THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL

÷e
Nightingale
Mind
THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
1
Nightingale is
the place where
your daughter
can become
the best version
of herself.
THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
20 East 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
nightingale.org
Admissions Office
212 933 6515
[email protected]
We know the power of one mind
and one heart, as well as many
minds and many hearts, to
effect change: change a person,
change a climate, change a
prejudice, change the future.
÷is is the place for meetings
of minds, for opposing positions, for academic strength
and creative explor­ation,
for well-formed arguments
and strong voices.
÷is is the place that welcomes
question­­ing discoveries
and challenging opinions,
reveling in the conclusions
and contra­dictions, honoring
the extraordinary power
of girls and young women.
is to guiding the limitless
energy and originality of her
ideas into the fullest realization
of her success.
÷is is
Nightingale–
Bamford.
÷is is the place where we rise
to meet your daughter’s heart
and mind, where the support
from her teachers is surpassed
only by the support from her
peers, where our commitment
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
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It all begins with teaching.
Teachers at Nightingale celebrate the fact that no two girls are
alike. They come to know each student, tailoring their work
to meet her individual needs. Teachers who are Pulitzer Prize
and National Book award finalists. Teachers who are research
scientists, professional artists, and published historians.
Whether she starts in the Lower, Middle, or Upper School,
every girl at Nightingale comes to be known through every age
and stage, every talent and trial.
She also comes to know herself and all that she is capable of.
Our commitment is to create a place where she can learn
to speak her mind and her heart—a place where she can gain
the knowledge and insight to have something to say and the
confidence and courage to say it.
We start nurturing the courage to take
intellectual risks from the very beginning.
In Lower School, girls as young as five become accustomed to
standing in assemblies and sharing their thoughts on openended questions: what does it mean to stand up for someone?
What is courage? These same students become the young
women with the confidence and ability to compete at Harvard
as our championship debate team recently did, debating such
issues as “What effects will the revolutions in the Middle East
have on China?”
In Middle School, we ask students to look beyond
pre-packaged essay structures. We give them the freedom for
more authentic probing in their writing. When our Upper
School students write personal, portrait, anecdotal, and
issue-based essays, they not only learn from classic writers like
Hawthorne and Shakespeare but from contemporary writers
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
S H E CAME, SHE SAW, SHE CO N QUERED
Our students have won six straight annual Latin competitions against
peer schools. The text below is from a poem by Ovid, recited by one of
our juniors at a 2012 Latin recitation contest sponsored by the foremost
classical organization of the tri-state area. Her metrically impeccable and
emotionally stirring rendition won her first prize, beating out college
undergraduate and graduate students!
QUESTUS ERAM,
PHARETRA CUM
PROTINUS ILLE SOLUTA
LEGIT IN EXITIUM
SPICULA FACTA MEUM,
LUNAVITQUE GENU
SINUOSUM FORTITER
ARCUM,
“QUOD”QUE “CANAS,
VATES, ACCIPE” DIXIT
“OPUS ! ”
ME MISERUM ! CERTAS
HABUIT PUER ILLE
SAGITTAS.
UROR, ET IN VACUO
PECTORE REGNAT
AMOR.
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MAY THE F O R CE B E W I T H YO U
These notes come from one of our AP Physics classes, outlining some
of the advanced work our Upper School students do and highlighting
the problem-solving and math integration essential in the sciences.
like Didion and Sedaris. They push to find their own voice
and a structure that offers a fresh, compelling perspective.
All this preparation and practice means that by the time
Nightingale girls go to college, they are consistently the
leaders in class discussions and the strongest writers. No
matter what field they pursue, from media to medicine to
academia, they are the ones who have the ability to express
their ideas dynamically in person and in writing.
The breadth of our academic program
prepares girls for a world where solutions
require connections across disciplines.
In the Lower School, when everything is new, “breadth”
means exposure to a rich variety of ideas, styles, disciplines,
and ways to explore and understand the world. To study
their home city of New York, students in Class II dive deeply
into a yearlong interdisciplinary project that draws on math,
language, history, art, and literature; girls in Class III bring
the same multi-lens approach to their studies of medieval
Europe and ancient and modern China.
You’ll often hear Upper School students say that their
Nightingale education makes them both well-rounded and
focused. That’s because each girl develops a solid foundation in
English, mathematics, history, science, and at least one modern
language other than her own. At the same time, she intensely
pursues her own paths of study through a range of electives from
Applied Ethics to Discrete Mathematics; from Francophone and
Latino Literature to Global Women’s History and the History
of Comedy; from Journalism to Life Drawing; from Modern
Theater in America to the Modern Middle East; from Music
Theory to Poetry in the New Millennium; from Psychology to
Public Health; from Science Seminar to Theater Design.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
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WI S E G U I DES
More than 150 teachers, specialists, coaches, and
professional staff bring extraordinary expertise, intellect,
enthusiasm, and humor to their roles at NightingaleBamford. Together we create an environment in which
every girl can excel.
