Welcome Back

Head of School Tim Richards is excited for the year ahead.

The 2022–2023 school year is almost here, and we cannot wait to see you! We will welcome 366 students from 29 states and 29 countries to campus. Of this group, 125 students will be brand new to our community.

As a reminder, prefects, BIPOC students, international students, and select varsity athletes are invited to arrive on Monday, September 5. All remaining students are invited to arrive on Wednesday, September 7. If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at our Arrival Days schedule, I encourage you to do so.

Opening Days
On Wednesday night, we will officially kick off the school year with one of our most beloved traditions, the Sundial Ceremony, followed by Sitdown Dinner, and then Opening Chapel. Thursday will mark our first day of classes. Convocation, literally “a calling together,” will take place that morning.

On Friday, we’ll hold our first School Meeting in the newly renovated Hard Auditorium. Additional orientations, form events, meals, meetings, practices, and social events will continue through the Closed Weekend before we settle into a normal schedule the following week.

Institutional Updates
When students return to campus, they will find much that is familiar, but also much that has changed. Pomfret is not the same school it was three months ago, and certainly not the same school it was a year ago. As always, we are continuing to stake out the sweet spot between preservation and progress as we continue to build, grow, explore, experiment, and evolve.

After more than a year of construction, Hard Auditorium is finally up and running. The newly renovated space includes a new state-of-the-art theater with enough telescoping stadium seating to fit the entire Pomfret community. The gut renovation also includes new air conditioning, heating, electrical, water, and drainage systems. As part of the project, the old breezeway connecting Hard Auditorium to the School Building was dismantled and replaced with a new three-story connector housing an elevator. 
I am also excited about the launch of Amplify: The Campaign for Pomfret School — the biggest fundraising campaign in our School’s history. To celebrate the launch, we are hosting events all over the country, starting this fall with gatherings in New York and Boston. If you’d like to join us, you can register here. When you support this campaign, you are helping to amplify the voices and choices of our students and faculty for many years to come. Join us! 
Just last week, we added a new mission and vision installation to the Dining Hall. On one wall, in huge lettering, it reads: Pomfret School empowers students to pursue lives of purpose and meaning. On the opposite wall, it says: Our vision is to inspire the next generation of change makers and problem solvers. We chose to display these statements in such a prominent location to remind everyone in the Pomfret community of why we are here. For students and faculty alike, this is the work. 
Last, but certainly not least, I am genuinely excited about the quality of our new faculty. Once again, Dean of Faculty Martha Horst managed to recruit an incredible group of educators to come teach at Pomfret, despite the fiercely competitive market for top-tier talent. These folks embody the best of what it means to be a teacher, and I cannot wait for you to meet them in person.

All In
Yesterday, we concluded four days of really great faculty meetings. One highlight for me came early in the week, when Science Teacher Bill Martin led us through an excellent team building exercise. At the end of the hour-long session, Bill brought us together in the middle of The Quad. “Everyone, put your hands in, get as close as you can,” he called out to the seventy or so faculty members in attendance. “When things get hard, and they always do, I want you to remember this moment,” he said. “This year, we are all in!”

Bill is right. Pomfret only works when we are ALL IN — through the ups and downs, the good times and the bad. We are all in this together. And, soon, we will all be together, once again. Wishing you a safe and smooth return to campus.