior School boys classes in crafts and carpentry. These are particularly useful in developing their dexterity and teaching them to plan and carry out a project. From this beginning we nurture and encourage qualities needed for all future schooling: independence joined to cooperate work and play, mutual respect, and flexibility.
The Middle School deepens these habits while fostering growing independence. Reading assignments probe more deeply, grammar is emphasized, note-taking is introduced in such subjects as history and science, and boys begin to study French, then Latin. Boys also receive our special plan book to keep track of assignments and to budget their time.
Public speaking is an important part of the boys’ education. They are encouraged to recite poetry, and all boys are expected to speak at morning assembly. Boys also have the opportunity to represent their class in Student Council and to join sports teams that compete against other schools. Boys are expected to read a considerable amount for pleasure and that their interests and hobbies will be encouraged, by both their classmates and teachers.
The Upper School builds on the work of the other two and strengthens an appreciation of the beauty and power of words and numbers--in literature, language, science, and algebra. Upper School boys continue with Latin and may choose to study either French or Spanish. They become keen readers and writers, enthusiastic historians and mathematicians, grounded in knowledge basic to our culture, confident in their abilities, and ready and able to use them to help others.
Common to all three divisions of the school is a belief in the boys and in the value of learning, hard work, and fun.
All of these--basic literacy and skill with numbers, discipline, intellectual enthusiasm--are their own reward. They would not be attainable without a faculty of remarkable talent and spirit, with unusually long tenure and strong loyalty to the school and to their students. We expect St. Bernard's teachers to teach carefully and responsibly, to form a class with its own personality while recognizing the value of each boy within it. They understand that character, integrity, and kindness are as important as intellectual accomplishment. St. Bernard's wants its boys to pursue learning before grades, to take pleasure in helping others, and to do their very best with what they have.
The admissions directors welcome inquiries throughout the year. Applications for Kindergarten will be accepted from mid-September through December 1. Once a completed application is received, the admissions office will contact the parents to arrange a tour of the school and a meeting with the headmaster. A separate interview for the boy will also be scheduled. We have no application fee.
In upper grades, any applications are considered on a rolling basis if space is available. The admissions office must inform an applicant's current school of his interest in St. Bernard's and receive a boy's latest transcript, along with test results from the Educational Records Bureau. For entry into the first grade and beyond, additional testing and a visit by the boy are required.
The school bases admissions on what it believes to be the best interest of each candidate. St. Bernard's does not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race, religion, color, national, or ethnic origin.
St. Bernard's, a member of the Independent School Admissions Association of Greater New York, follows its practices and calendar. The school also follows the Principles of Good Practice for Admissions to Independent Schools adopted by the National Association of Independent Schools.
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We spring from a distinctive heritage. In 1904 John C. Jenkins, a young Englishman and graduate of Cambridge University, founded St. Bernard's and was headmaster until 1949. His successor, R.I.W. Westgate (M.A. Oxford, Ph.D. Harvard), was headmaster until 1971. These men established the pattern of a strong, stable, well-qualified faculty, deeply committed both to learning and to the boys in their charge. That pattern continues. The present headmaster, Stuart H. Johnson, III, was himself formerly a member of the St. Bernard's faculty and returned to us in 1985 from the faculty of Groton School.
The school's original quarters were at 570 Fifth Avenue, from which we moved in 1910 to 111 East 60th Street. In 1915 we took possession of our present building, designed for us by Delano and Aldrich. Further expansions took place in 1988 and 1997, when we added two and one-half floors and made major renovations to the interior.
The school was incorporated not-for-profit in 1940. It is an accredited member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools and the New York Guild of Independent Schools.
St. Bernard's has a strong sense of community. This is best seen in the school assembly held every Friday morning. During the year each class has a chance to put on a performance: a play or a medley of songs and poems. We also have outside speakers and performers: a man who climbed Mt. Everest, a condor and his trainer, a puppeteer, a story-teller. Boys report on the games, make community service announcements, and put on skits in which they award our trusty alligator to the neatest classroom.
Other activities outside the classroom offer a wide range of experiences, particularly in public speaking. In the smaller, daily assemblies of the Junior, Middle, and Upper schools, boys recite poems, read compositions or passages from the Bible, and deliver reports on games, books, trips, and events. The eighth grade has its own debating society and has performed a Shakespeare play every year since 1910. The Upper School holds a public speaking competition in which all boys take part.
The Budget, the literary magazine, dates also from the school's beginning. Eighth and ninth graders edit and publish it twice a year. Of more recent date are the yearbook, The Keg, produced by the ninth grade, and newspapers produced by different classes.
