News & Events

You're invited to the Rock Point School Open House on Thursday January 23rd, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Learn about our rich art program, dorm adventures, and our nurturing approach to academics. During this event you can:

• Tour our school 
• Meet teachers, residential staff, and students
• Participate in hands-on activities in our classrooms
• Discover how you can fit in and stand out at Rock Point School
• Eat snacks!

Rock Point School is located on a 130-acre campus on Lake Champlain with hiking trails, beaches, a maple sugaring program, gardens, and an apiary. 

Contact Hillary Kramer, Director of Admissions, hkramer@rockpoint.org with any questions or call the school at 802-863-1104. 

Each year, we gather before everyone heads off for November vacation to celebrate, express gratitude, and enjoy a feast. The Thanksgiving service is designed by students with help from staff members. This year, students read poems they selected, shared traditions, and thanksgivings. One student brought in Christmas crackers, his own family tradition, which meant we ended the service with everyone wearing paper crowns! 

When students were asked what they were thankful for this year, they shared the following:

• All of my friends at Rock Point
• My opportunity here
• Bodie and all the dogs
• 5 Guys Burgers and Fries
• The opportunity to better myself
• Second chances
• Animals
• My brothers
• My family
• My friends
• Rock Point's Teachers supporting me so I can thrive in school
• My room
• Kevin's great food
• Rock Point and its community
• The care I receive from my friends
• All of the staff and students being nice and inclusive
• My efforts become a better person

Our students are always reflecting on what is important to them and this list shows what they value in their lives. It also serves as a reminder, going into the holiday season, that the most significant things in our lives are not things. They are the people, places, and animals that we love and the communities that embrace us. 

We were so happy to see so many alumni, former staff, friends, and family at our Thanksgiving celebration. Our community has a rich history and we love seeing former students and staff return to share their stories! The service ended with one of our students performing an original song she wrote on her cello. You can watch her performance below:

On October 15, our whole student body went to the Rock Point Center for our fourth annual participation in Sundog Poetry Center's "Share Your Heart, Share the World" poetry day. We were joined by three other Vermont schools in a day of poetry workshops, writing time, a presentation by local poet and artist Tina Escaja, and a reading of student work.

Students had the chance to work with professional poets and focus on topics like natural imagery, storytelling through poetry, and poetry as a means for social justice. We appreciated being involved, and left the day full of poems and inspiration. 

On Tuesday, September 17, local artist Emily Anderson brought her “Fairies & Demons Workshop” to Rock Point School. All of our students took part in this drawing workshop, which encouraged them to draw their ‘demons’, or challenges they face, as well as their ‘fairies’, or positive energies that they want to call toward them. In addition to giving students a platform to discuss what’s hard in their lives and what helps them through, they got to practice Emily’s signature drawing style, which involved drawing with their non-dominant hand. The technique allowed them to let go of the pressure to make their work perfect, and simply see what comes out when given a channel.

We will host part two of the workshop on Tuesday, September 24, and the material generated will be used as part of Kingdom County Productions’ new project Listen Up Vermont. We are excited to be involved in Listen Up, as well as to have the amazing opportunity to work with Emily, and to summon our fairies to guide us through the school year!

What: Interactive Workshop

When: October 17th 6:15 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

Where: Rock Point School Library

Join Rock Point School for an interactive workshop designed to help families and community members increase their fluency with LGBTQ+ inclusive concepts, terminology, and practices. The workshop will be hosted by Mara Iverson, the Director of Education at Outright Vermont. Participants will learn and practice approaches for making home and community environments LGBTQ+ affirming; and will identify specific opportunities for and challenges to inclusivity. We hope those who attend will leave with broader knowledge of LGBTQ+ youth topics, methods for recognizing gaps in inclusivity, and ideas for how to apply affirming practices to fill those gaps.

You may have noticed our mission statement has changed! After consulting our students, staff, families of students, and board members, we felt it was time to update the language in the mission statement which has been central to our school for decades. While the mission of the school remains the same and continues to be the "north star" for what we do here, we know that the language we use matters.

The first change you may note is that we have changed the description of who the school is for from "teenage girls and boys" to "young people." This phrase was chosen as an all-inclusive term for the teenagers we serve and to eliminate terms that are linked to gender identification.

