Program Shift at TCS

This fall, all students at The Community School in South Tamworth will be traveling internationally as part of their climate change research and investigations of social justice issues around race and immigration.  Trips include two separate crossings into Mexico—at Nogales and Juarez—and a visit to Copenhagen.  For our youngest students, time was spent in late October in labs at Biosphere2 outside of Tucson, where contemporary research especially around water and climate change is being done. Another group traveled from Montgomery, Alabama to El Paso via Louisiana, focusing on civil rights history and its impact on current lives, changes in storm patterns and intensity, and border issues.  The final trip in early November will take students to Copenhagen, a city committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2025.  

Students raise money for their trips. Dinners of beautifully prepared, locally sourced food are offered to the public, with students instrumental in the cooking and serving of the meal.  The next of these Slumgullion dinners is on November 16 at 6pm.  Additionally, students are taking orders for freshly baked pies and homemade cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and wreaths for holiday decorating.  More information can be found with menu choices, ordering or reservation information, and cost at www.communityschoolnh.org or by calling (603) 323-7000.

For the past three years, The Community School’s curricular focus has shifted away from traditional classes skimming individual subjects to an integrated model which uses broad themes to generate real-world problems which the students work to solve.  Development of critical skills and dispositions including leadership, collaboration, problem solving, resilience, empathy, and communication drive the program, with maths, sciences, reading, writing, and Spanish being taught largely in context.  Climate Change—its causes, current and future impacts, and associated social repercussions—currently creates an area of focus for this learning. 

To earn a diploma from The Community School, not only do all students accumulate more than 30 credits in core literacies and electives, but also in community service, senior project, and travel.   For the past fifteen years, 100% of TCS students have been accepted at their first-choice college, including such institutions as Bard College, Clarkson University, Berklee, UNH, Penn, Simmons, BU, WPI, Emerson, Ithaca, and UVM.  Service and travel experience help shape students into young adults who can engage with a diversity of people and places, understanding that each thing we do impacts many.

The Community School in South Tamworth, NH is an independent day school for grades 6-12.  Fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), this program challenges and nurtures individuals as whole beings, promoting curiosity and kindness along a path to success in college or work after school.  Admissions is rolling and financial aid is available.