Singing is a much-loved activity. The school boasts three choral groups: the Upper School Glee Club, the Middle School Choir, and the St. Bernard's Singers. A spring concert takes place each May. St. Bernard's has its own book of school songs, from which the boys sing at Friday assemblies. Boys learn the recorder in Grade III. Those interested may join the Recorder Club, which performs several times during the year.
The library, rebuilt in 1990 and dedicated to the school's founder, John C. Jenkins, provides the students with a quiet place in which to read and reflect. It is also a lively center of research and exploration. Junior School boys choose books in the relaxed atmosphere of their own reading room. The older boys study at large tables or in individual carrels, read for pleasure, and have access to up-to-date information and equipment, such as microfiche and research software.
Service to our community is an important and popular aspect of school life, and boys take part in projects for such causes as the Yorkville Common Pantry, UNICEF, the Booker T. Washington Tutorial Program, Project Cicero, the Ronald McDonald Run, and the New York City Audubon Society. In response to Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard's has established a relationship with the St. Bernard Unified School just outside New Orleans. We have raised money and sent the school basic supplies and science, computer, and sports equipment. The Environment Club organizes collections which have included donations to a school in rural Ecuador and medical equipment for a local doctor. St. Bernard's sends a delegation to the Packer Model Congress in Brooklyn. Seventh and eighth grade boys spend much of the fall and winter researching and writing bills for debate and studying parliamentary procedure. Finally, the Math Club offers boys in Grades VI through VIII a chance to work both independently and cooperatively in solving advanced math problems, with coaching and support from a math teacher. The best problem-solvers represent St. Bernard’s in the annual MathCounts competition. The Student Council, with representatives from all classes in the Middle and Upper schools, meets throughout the year with the headmaster.
St. Bernard's has an active after-school program. Our coaching staff offers a broad range of sports activities for Junior and Middle School boys: basketball, baseball, fencing, tennis, and fundamentals of self-defense. St. Bernard's boys are also invited to participate in Nightingale-Bamford School's after-school program, Hobbyhorse, which offers a wide variety of creative activities. Brochures are available each fall, winter, and spring describing these programs in detail. Saturday Sports Club is a popular weekend activity. The Carpentry Club is available during the week to boys in Grades II through VI, and first grade boys may enroll in the spring term. There is a class offered each term in typing and word processing for Grades IV through IX.
Athletics is notably strong at St. Bernard's. All boys take part in the athletic program, whose goals are to develop skill, to cultivate a sense of teamwork and sportsmanship, to channel and release energy and exuberance, and to have fun.
The Junior School boys learn the basics of many sports, among them soccer, basketball, baseball, and fencing. They play floor hockey and McWhippit, a precursor to lacrosse. The coaches, many of them professional athletes and all of them well trained in teaching and coaching young boys, work with each boy to ensure his development. Intramural games begin in Grade III. They give boys an opportunity to compete among themselves in a friendly manner.
Middle and Upper School boys play on teams against other schools and compete in a program of intramural games of all kinds. St. Bernard's has varsity and junior varsity teams in all sports. We even form a third team for boys in Grades V and VI when there is a demand for one. Participating on a team encourages leadership and sportsmanship and generates pride in one's school and oneself. Most of the boys in the fifth through ninth grade play on one team or more each year.
St. Bernard's is a member of the Manhattan Private Middle School League and competes in soccer, cross country, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, and track. Boys may join an ice hockey team, with games on weekends, for an additional fee. The school has three gymnasiums used by all boys throughout the school, a weight training room, a fencing room, a recess deck, and a kindergarten play yard. Central Park provides us with numerous playing fields just across Fifth Avenue.
The technology program is one of steady growth and change. From kindergarten through ninth grade, boys and their teachers find innovative and productive ways to integrate technology into their work. Classrooms are equipped with projectors and computers for both group and individual work. Boys in kindergarten through second grade make use of technology through their unit-based projects, use of related websites, and worksheets designed for each class. Third graders learn touch-typing and word processing. In the fourth grade boys do much of their creative writing at the computers: they also begin research for history in the lab, using a variety of reference materials, including encyclopedia and online databases. Fifth graders take a programming course using MicroWorlds, a geometry-based programming language designed for children, and LEGO Robotics. As part of the sixth grade’s American history course, students do research, write outlines and papers, and create presentations. They make use of a variety of programs, including Inspiration and PowerPoint. In the Upper School students can choose to study programming, animation, web design, and photo editing.