The final change is that we have removed the word “necessary” because it seems “unnecessary" (haha). The word seemed to imply that we “know best,” when, in fact, we hope to provide a range of rich and varied programming and experiences that help students grow.

So, without further ado, the new and improved mission statement is as follows:

The mission of Rock Point School is to provide a small, supportive, educational community for young people, where they can become successful students and learn skills for living in a community with peers and adults. The school is committed to providing academic, cultural, spiritual, and recreational opportunities to accomplish these goals.

For the second year, students participated in a day of poetry called "Share Your Heart, Share the World" with the Sundog Poetry Center. This year, the event featured Vermont Poet Laureate, Chard deNiord. Currently, deNiord is a professor at Providence College and lives in Westminster, VT. He is the recipient of the Pushcart Prize (1998) and was included in Best American Poetry (1999).

Our students attended workshops and readings with other high school students and professional poets from around the state. We were particularly happy to see poets LN Bethea, Rajnii Eddins, and Lizzy Fox who participated in our visiting poet series last year.

Thanks to Sundog Poetry Center for hosting this inspiring event!

After the "Share Your Heart, Share Your World" poetry workshop run by Sundog Poetry this fall, our English teacher, Abbey Baker was inspired to incorporate more poetry writing into the school year. The idea of having professional poets come to the school for workshops was appealing to the students as well. So far, two poets, Lizzy Fox (left) and Ellen Bethea (right, with RPS student), have given workshops and we are hoping to host two more before the end of the school year.

Ellen Bethea, who visited in October, helped students envision themselves as artists and encouraged them to dive into the creative process. Lizzy Fox, who visited this week, had the students experiment writing a poem as a group. Both workshops culminated with a reading in the chapel where students as well as the presenters shared their work. Senior, Kelly, expressed his enthusiasm for the workshops, "Every time I go to a workshop like this it launches me into writing more poetry. I love it." 

Our students arrived at Rock Point with varying levels of experience writing poetry, but for all of them, these workshops offer an opportunity to develop and share their writing voice. We are so grateful to the visiting poets for sharing their talents with us!

Our amazing residential educator, Kelly Ainsworth, wrote a song about her time at Rock Point and performed it for us at graduation in June. Kelly recently moved to New Jersey to be with her fiancé and is now working at a preschool. We miss her contagious smile and generous spirit. The song captures so much of what is special about our school and we are so grateful to Kelly for sharing it with us! 

This summer, Kelly recorded the song at Green Mountain records. Click the link below to hear the professional recording!

I’ll Call You (Home) - Acoustic

The theme for the 185th Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church in Vermont was "Declare Dignity," with special guest, Dr. Donna Hicks, renowned author of Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict. As our country is suffering such deep divisions, the Episcopal Church in Vermont wants to bring people together. Hicks' theory is that by treating one another with dignity, even in the midst of conflict, we can become more connected to one another and create meaningful relationships that allow us to resolve our conflicts without sacrificing our sense of self.

While Dr. Hicks' work is relatively new to us, it clearly fits in with what we do at Rock Point School. Two of our seniors,  Jasmine and Caleb, (featured in the photo on the left with Bishop Tom Ely), spoke at Convention about their experience at Rock Point School and the impact it has had on their lives. Jasmine shared that she suffered from anxiety and bullying in her previous school, but immediately felt welcomed at Rock Point. Here is an excerpt from her speech:

Ever since stepping into the halls of this school, the social hardships from my old school don’t matter because I find a school where I’m accepted, and that’s the biggest healing of all ... First of all, it’s a bully free zone, but secondly, the way these students took me in was special. I had somewhere to go in the cafeteria, and found places where I could hang out without feeling hesitant or shy. The girls I share the dorm floor with have given me a sisterhood and friendship that makes me feel like I can talk about anything and everything. We tend to stay up chatting about those things in the bathroom. Like I said, life-changing experience. Wouldn’t have thought to talk in a bathroom! I like Rock Point as a school and social sphere because people aren’t afraid to be different, and they don’t mind if you’re different or unlike the typical preppy kid, or high school jock. We’ve all had our journeys, and a lot of us have ended up at this place. I think that speaks a lot about this school.

We are so grateful to Jasmine and Caleb for sharing their stories, and to the Episcopal Church in Vermont for listening and supporting Rock Point School.