Rebecca Urciuoli
P’19, P’23, PhD
Assistant Head of
Lower School
Debra Malmgren, MA
Director of Athletics
Sherwyn Smith
English Faculty
Thu-Nga Ho, MA
Science Faculty
Gordon Blyth, PGCE
Mathematics Faculty
Ms. Malmgren runs
our athletics program,
which runs the gamut
from fifth-graders learning
to play a team sport
through seasoned varsity
athletes competing at
the highest levels. Our
Nighthawk athletes play
on 26 distinct teams with
over 50 coaches each
year, and Ms. Malmgren
keeps track of them
all. A New Jersey state
championship–winning
basketball coach, she also
coaches varsity basketball.
Teacher by day,
screenwriter by night,
Mr. Smith teaches English
in the Middle and Upper
Schools, including a
new Upper School
screenwriting elective.
Outside of the classroom,
Mr. Smith is the faculty
advisor to Comedy
Club and also advises
Upper School students.
Bringing science to life
in a fun and engaging
way is Ms. Ho’s specialty.
Through her creative
approach to labs, her
students in Classes III,
V, and VI benefit and
learn from great handson experiences that lay
the foundation for their
work in earth science
and physical science
later in Middle School.
Mr. Blyth is the resident
expert on our Middle
School students and
a Class VII homeroom
teacher. In his more than
20 years at Nightingale,
he has held a variety
of administrative posts
and has taught math
in all three divisions.
A Lower School teacher
when she first arrived
at Nightingale—and
most recently serving
as our director of Middle
and Upper School
counseling—Dr. Urciuoli
knows curriculum and
the development of
girls from Kindergarten
through Class XII. In her
latest role, she returns to
the Lower School, where
she will lend her expertise
and solid judgment to
students and faculty alike.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
Heidi Kasevich P’11, PhD
Head of History
Department
Dr. Kasevich helps our
girls to understand and
engage with the world.
She teaches the popular
Global Women’s History
and World Religions
electives, and organizes
and leads the World
Religions trip to India.
She also advises the
Current Affairs Club,
oversees Time Regained,
an award-winning student
journal that examines
contemporary events in
historical context, and
leads Closing the Gap,
a pilot Class X leadership
program she designed.
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DEBATE CLU B A DV I C E
Nightingale seniors took the New York State Forensics
League Novice Public Forum Championship for 2013
and two juniors were the last girls standing—by a good
margin—in the Junior Varsity finals. Below, some advice
from our championship debaters.
1
BE ASSERTIVE,
NOT ARROGANT
2
KNOW YOUR
JUDGES
3
DO YOUR RESEARCH
4
DRESS AS
YOU MEAN TO BE
PERCEIVED
5
BEAT THE BOYS!
6
KEEP C ALM
AND DEBATE ON.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
As one of our young alumnae recently said, “A Nightingale
girl can quote The Aeneid by heart—in English and Latin—
and easily slip physics and American history references into
everyday conversation. We conduct scientific research, act as
curators at the National Gallery, and still rollerblade into
the faculty volleyball game waving blue pom-poms.”
We want our students to be
academically adventurous.
Nightingale provides a liberal arts education adapted for the
modern world, a unique combination of the canonical and
the contemporary that develops wide-ranging curiosity and
learning from Kindergarten through senior year. We build
strong metacognitive strategies and study skills across all
disciplines. For example, we value depth over speed in our
math curriculum—challenging each girl at her own level. We
believe that the best place for teaching calculus is senior year
when students have a strong conceptual understanding of many
topics. By then, they also have good problem solving skills, the
maturity to apply them well, and the ability to think abstractly.
We introduce computer science programming in the Lower
School in ways that allow our youngest students to develop
the mental building blocks of creativity, logic, and reasoning.
While they can’t yet write complex code and syntax, they can,
using a drag and drop environment, design and implement
their own computer programs. By Middle School they are
ready to write their own code and build sophisticated robots.
By Upper School, they can be fluent in multiple programming
languages—and even design their own mobile apps.
Nightingale's signature Latin program requires students
in Middle and Upper School to hone their thinking, bringing
precision and awareness to their use of any language. From
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the earliest lessons, students learn to “decode” texts by
inflection, discerning word function as the context requires.
Our program adds a distinctive element not required in
many others—the translation from Latin to English. This
more challenging form of translation leads to greater mental
flexibility, a higher level of accuracy in the use of words, and
deeper understanding. As Nightingale girls are taught to be
discerning readers of Latin, they become exceptional readers
of literature in any language. And they have ample linguistic
opportunities here not only in Latin and English, but also
in French, Spanish, and Mandarin.
S CI ENCE
Aborum, ipsa nos sapiet, que vellaces porro tem exces sam auditempore voluptas
cume coribust, ipsapelibus ditati corrovid
quam, oditibus si dolorro comnis et de
expella boriorit quiasimperum qui a volupti umquasi moditas piention net lignam
nihilli quisit exeria volesci isquuntur? Accum aut ex eum quidunt quibus et occum
eos simodit, tem archica ecusci dollatur?
Quidelit estruptaqui istis nullatem ist, unt.
As voloribus eostio volora volorero blab
inimet, officate proritam que es idunt ipit,
consequi quia a vellendus, unt quid maio
ipite sequi raecuptur magnitam et la abo.
We emphasize stretching her creative
capacities to the fullest to help each
Nightingale student become the most
adapt­able, innovative, and thoughtful
person she can be.
Our visual arts program is designed to ensure that students in
all three divisions work in a variety of media. They grow more
comfortable with the risk-taking that art demands, profit
from critiquing their own work and that of their peers, and
become more articulate in their responses to works of art.
