Academic Life

Lower School

Welcome to the Rumson Country Day School Lower School where children learn to love learning.

RCDS's Lower School, Nursery through Grade Four, provides students with seven years of dynamic growth and activities!!  We offer our students an exciting education that encompasses the intellect and imagination.  We have high but reasonable expectations for all our students in a supportive, loving environment.  The Lower School is a lively, happy place with dedicated teachers and a stimulating curriculum, which is anchored in best practices.  A walk through our hallways and into the classrooms will show you many different types of activities on any given day.  In RCDS's Lower School students take their first steps into a school career filled with the joy of learning.

At RCDS our Lower School Program is set up to meet the needs of Nursery through grade 4 students in all areas of growth-academic, social and personal.  Our small class size encourages a "family" feel to everything we do. Communication with parents is important and a hallmark of the RCDS experience.   We encourage a partnership, built through strong communication, and we offer many experiences where parents can volunteer and be a part of their child's education.  Together we believe we will assist each child to grow and develop to his /her potential.

Jayne S. Carmody, Head of the Lower School

 Upper School

Greetings and Welcome to the Upper School:

When I turned ten years old, my grandmother told me I had "...better get ready, because double-digits is when the fun really starts."  My grandmother was right, and in the Upper School we create a fascinating, challenging, and rewarding world for our fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

One reason that life becomes so fun in the double-digits is the development in cognitive abilities.  Young people become more curious and better equipped to handle sophisticated academic work.  At RCDS, we develop a foundation for this scholarship.  We foster their communication skills.  We encourage analysis and critical thinking, and we cultivate logical and creative approaches to problem solving.  And we achieve these goals by addressing the needs of each student, so that every child is both challenged and nurtured.

Another reason why life is so fascinating is the abundant energy of fifth through eighth graders.  We believe this energy is our greatest resource.  It allows us to combine a traditional academic program with unique learning opportunities, such as yearly outdoor trips, experiential courses in many areas, and extra-curricular opportunities in athletics, service, and arts.  

These programs do more than provide a robust scholastic experience.  They address the final reason why life becomes so interesting when a child begins the fifth grade: social awareness.  Over the next four years, that child's worldview will change in remarkable ways, and by eighth grade, that child will have become a young adult.  Our culture fosters the dignity of every individual and focuses on the inherent worth of each stage in a young person's development.  Being a sixth grader is much more than preparation for being a seventh grader; being a sixth grader is a rich and valuable experience in its own right.

At RCDS, we are not only preparing our children for success in secondary school and college.  We are also helping our children to accomplishment in that moment, and we are starting them on a thoughtful, independent existence that extends beyond their school experience.  My grandmother was right: ten years old is indeed when the fun starts, but it is only a start.  We work hard to be the wonderful start to an enjoyable and rewarding life.

Bill Lamb, Head of the Upper School