Special subject areas have integrated technology into their curricula as well. Math classes use SMART Boards, graphing calculators, and geometry software. Science classes use the labs frequently for simulations, research, and presentations. Use of the school-wide Intranet is growing, and students’ projects, trips, and work can be included for everyone’s access within the school. The school’s library catalogue is also available to everyone.
Homework gives a boy the opportunity to practice and develop what he has learned in class and to do creative exploring on his own. It encourages responsibility, independence, and organization.
Homework begins gently in the Junior School. First graders read aloud to their parents for twenty minutes each night. Second and third graders read on their own, finish work not completed in school, and study spelling words.
In the Middle and Upper schools boys have regular homework. There are supervised study periods in school, during which at least one assignment can be completed. Teachers are available for extra help, and boys are encouraged to make use of this help.
It cannot be stressed too strongly that a boy's weekday schedule should be simple, uncluttered, predictable. Uninterrupted study time at home is essential. Parents are urged to restrict time spent watching television, playing video games, and going online. A boy cannot do his best work when over-scheduled during the school week. Social activities should be kept to a minimum Sunday night through Thursday. Adequate sleep is also important.
St. Bernard's boys earn admission to a wide range of excellent secondary schools, both day and boarding. The school takes seriously its responsibility to help families with secondary school admissions. Our goal is for boys to gain admission to schools well matched to their academic ability, temperament, and extracurricular interests. The secondary school advisor, together with parents, teachers, and the headmaster, takes great care to help parents choose schools that will best suit each boy's aptitude and talents and to offer counsel throughout. Our ninth grade also offers a demanding yet intimate experience for those wishing to remain one more year at St. Bernard's to prepare themselves for secondary school.
The schools our eighth and ninth graders have attended with greatest frequency include Andover, Dalton, Deerfield, Exeter, Horace Mann, Lawrenceville, Packer Collegiate, Regis, Riverdale, St. Andrew's, St. Paul's, Taft, and Trinity.
St. Bernard's wishes to maintain the friendliness and respect that have given the school its character. It must also protect the well-being of its students, teachers, staff, and neighbors. The school urges on its boys the values of courtesy, honesty, toleration, sportsmanship, good humor, and self-control, and it relies on the support of parents in bringing out these traits in their children.
Rules are few. St. Bernard's has a code of conduct, which it expects all boys to follow. Severe or repeated infractions will be referred to a faculty conduct committee. St. Bernard's expects good behavior from the boys always, in and out of school, will not permit dishonesty or persistent disruption, and prohibits any use of tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs.
Each boy learns in his own way, and St. Bernard's helps the boy who needs support and a change of pace. Through the Special Learning Department the school provides evaluation, remedial planning, tutoring, and counseling. It also supplies group and individual special instruction at school. All tutoring arrangements are to be made through the department.
If referral outside the school seems helpful, parents, teachers, division heads, and the headmaster may meet to discuss further steps. It is important that parents and the school work together and keep each other informed of developments.
The Parents Association is a valuable link between the school and the parents. All parents are members of the association. A representative from each class maintains communication with the other parents of that class. The executive committee of the association, made up of the officers, the class representatives, and the heads of the various committees, meets regularly with the headmaster. Parents are encouraged to take part in the association, which organizes a number of activities to help the school. Officers are elected at the annual meeting in May.
A parent of each boy serves on the Safety Patrol one afternoon a year. Volunteers work in the library and the book fair, run the general store and the sports equipment and jacket exchange, and sponsor the annual benefit, an enjoyable event in the life of the school.
The tuition for the school year 2008-2009 is $31,760. This includes lunch, books and supplies, and other expenses. Sixty percent of tuition is payable by August 1 and the remaining balance by December 1. Boys are enrolled for the school year and parents are billed accordingly. No deduction is made for absence or withdrawal. Parents and guardians are understood to have accepted these terms by signing the enrollment contract and by paying the registration fee.
Tuition Refund Insurance and Accident Insurance are optional programs available only through advance payment.
Families should consult with the business office about available options for tuition payment.
A boy may be denied permission to continue to attend school if his account for a previous term is delinquent.
Tuition Grants
St. Bernard's is committed to admitting and enrolling the most qualified students. Boys are accepted for admission before the awarding of grants. Each year St. Bernard's sets aside money for financial aid. Grants are given on the basis of need, with the expectation that recipients will make good use of their educational opportunities. Each case is given individual consideration by the financial aid committee, based on information that the parents and the School Scholarship Service forms provide. All information supplied is held in strict confidence.
Every boy who attends St. Bernard's receives financial assistance, for tuition does not cover the expense of his education. Gifts to the school from alumni, parents, and friends, and income from the school's endowment funds pay the difference.