We want our students to understand and experience the
joy of creating. Lower School students experiment with paint,
watercolor, chalk, crayon, papier mache, clay, yarn, fabric,
metal, and stone. Projects are often-multi-dimensional and
use inventive combinations of materials. Students develop
their spatial skills through the use of tools and construction of
objects in woodworking and sculpture classes. Ceramics and
photography are introduced in fifth grade, animation and video
in seventh and eighth grades. Upper School students can take
studio classes in all media, as well as multiple levels of art history.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
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A P P L I ED G ENI U S
B E AUTY I N NU MBERS
At the Technovation World Pitch finals,
hosted at Twitter headquarters in San
Francisco, Nightingale's team won first
place out of 114 international groups for
the mobile app they developed, Arrive.
Following their win, which granted prize
money and developer support to bring
the app to market, the team landed the
Best Pitch Award at New York City's EmotiCon 2013, in which 150 teen entrepreneurs
from across the five boroughs came
together to showcase their own innovative
digital projects and to meet with key
professionals in the field.
Whether in class or at the math lab our
faculty host each morning before school,
our students tackle a variety of written
and visual math problems.
6
6
12
It takes Susan 12 minutes to
complete 2/3 of a circuit of
the track. What is her rate,
in minutes per circuit?
Students in Class V are intro­duced to multiplying
and dividing fractions via real world scenarios.
Drawing models help them develop efficient
algorithms for these operations.
4
8
X
6
Students in Class IX use their skills in solving
proportions to help them solve problems
involving parallel lines.
The goal of Arrive is to make attendance easy.
When a student gets to class, she opens the app
on her phone and selects the class at which she's
arrived—check-in is as simple as that. Teachers
have an administrative site through which they
can monitor overall attendance, and the app
is built to be used on an individual device or at
a shared kiosk.
N
A
H
I
W
Our unparalleled visual education program is as much
about making art as it is about developing students’ visual
literacy and creating an awareness of art and objects as valuable
tools for learning. It’s why we expose students to the diversity
of the world through New York City’s various museums, which
collaborate with us to provide guided visits, research resources,
internships, and professional development opportunities. At a
young age, Nightingale girls become savvy museum-goers and
possess an impressive understanding of art history.
At Nightingale, we know trial and
error lead to resilience and sometimes
to breathtaking discoveries.
It’s why we make scientific research in both the Middle and
Upper Schools an integral part of our rigorous science
curriculum. Our Middle School students conduct fieldwork in
the Costa Rica rain forest. In Upper School Science Seminar,
students research and present talks on areas of current
scientific interest. Cutting-edge researchers from top New
York universities and labs share their work and mentor
students—several of our girls each year are granted special
research fellowships, giving them hands-on experience not
available even to undergraduates. Students also have the option
of participating in our summer biotechnology course, which
includes practice in bacterial DNA cloning, the polymerase
chain reaction, and techniques in immunoassay and ELISA.
T
G
K
Given:
NHA =
KTG
HWTI is a rhombus
Prove: NI = WK
Students in Class IX study formal two-column proof
in geometry.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
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A RT F U L I MAG I NIN GS
Our Visual Education
Program teaches our
students to think in new
ways, to engage art on
many levels, to use art
as a tool for exploration
and learning. In this
exercise, Nightingale
fourth-graders were
asked to look beyond
the paint and imagine
the character's story.
Why can’t I watch the movie? I have been standing here
for hours and it’s my favorite movie. No more people
will be coming until the next movie starts, which is in
one hour... maybe it won’t hurt if I just peek over.
Isabelle
Another day went
by at the theater.
It was tiring listening
to the movies but
not looking; there
were five movies
playing today that
I could only listen to.
It’s so hard not to go
sit in those plush red
velvet chairs. It is so
hard to stay in that
very itchy blue and
red uniform. I get so
hot in that uniform,
I feel like I’m going
to explode.
Arianna
As I stand around the corner, I can hear
the movie. I lean against the wall and
rest my head on my hand. I find the
fact that I am forbidden to watch the
show outrageous! I am simply to stand
throughout the show. I feel my eyelids
droop. Why did I ever take this job? If I
have no freedom, should I just announce
tomorrow that I shall be leaving?
Anna
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
I listened to the words of the movie.
I was not sure where the people were
in the movie, but their names were
Mike and Rosaline. I studied the floor
and my shoes. The carpet swirls of the
two colors made me dizzy.
Margot
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We want Nightingale girls to relish the
unexpected and new—and to carry that
quality with them throughout their lives
so that they are always open to learning
and to new opportunities.
The Nightingale schoolhouse extends to the world-class city
just outside our blue doors and to the globe beyond. One of the
pillars of our Upper School program is the ninth grade trip
to London. Whether or not she has been there before, each
girl sees London, and herself, through new eyes. The trip is
the capstone to months of study linking literature, history,
science, and art—this last exemplified as every student presents
a lecture about an artist and his or her work, while standing in
front of the actual painting in the National Gallery. Students
in our World Religions class have twice traveled to holy sites
throughout India over spring vacation, advanced science
students can do fieldwork in Costa Rica, our chorus has
traveled throughout Europe, and our classics students have had
the opportunity to travel extensively throughout Rome and
Southern Italy. From the quantity and quality of our curricular
trips and semesters abroad to our long-standing community
service program, Nightingale’s engagement with the wider
world is unsurpassed in independent schools.
