Soon after the new school year began, Middle School students were packing their bags and heading for the buses that would take each class to a grade-level, overnight retreats at the Outdoor School in Horsham, Echo Hill in Maryland and Pine Forest in the Poconos.

They were following the Upper Schoolers, who had retreats of their own. The ninth graders, who are new to the Upper School, held activities on campus until it was time to go bowling together. The sophomores went to the Outdoor School and the juniors traveled into the city to take a Mural Arts Tour and visit with a half dozen AFS alums. The seniors spent a day and night at a camp in southern New Jersey and then headed for the beach in Ocean City, N.J.

Upper School Director Dominique Gerard explains the underlying educational reasons for the retreats:

One could ask why we as a school choose to commit precious time at the beginning of the year for our 9^th-12^th grade students to get away from school when they’ve only just arrived. The rationale for each retreat is considered developmentally for each grade level’s needs, but the goals behind all the retreats can be boiled down into two major ideas: relationship building and visioning.

First and foremost, retreats are about developing and strengthening the bonds of advisor-student and peer relationships. The importance of this work cannot be understated and needs appropriate space and time “away from it all” to be accomplished. Most critical during the 9^th grade retreat, “getting to know you” time is important in order for our newest Upper School community members to reduce their anxiety about their new educational home. Emotional stress and anxiety prevent learning from happening. Remove the anxiety and improve the learning!

As students get older, the relationship-building aspect of retreats continues as they must develop class projects and move into leadership roles in the school. The ability to maneuver relationships to get things done is a vital skill for our young people. Further, the relational time in retreats allows for the significant advisor-student relationship to develop and be enriched through the years. The warm and supportive relationships that develop in advisory at AFS aren’t born full formed on day one; they are nurtured over time throughout the year, but especially at grade-level retreats.

The second major educational priority for our grade-level retreats is the visioning process. In myriad ways, you will hear the question asked at retreat: “Who do you want to be?” Who do you want to be as a person, as a class, as a community? In retreats, our students look forward to the future and look back on the past, reflect on their successes and challenges and then develop goals and plans for the coming school year.

This process becomes especially poignant during the 12^th grade retreat when the seniors reflect over their Upper School career and consider their legacy in the AFS community. As young people developing executive function skills, this visioning time, and the coaching they receive by their advisors and grade deans, is developmentally critical.