Ten Years of Dragons
by Joy Hurd
There were Dragons at assembly on Friday. No, not some visitors from Hogwarts nor some characters in a fantastical class play (for those have yet to start). For the past week we’ve enjoyed our annual visit from our friends at the Dragon School in Oxford, England. Under the guidance of their fearless leader, Mr. Desmond Devitt, and other faculty chaperons, ten Dragon boys and eight Dragon girls traveled to New York to take in the sights, to live with their seventh-grade hosts, and to celebrate ten years of the St. Bernard’s Dragon School Exchange.
There were Dragons at assembly on Friday. No, not some visitors from Hogwarts nor some characters in a fantastical class play (for those have yet to start). For the past week we’ve enjoyed our annual visit from our friends at the Dragon School in Oxford, England. Under the guidance of their fearless leader, Mr. Desmond Devitt, and other faculty chaperons, ten Dragon boys and eight Dragon girls traveled to New York to take in the sights, to live with their seventh-grade hosts, and to celebrate ten years of the St. Bernard’s Dragon School Exchange.
But they weren’t our only visitors at assembly on Friday. We also welcomed students from Nightingale-Bamford, who are the hosts of the Dragon girls. In what had to be a first, we witnessed a battle of the school songs, as the Nightingale girls sang their melodious hymn, the Dragons sang their rather heroic school song, and the St. Bernard’s boys belted out the “Football Song” (which, in solidarity with our British guests, is of course about soccer) and the “Baseball Song.” If in fact this was a competition, the St. Bernard’s boys certainly won in the volume category, as Dragon and Nightingale jaws dropped as we encouraged them to “hear us shout at baaa-AAAAAAA-aseball!”
To commemorate ten years of this trans-Atlantic alliance, Mr. Devitt presented St. B’s and Nightingale with commemorative plaques. Over the years some 240 boys and girls have participated in the exchange, which has become quite a memorable experience for those seventh graders able to participate.
It was a busy week for the Dragons. After arriving late Monday night and being welcomed by their host families, they returned early the next morning for classes. Despite some uncooperative weather, they visited the Empire State Building, the Museum of the City of New York, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, the USS Intrepid, the Central Park Zoo, and Rockefeller Center. They also took in a show, seeing How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, starring Daniel Radcliffe (though not joined by his Harry Potter co-star and Dragon School alumna, Emma Watson).
After spending the unexpectedly snowy weekend with their host families, the Dragons and their teachers returned to the UK on Halloween. Part one of this year’s exchange has ended, but it won’t be long before part two, when the American contingent flies to London and Oxford in June to visit their new Dragon friends.