Throughout our program, we give students ways to surprise
themselves, to be audacious, to discover new talents and
interests. On our own and with partner boys’ schools, we
produce several full-scale theatre productions each year. In
musicals and farce, in Shakespeare and Gilbert and Sullivan
operettas, our students access talents, take guided risks, and
become more capable and eloquent individuals through the
creative process. We want them to respect their own uniqueness
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
CU LT URE
CA LENDAR
Every week of the year, Nightingale students are exploring the city
around them, visiting some of the finest museums and cultural
centers in the world: MoMA, the Guggenheim, Museo del Barrio,
or the Museum of Chinese in America. Sometimes it's a structured
visit with the class, often it's an extracurricular visit to research for
a paper or find artistic inspiration. Below, a small sampling of
the year's many formal class trips around the New York region.
Lower School
February
The Paley Center for
Media, Class IV English
and Social Studies
Tenement Museum,
Class II Social Studies
The Rubin Museum
of Art, Class III Social
Studies
October
Queens Museum of Art,
Class II Social Studies
The Cloisters, Class III
Social Studies
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Class IV
Social Studies
November
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class IV Art
The Museum of the City
of New York,
Class I Social Studies
New-York Historical
Society, Class II
December
New York Transit
Museum, Class II
Social Studies
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class I Social Studies
January
The Rubin Museum
of Art, Class K
The Jewish Museum,
Class III Social Studies
The Rubin Museum,
Class IV Social Studies
March
Institute for American
Indian Studies
(Washington, CT)
Class IV Social Studies
Urasenke Chanoyu
Center of New York
Class I Social Studies
The Jewish Museum
Class K
June
Whitney Museum of
American Art, Class IV
Visual Education
Kendall Sculpture
Gardens, Class I
Middle School
June
The China Institute,
Class VII Mandarin
October
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Class
VII and VI Photography
Upper School
November
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class V History
Whitney Museum,
Class VII Photography
October
New York Buddhist
Church, Upper School
World Religions
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
Class IX Photography
Church of the Heavenly
Rest, Upper School
World Religions
April
The Museum of
Mathematics,
Class III Math
Colonial Dames
Museum House,
Class IV Social Studies
The Noguchi Museum,
Class K
Weeksville Heritage
Society, Class II
Social Studies
December
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class VI History
American Museum of
Natural History, Class V
May
The Brooklyn Grange,
Class I Social Studies
The Center for
Architecture, Class II
Social Studies
Union Square
Greenmarket Tour,
Class I Social Studies
Central Park:
Conservatory Garden,
Class I
February
Tenement Museum,
Class VIII History
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class VII History
January
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class VIII Photography
Class V History
May
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class VIII French
Class V English
Bodies Exhibit,
Classes VI Science
September
The Cloisters
Upper School
French Culture
November
Frick Collection,
Class X French
January
Islamic Cultural Center
of New York, Upper
School World Religions
The Frick Collection,
Class IX History
February
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
Class IX French
May
Tour of Harlem with Big
Onion Walking Tours,
Class IX English
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PU BL I S H A ND F LO UR I S H
At a school that prizes the voice so much, it is no surprise that we
have such celebrated journals—each edited and arranged by students.
Philomel has won nine gold and five silver crown awards from the
Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Out of Uniform has won three
gold crowns, and Time Regained has won three gold medals.
Time Regained
Time Regained publishes essays and photography focused on national
and international current events. The journal provides a forum for an open
expression of ideas, with provocative articles that will spark discourse and
debate in the Nightingale community. Each issue presents a diversity of voices,
that cover everything from the Violence Against Women Act to affirmative
action, from outsourcing labor to fashion for female politicans.
Philomel
Philomel is one of the
most acclaimed high
school literary journals
in the country. First
published in 1928,
Philomel serves as a
sampling and survey of
all the art and writing
of the Upper School.
Indelible by Olivia Stovicek,
Philomel 2013
"'Hey,' I would say, always with a
slight sigh, the word seeming
to settle, like I was out of breath.
'Hey,' she would say, jogging up
to me in the hallway, actually
out of breath—a bad habit of
taking stairs two at a time.
One time—many times—we were
sitting at computers together,
leaning over toe jab animatedly
at something onscreen, her
with a flourish, a triumphant
thump of the spacebar at the
end of a sentence, me with a
satisfying staccato of thwacks
on the keyboard. We were
in a perpetual state of crisis,
either personal or professional,
though sometimes were
couldn't tell the difference."
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
Out of Uniform
Each year, Out of Uniform
publishes literature and
art from students in the
Middle School.
Viewfinder, Sarah Cope,
Class VIII, Out of Uniform 2013
"To an outsider, I am the girl with
a camera, nothing more than
the girl crouching down on
the street corner clutching a
large black camera, according
to the man walking down the
street, hands shoved in his
pockets, breath coming out in
white plumes. He cannot see
the way that First Avenue and
Fourteenth Street seem to glow
in the five o'clock winter sky."
