Chapel Hill – Chauncy Hall School


Chapel Hill – Chauncy Hall School is an independent, college preparatory day and boarding school for grades 9 through PG located on a 40-acre campus in Waltham, Massachusetts and founded in 1828. CH-CH is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

History

Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall’s history involves three schools: Chauncy Hall, Chapel Hill, and the Huntington School. Chapel Hill, a school for girls founded in 1860 in Waltham on the current campus, and Chauncy Hall, a Boston day school for boys founded in 1828, merged in 1971 to create Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall.
To the merger, Chapel Hill brought its strength in humanities and the arts, and Chauncy Hall brought its strength in the fields of science and math. In 1974, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall incorporated the Huntington School, a Boston school for boys founded in 1909.
Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall has many long-standing traditions. Wilkins Hall and its free-standing spiral staircase is still in use today. At Head of School installations, the book of the school is passed from one head to the next. Charles Henry Sampson scholarships are annually awarded to qualified students. Additionally, the school continues to keep in contact with alumni of Chauncy Hall, Chapel Hill, and the Huntington School.

Student population and diversity

CH-CH has 175 students, with a 45% boarding population and 55% day, and a 25% international student population. The school community celebrates its diversity with Diversity Day that consists of student led workshops that introduce faculty and fellow students to new countries. Additionally, there is an annual Flag Day ceremony in which students have an opportunity to share their heritage with the rest of the school.

Course requirements

Course requirements at CH-CH consist of 4 years of English, 3 years of math, 3 years of history, 3 years of laboratory science, 2 sequential years of a foreign language, and 2 years of visual or performing arts. CH-CH also offers honors, advanced, or AP courses in all of the major academic disciplines for students looking to advance their studies.
Students enrolled in a history class are required to write a research paper during the winter trimester and all students enrolled in a science class participate in the annual science fair each May.
Senior Capstone: All seniors complete a composition in English, a research project in either history or science, and give a presentation to the school in order to graduate. Each senior is also required to complete 19 hours of community service.

Multiple Intelligences Approach

Classes are influenced by Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard University, who developed the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Dr. Gardner proposes that there are nine "intelligences" that schools need to support: interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential, mathematical/logical, kinesthetic, linguistic, naturalist, musical, and spatial. Teachers incorporate these intelligences into their curriculum.
On October 17, 2013 Howard Gardner visited the CH-CH campus. According to Dr. Gardner, "when something is important, try to teach it lots of different ways... Textbooks are fine, but not everybody learns best from text books. iPads, hands-on, works of art, debate, humor, graphics, and video, the more different ways you can teach something, the more likely it is to get in there, stay in there, and be useful."

Progress notes

Each week, teachers write progress notes for each of their students as a way to inform students and their families on how they are doing in each of their classes and what they could be doing to improve. Teachers may also include the most recent grades that students have received on assignments or tests. Progress notes can be accessed online by both students and parents through the myCH-CH portal.

Schedule and school year calendar

Students follow a schedule in which full credit courses meet for 75 minutes three times per week. During a typical week, students have four classes per day on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and three classes on Wednesday and Friday. The academic year is divided into trimesters ending in November, March, and May/June. Students grade point averages are recalculated at the end of each trimester. Graduation ceremonies are held during the last week of May or the first week of June.

Main campus facilities

Harrington Hall: Named in honor of Louisa C. Harrington 2011. Today it consists of the dining hall and Clemence room downstairs and the freshmen and sophomore girls’ dormitory upstairs.
Cottage: The 9th grade building where almost all freshmen classes are held.
The CH-CH Commons: After serving the Waltham community for 150 years, the Covenant Congregational Church closed in 2010. In late 2011, the space was purchased by Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall and connected with the rest of the campus. Each section was renovated and repurposed before reopening in 2012 as The CH-CH Commons. Performing arts, foreign language classes, and all school assemblies continue to be held here today. The CH-CH Commons is also home to the school’s library and ‘MakerSpace.’ The CH-CH MakerSpace is a place for students to experiment, create, and explore hands-on alternatives to traditional classroom learning, using new technology like 3D modeling and printing, as well as established methods like sewing and basic woodworking. Students in the co-curricular MakerSpace activity investigate varied, self-directed topics, like basic coding, robotics, and prototyping, while academic classes are supported and enhanced by MakerSpace activities that introduce ‘design thinking’—iterative, progressive exploration of course material that encourages experimentation, collaboration, and a focus on process instead of results.
Wilkins Hall: Built in 1864, Wilkins remains the main academic building for upperclassmen history, English, history, science, and math classes.
Worcester Hall: Originally built in 1963 as a girls' dormitory, Worcester Hall is now the boys' dormitory and includes a wrestling facility.
South Hall: A gift from Arthur Astor Carey of the Astor family in 1903, South Hall is now the upperclassmen girls' dormitory.
Peebles Hall: The admissions office
Beaver Gymnasium & Machen Center: Built in 1981 in honor of Claude F. Machen '27. Today it houses the gym, workout room, and nurse's office.
Barn & Theater: Houses arts spaces including the theater, digital arts lab, woodworking studio, photography dark room, pottery studio, and dance/yoga studio. On Wednesday, August 29, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School broke ground on their $5.5 million re-imagination of their historic building for the visual and performing arts, the Barn. The School will add, including a new theater, new music classroom space, expanded state-of-the-art studio spaces, and a glass atrium gallery, creating a center for the arts. The reimagined Barn is expected to open its doors in the fall of 2019.

iPad program

Beginning in September 2014, CH-CH required that all students purchased an iPad as one of their tools for learning in and out of the classroom.

Co-curricular activities

Students are required to participate in the afternoon co-curricular program each trimester. Two activities each year must be interscholastic sports or team activities. A list of offerings are listed below:
Sports:
Other Activities:
CH-CH participates in the Massachusetts Bay Independent League for boys’ soccer, cross country, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse. The school is also a member of the Independent Girls’ Conference for soccer, basketball, softball and lacrosse and the Eastern Independent League for boys’ wrestling.
Recent Athletics Highlights:
November 2017: The CHCH girl's varsity volleyball team won the Independent Girl's Conference Championship.
November 2017: The CH-CH Cross Country Team won its first Cross Country Massachusetts Bay Independent League Championship in the school's history.
February 2015: Two CH-CH wrestlers represented the school at the National Prep Wrestling Tournament. CH-CH was the strongest finisher from the Eastern Independent League and finished 6th out of all New England schools.
May 2015: The girls’ softball team won the Independent Girls’ Conference Co-Championship - the first IGC Championship in the school’s history.
2012: Luke DiOrio 10’ debuted his professional career as a member of the Rhode Island Rampage, a team in the American Ultimate Disc League.

Spring Session program

In the spring of 2013, CH-CH began an experimental learning program called Spring Session. The program takes place during the last week of May and consists of a variety of experiences that give students the opportunity to engage themselves in a topic they are passionate about. A few past Spring Session experiences have included:
Earlier in the school year, students are given the option to choose from over a dozen potential experiences. Each experience is designed and chaperoned by CH-CH faculty and staff. All of the offerings have an educational component. Upon their return, each group gives a presentation to the school on their Spring Session experience.

Recent graduation speakers

Chapel Hill – Chauncy Hall School is the host of Running Brook Day Camp for youth and teens between the ages of 3.5-18.