News & Events

Senior Charlie D. with the cast of professional actors who performed his play at the Vermont Young Playwrights Festival on May 17, 2023

What would Eminem, Louis Bresson (famed French photographer), Jean-Michel Basquiat, Prince Harry, Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), Bob Dylan, and Tommie Smith have to say about gun control in the United States? 

This year’s senior English class recently embarked on a project to investigate book banning – why and how are books banned, and what are the cultural implications of banning books? As a group, they read several articles about banned books, including Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools, and discussed their opinions on what it means to have materials censored in a school or community. They discussed both the historical context of books that have been banned in the past, as well as current examples of books that are banned or censored. 

Nine RPS students elected to take part in the Vermont Young Playwrights' workshop on Tuesday, November 16. Among them were students with lots of experience writing plays, students who have been involved in theatre but never tried their hand at writing their own play, and students who are trying out drama for the first time. With the guidance of professional playwright Jordan Gullikson, they spent the day playing improv games, learning the basic tenets of writing plays, and then beginning their own plays. 

Sam Holland works to make the imagined real. As a former engineering student of our math tutor, Michael Coleman, Sam took his curiosity about how things were made and became a mechanical engineer. He has worked at places like MakerBot and Vimeo, and now, he owns his own business called informal.cc, where he helps companies of all sizes create hardware. We are thrilled that he decided to visit Rock Point School and work on 3-D design and printing projects with our students.

This winter, our English and Science teachers teamed up to guide students through a research and writing unit about the nature of viruses and pandemics. Our students have learned so much first-hand this year about pandemics; we decided to present them with the scientific and historical context and have it culminate in a project of their own creation. In Science classes, students learned the basic science behind how viruses work and some information about historical viruses that have caused pandemics. We studied several types of writing and communication in English class, including narratives, infographics, and persuasive writing. Students then chose a specific topic within virology and pandemics, and dove into a research project. 

Airflow Testing, COVID Protocols, and Energy Efficiency This fall, Rock Point School embarked on a project to evaluate the airflow in the school building. In this time of COVID-19, understanding the density of occupants in an area, how big our shared spaces really are, and how often the air in a room is replaced can be important for reducing the spread of COVID-19 in aerosols. It can also help us make the best choices for keeping our school well-ventilated and warm at the same time. Luckily, our school is filled with budding scientists and mathematicians who can appreciate the collection of this data!