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WEL L R EA D: F R O M C LAS S I C S TO O UT LAW S AN D OU T LI ER S
Nightingale's curriculum is an entrancing balance of the canonical and
the contemporary. Here, the breadth of this balance is evidenced by two
of our Upper School English electives, 19th Century Russian Literature
and Outlaws and Outliers. 19th Century
Russian Literature
Russian authors before
the 1917 Revolution were
among the most philosophically probing and
dramatically compelling
writers in Western culture.
This English elective
explores the heart of
the Russian canon,
addressing questions
of morality, civilization,
memory, and sanity.
a world where faith in God is on
the wane and the Nietzschean
superman is the new hero, what
will be the basis of morality?
The story of Raskolnikov,
murderer and philosopher, and
the soul-less Svidrigailov is a
compelling psychological and
theological tale that forms a
complement to Nightingale's
World Religions elective.
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This English elective
for juniors and seniors
focuses on characters who
transgress conventional
expectations around
gender and sexuality. The
course consists of a variety
of readings—novels, plays,
and essays—by a diversity
of writers from the U.S.,
England, Venezuela, and
Argentina. Students also
study film adaptations and
documentaries related to
issues raised in class.
Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Before Lewis Carroll and
Salvador Dali, Gogol was
viewing the world from another
angle. His story "The Nose"—
in which the protagonist wakes
one day to find a crucial body
part missing and running
about town chasing women—
is a Freudian comic treat and
a Kafka-esque nightmare.
Gogol, our students agree,
is the perfect introduction to
the drama, strangeness, and
intensity of nineteenth-century
Russian fiction.
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy
At a time when American and
British literature avoided blunt
depictions of illicit passion and
marriages gone wrong, Tolstoy
forcefully confronted them in
1876 in one of the most honest,
penetrating, and multi-layered
nineteenth-century novels.
A tragic portrait of a wife and
mother imprisoned by expectations, Tolstoy's novel makes for
engrossing discussions in any
literature seminar, but nowhere
more so than in a female single-sex classroom. The sense of
accomplishment after finishing
a 900-page book is also no
small part of the experience.
Outlaws
and Outliers
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky wrote Crime and
Punishment in 1860, but he was
speaking to the 20th century: in
THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
Plays by Anton Chekov
The Cherry Orchard is a lyrical
evocation of a society on
the verge of radical change
and the consequences of a
paralyzed will to act, The Seagull
dramatizes a tortured motherson relationship and the nature
of the self-absorbed artist,
while Uncle Vanya creates a
tragicomedy out of unrequited
love and futile hopes. Modern
theater as we know it, as our
students study it, from Eugene
O'Neill to Tennessee Williams,
originates with Chekhov's
moving, mournful plays.
Oranges Are Not
the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson
Winterson’s semi-autobiographical novel depicts the conflict a
girl experiences between her
religion and sexual orientation.
Students enjoy Winterson’s Biblical allusions and the compelling imagery that enriches the
telling of this powerful journey
toward self-acceptance.
Cloud 9
Caryl Churchill
This absurdist text plays with
the presentation of gender,
race, class, and age against
a colonialist backdrop. The
play acts as a kickoff to each
student selecting a play from
our extensive modern drama
library collection and presenting
scenes and interpretations to
her classmates.
Giovanni’s Room
James Baldwin
Baldwin’s 1956 seminal novel
set in Paris is about a young
American struggling with his
attraction to a sexually liberated
Italian, Giovanni. Students relate
to Baldwin’s captivating story and
rich language in a personal way,
setting the stage for meaningful
and surprising discussions.
New Yorker Essays
Ariel Levy and Margaret Talbot
investigate contemporary
voices, including those of the
transgendered community,
on biological and cultural
definitions of gender. Students
appreciate how nonfiction
pieces link to discussions of the
novels and plays; they find the
essays fascinating, grounding,
and worth rereading.
The Laramie Project
Moisés Kauffman
Based on interviews with locals
after a young gay student is
murdered, the play paints
a nuanced portrait of the
Wyoming university town,
Laramie. The first time the
course was offered, students
saw the award-winning play
performed at B.A.M. courtesy of
the Nightingale Drama Grant.
“Brokeback Mountain”
Annie Proulx
The original text of Ang Lee’s
film is about the relationship
between two men who meet
in the mountains of Montana.
Transfixed by the intense energy
between the two characters and
transformed by the literature
read in the course, students
remark on how the story isn’t
about sexuality so much as
love—a comment Lee also made
when he accepted the Academy
Award for this remarkable and
memorable tale.
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and to be able to articulate their ideas and those of others in an
imaginative and confident way. Recent plays and musicals have
included To Kill a Mockingbird, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Into the Woods,
Once Upon a Mattress, The Wizard of Oz, and Guys and Dolls.
To gain experience in politics, medicine, and the performing
arts, our celebrated internship program places sophomores,
juniors, and seniors in companies and organizations all over
the city. Most recently, Nightingale students have interned at
Credit Suisse, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,
HarperCollins Publishers, J.P. Morgan, Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Queen Literary Agency, Shoshanna, SquareSpot, Tribeca
Film Enterprise, and World Civic Orchestra. Nightingale
alumnae often provide these wonderful internships—along with
mentoring, both personal and professional—for our students.
This is just one of the ways our alumnae give back to their school
and students begin to experience the strength of the global
Nightingale alumnae network they will join.
Under one roof, collaboration and
community beat out competition.
For more than 90 years, we have educated girls in one
schoolhouse. Why does our commitment to being under one
roof matter? You can feel the answer on any floor, in any
classroom or stairwell. From the start, our youngest students
look up to the older ones and the older students look out for
the little ones. Immersed in different age groups; surrounded
by different disciplines, activities, and role models; every
Nightingale girl is buttressed and challenged by teachers who
may have watched her grow for as many as 13 years.
Our one schoolhouse also brings together what distinguishes
Nightingale most: the strength, diversity, and variety of our
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
H AT S O FF TO YO U
Our college list includes the finest institutions of learning in America and abroad,
and its diversity reflects the individual
passions and interests of our graduates.
Below is a small sampling of colleges
and universities that our students attend,
arranged by the number of girls who
matriculated at each between 2009–2013.
5Dartmouth College, Middlebury College
4Oberlin College, University of Pennsylvania
3 Brown University, University of Chicago,
Colgate University, Cornell University, Harvard
College, Vassar College, Wake Forest University,
Wesleyan University, Yale University
2Barnard College, Bowdoin College, Skidmore
College, University of Southern California,
University of St. Andrews, Washington University
in St. Louis, College of William and Mary
1Amherst, College of the Atlantic, Bard College,
Claremont McKenna College, Columbia
University, Duke University, Emory University,
Fordham University, Grinnell College,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
University of Miami, Parsons The New School
for Design, Pitzer College, Princeton University,
Southern Methodist University, Swarthmore
College, Whitman College, Williams College
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INTO THE CI TY, I N TO T H E WO R LD
ST U DY AB ROAD
Our goal at Nightingale has long been to use this great city—its parks
and museums, its history and people—as a giant classroom. Our faculty
and staff embed the immeasurable cultural, scientific, and historical
riches of New York region into every aspect of our curriculum; below
is a sampling of some ways that we do this across grades.
In addition to international trips that arise out of Nightingale's curriculum,
our students participate in a number of exchanges with schools from
Sydney to Switzerland that allow them the opportunity to expand their
educational horizons and develop life-long friendships with students
around the world. The first opportunity is in the Middle School, when
selected girls join with boys from St. Bernard's to visit the Dragon School
in England. Below are some of the programs available to our Upper
School girls.
Drama Grant
Visual Education
One of Nightingale’s premiere
initiatives, the Visual Education
Program is a multidisciplinary
approach that incorporates the
use of art objects and images
to enrich the curriculum, from
Kindergarten through Class
XII, in areas from history and
science to English and language
studies. Lower School students
are taught to think critically
through the program: their
observations lead them to
discover, connect, and discuss
important elements of a work of
art and relate it to topics from
the broader curriculum. Trips to
the region’s great museums and
cultural centers help our girls
learn deeply about their various
academic subjects and develop
a fluency with art and its power
as a tool for learning. According
to art history teacher and chair
of the English department John
Loughery, “It’s a quaint notion
that academic and creative
disciplines are all discrete forms
of experience; anybody who
has benefitted from this school’s
emphasis on visual education
knows better.
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Civic Engagement
Knowing about the larger
world is not enough. Helping
to care for it—and change it for
the better—is an essential part
of the Nightingale education.
From their first days here, our
girls engage their city and
learn to give back. Students
might make sandwiches for the
Yorkville Common Pantry and
work with elders at Terence
Cardinal Cooke Nursing Home,
or they might raise awareness
about a cause for which they
feel passionate and host a joint
service project with one of the
nearby boys’ schools. As part of
a required civic engagement and
leadership course, Class IX girls
spend one morning per week
working with young students at
Sisulu-Walker Charter School
of Harlem. Projects throughout
the school are built into the
curriculum and underscore the
link between classroom learning
and real world issues.
THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
Characterizing the depth to
which our students are able
to engage their studies, the
Catherine MS Gordan Program
in Dramatic Literature allows
girls to attend Broadway and
Off-Broadway productions of
plays they read in class. Referred
to colloquially as the Drama
Grant, this program brings
actors, directors, and playwrights
(often those involved with the
productions our students have
just seen) to visit Nightingale
classes and discuss their work.
The grant also provides for
acting workshops with theater
professionals and a guest director for our Class VIII production.
Ascham School
The exchange with this girl's
boarding school in Sydney,
Australia, allows girls to spend
a semester down under, then
host Ascham students here in
New York.
Swiss Semester
A rigorous co-ed program for
40 Americans with emphasis on
outdoor activities; students are
housed in ski lodge hotels.
Chewonki Semester School
An interdisciplinary program
on a 400-acre coastal
peninsula in Maine, focusing
on environmental issues.
Island School
The Bahamas are a perfect
setting to study the marine
environment, while spending the
semester on an island campus.
Mountain School
This semester-long, co-ed
program is located on a 300acre farm in Vermont, which
students help run.
St. Paul's Girls' School
This spring vacation exchange
allows students to live with an
English family and take classes
with the host student.
Class Trips
Beginning in fourth grade,
most grades take an overnight
trip that allows them to focus
on leadership skills, team
building, and social-emotional
development. Many of these
trips, like the Class VIII trip to
Washington, DC, are also tied
to the curriculum. These trips
take our girls to Greenkill, NY
(Class IV), Rhinebeck, NY (Class
VI), Cooperstown, NY (Class VII),
Washington, DC (Class VIII), and
Frost Valley, NY (Class X).
Rocky Mountain Semester
This program explores the
natural world both in the
classroom and while hiking,
backpacking, and climbing.
School for Ethics and
Global Leadership
This semester-long program
in Washington, DC emphasizes
ethical thinking, leadership
development, and international affairs.
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Scan of lyrics
A C EL EBR ATI O N O F VO I C E
At Nightingale, every girl has the opportunity to develop
her musical artistry and literacy through singing and
instrument playing, solo and ensemble activities, low
and high stakes performance opportunities, movement,
improvisation, and composition. Lower School students
start with singing, movement, and instrument playing
that is hands-on and experience-based. Beginning with
Class IV, students study stringed instruments and have
opportunities to participate in formal musical groups like
chorus and orchestra as they progress through Middle
and Upper School. Our choral groups have performed in
Croatia, Italy, Prague, Salzburg, and Vienna, as well as at
Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. Bassless Accusations
is the award-wining Upper School a cappella group—also
notable for being student-run.
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Music Ensembles
and Classes
Advanced Guitar
Bassless Accusations
(a cappella)
Chamber Chorus
Chamber Ensemble
(strings)
Drumming Club
Gospel Girls
Intermediate Guitar
Music Appreciation
Upper School Chorus
community. Nightingale represents the multi-faceted brilliance
of the city in which we live. For decades we have actively sought
diversity of backgrounds, views, and interests in our community.
Understanding others inside the schoolhouse as well as out is
central to the experience students have here. In addition to
diversity within our community, distinguished speakers visit
throughout the year, offering insights on topics ranging from
the history of Islam to women in leadership. Students also
have the opportunity to participate in a variety of conferences,
panels, and meetings that deal with questions of race, spirituality,
sexuality, and gender.
The life of the schoolhouse is an enormous web of classes
and clubs, teachers and teams, projects and presentations.
On the athletics field, through student-managed clubs and
organizations and a thriving service learning program, our
girls learn to lead, relax, celebrate, and teach one another.
The unique strength of our one schoolhouse model is
about to become even more exciting. Committed to learning
and growing together, we have reimagined the Nightingale
schoolhouse for new-century learning—a building to match the
dynamism of today’s Nightingale curriculum. We are adding
state-of-the-art science labs and a robotics studio, a greenhouse,
a new blackbox theatre, specialized music practice rooms,
and a new media lab. New technology will be integrated into
every corner of the schoolhouse. In pursuit of global citizenry,
our students will have aural tech in language labs and video
conferencing in every room. They’ll be talking with students
and teachers from around the world, practicing their language
skills in other countries, interviewing global experts they
might never reach otherwise, and making use of Nightingale’s
longstanding relationships in England, Turkey, and Sydney,
to name a few. A visionary place, it’s the embodiment of
Nightingale’s promise that every girl will have every chance—at
every moment, in every space—to find the best version of herself.
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Van Cortland Park
Baker Field
GO NI G H T H AW K S !
Health, wellness, character, and leadership drive Nightingale athletics and physical
education. We want our girls to possess the collaborative and competitive skills
of teamwork, sportsmanship, risk-taking, resilience, and confidence that come
with being an athlete. We want them to experience the exhilarating feeling of
testing themselves physically and achieving heights they may not have thought
possible. From the novice to the advanced athlete, every girl can find her place at
Nightingale. We are proud members of the Athletic Association of Independent
Schools (AAIS) of New York. Our Nighthawks compete in 12 varsity sports and
have won recent championships in cross-country and lacrosse. Our varsity teams
are complemented by junior varsity squads and no-cut Middle School teams.
Highlights of our Lower and Middle School physical education programs are a
Red-Cross certified swim program, gymnastics, dance, self defense, and over 20
Upper School physical education electives from ballet to kickboxing to yoga.
Our students compete on
fields, courts, tracks, and trails
throughout the region. Whether
it's our runners competing at the
National Track and Field Center
at the Armory, or our varsity
soccer team dominating one
of the fields at Randall's Island,
our urban athletes find plenty
of space to spread their wings.
The Armory
National Tennis Center
Icahn Stadium
Varsity Athletics
Badminton
Basketball
Cross Country
Dance
Indoor Track and Field
Lacrosse
Soccer
Softball
Swimming
Tennis
Track and Field
Volleyball
Randall's Island
Upper School Physical
Education Electives
Aerobics
African Dance
Circuit Training
Core Training
Cycling
Handball
Jogging
Kickboxing
Lifeguard Training
Meditation
Modern Dance
Muscle Development
Pilates
Weight Training
Yoga
Asphalt Green
PO WERFUL
PARTN ERSHIP
Beginning in the 2013–14
school year, Nightingale
is embarking on an
extensive partnership
with the 92nd Street
Y, one of the premier
cultural and athletic
organizations in the city.
Our student athletes
will have exclusive
access to two gyms at
various times during the
day and after school—
allowing for in-depth
skills instruction and
more flexible scheduling
of both practices and
games—as well as access
to a weight room for
team training. We expect
this partnership to grow
beyond PE and athletics
in the coming years,
allowing our students
unparalleled access to
the cultural experiences
offered by the Y.
Nightingale
Central Park
Madison Square Garden
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
Chelsea Piers
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At Nightingale, we educate the whole
girl, from head to heart, because we
believe this is the best preparation for
the world ahead.
It’s an education that has prepared
Nightingale women to run the commun­
ications of presidential campaigns,
to achieve partner at top law firms,
and to become leading medical experts.
It’s prepared them to write bestselling
novels and television shows, to launch
their own companies, and to run
global nonprofits.
As a parent, you can only imagine
what your daughter will want to do in
life. But with a Nightingale education—
with an analytical, poetic, searching,
ingenious, and daring mind and
heart—she will be ready to become
the woman she wants to be.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
÷e
Nightingale
Heart
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“Central to the Nightingale experience
is a bold promise: we will educate the
mind and the heart in equal measure,
and we will make an absolute commitment
to the success of every girl. ÷is has been
true since our founding and will remain
so well into our future.”
Paul A. Burke
Head of School
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“÷e Lower School girls change all
the time. ÷ey grow taller and more
independent before our very eyes.
÷ere is so much for them to learn as
they acquire basic skills and apply them.
÷eir love of learning and pride in
accomplishment bring contagious joy
as they work and play together. ÷ey
connect to the Nightingale community
and to their classmates and form ever
changing friendships. ÷e girls are
comfortable with themselves and each
other, free to be who they are. When
they graduate they will have changed
in so many ways and yet each of them
will be the person she came here to be.”
Blanche G. Mansfield
Head of Lower School
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“We foster a spirit of independence in
our Middle School girls so that they have
the confidence to explore, to question,
to challenge, to take risks. What do our
girls need in order to do this? ÷ey need
caring adults to guide and encourage
them, they need an engaging curriculum
that has meaning and relevance to them,
and they need the skills and habits of
mind to navigate an ever-changing world.
When we talk about educating the heart
and the mind in the Middle School,
we are expressing our belief that girls
cannot learn effectively without attention
to both their academic and socialemotional needs.”
Noni S. Thomas, MA
Head of Middle School
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“Nightingale’s Upper School is a place
where girls are charged to think about
the kind of women they want to be,
where students find their voice and
explore new interests, where we celebrate
the pleasures of rigorous scholarship and
the joys of being young, all at the same
time. Ours is a community where students
are honored by their teachers and peers
for hard work, citizenship, and good
humor. ÷e relationships formed in the
classroom and in myriad extracurricular
activities are at the heart of all we do.”
Anne P. Longley, PhD
Head of Upper School
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Admission to Nightingale
During the admissions process, we take the time to come to know
you and your daughter, and we hope that you will enjoy this time of
exploration as much as we do. Our goal throughout is to support and
guide you so that you can focus on what is important: choosing the
best educational environment for your child.
We have outlined the complete admissions process, including
appropriate deadlines and application materials, on our Web site at
nightingale.org/admissions. If you have any questions that are not
answered on the Web site, please do not hesitate to contact us at
(212) 933-6515 or [email protected].
Curriculum Guide
You may find our curriculum guide, which lists all courses and
electives in each division, at nightingale.org/admissions.
Class I–IV Candidates
Admission to these classes is dependent upon available space.
Please contact the admissions office for information regarding
potential openings.
Financial Aid
Nightingale is committed to the principle that no qualified student
should be unable to attend the school because of financial reasons.
Thanks to a generous scholarship program supported by our parents,
alumnae, and trustees, financial aid is made available to many of our
families. To apply for financial aid, please file the Parents’ Financial
Statement with the School and Student Service for Financial Aid, which
can be found online at http://sss.nais.org. As scholarship funds are
limited, please complete all documentation as early as possible, and
certainly by the January deadline.
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THE NIGHTINGALE–BAMFORD SCHOOL
Mission Statement
The mission of the Nightingale-Bamford School is to educate the minds
and the hearts of its students in a challenging, vibrant community that
prizes academic excellence.
Founded in 1920, Nightingale is an independent K-12 girls' school
that provides a classical curriculum to motivated students of varied
backgrounds, interests, and talents. What they share is a demanding
academic environment in which their teachers inspire them to love
learning and to embrace curiosity, creativity, and hard work. Providing
structure and a strong foundation from the start, the curriculum allows
for increasing independence as students move through the Lower,
Middle, and Upper Schools. In each division, small classes permit
teachers to find their students' strengths and insist on their best efforts.
Our commitment to the success of every girl is absolute. At the same
time, we believe that success comes in many forms. Through the arts
and athletics, ample leadership opportunities, extracurricular activities,
and community service, Nightingale students are encouraged to
discover and to demonstrate that the mind and heart are equally
important, and that one is empty without the other.
Diversity Statement
The Nightingale-Bamford School is committed to diversity in an
educational environment of responsibility, mutual respect, and
empathy. We value individuals whose differences include, but are
not limited to, age, ethnicity, family structure, gender, learning style,
physical ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic
status. Fulfilling this mission is an ongoing process requiring active
participation and frequent dialogue.
All members of the Nightingale community—students past and
present, faculty and staff, administrators, parents, and trustees—are
expected to keep their minds and hearts open to difference as a source
of strength and a means of growth.