Ethel Walker School
At Walker’s, learning is a vigorous journey during which students and educators challenge one another to grow intellectually.
Students learn to identify real-world challenges and create solutions while developing the skills that are essential for college, career and citizenship. Learners take intellectual risks through which persistence and resilience help them improve and grow. Ultimately, wisdom is gained through experience, mastery, and reflection.
We recognize that learning is greatly impacted by social interaction. Central to teaching and learning at Walker’s is the development of deep and lasting relationships within our community. These connections, formed within a culture of respect and trust, enable individual growth and enhance our girls’ understanding of their potential to affect those around them.
At Walker’s, we believe that demonstrated skills are the best measure of learning. These essential skills include: literacy, critical thinking, global perspective, initiative, leadership, collaboration, communication, and creativity.
Knowledge will always be important, but what you do with that knowledge is even more important. Walker’s high academic standards stretch students to the place where they are motivated to direct their own learning. Our faculty guide students as they develop essential skills to meet challenges and opportunities today — and in the future — in whatever areas of interest they choose to pursue.
At The Ethel Walker Middle School, we place girls at the center of our educational design process. Girls thrive in our classrooms because they are afforded a sense of agency and a platform where they develop their voices and learn how to use them effectively to have a say in their own education. Math, science, history, English, creative arts, and world languages (Latin, Spanish, or French) are the core of the Walker’s Middle School curriculum.
The New York Times has a weekly installment called “By the Book” which is a series of questions and answers about the reading habits of notable writers. This chapter features…
Added to: Academics, All School, English, Riding
Over the summer, while Science Department Chair Dr. Suzanne Piela was mostly in lockdown, she began mapping out how to translate what was happening with the global pandemic into her…
Added to: Academics, Science, Upper School
The New York Times has a weekly installment called “By the Book” which is a series of questions and answers about the reading habits of notable writers. This chapter features…
Added to: Academics, All School, English, Riding
Thirteen Walker’s students have received Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7-12 (artandwriting.org). Those earning Gold Keys are…
Walker’s advisory program recognizes that a strong faculty-student relationship is an essential component of growth and development for every student. Through academic and social conversations throughout their time at Walker’s, advisors become transformative adults in the lives of our students.
Each Walker’s student in our Upper and Middle School is placed in a small advisory group composed of peers in grades 9–12 or in grades 6–8. Led by a Walker’s faculty member or administrator, these groups are units in which a student receives academic advice, learns about other cultures and forms lifelong friendships.
Advisors work with each of their advisees to form an academic plan and to sign up for courses. Serving as liaisons between students, families, and faculty members, advisors communicate frequently with families to provide updates on academic and social progress. When necessary, advisors take the lead on setting up academic support for advisees, whether in the form of extra help, peer tutoring, or professional tutors. Advisors also often serve as social support, ensuring that each advisee feels cared for and comfortable in classes, residence halls or on teams.
Through the advisory program, Walker’s recognizes that each student is an individual with their own goals and possibilities. While encouraging self-advocacy, advisors support students in the achievement of these goals.
There is a great relationship between the advisor and student, but also between the advisor and parent. We don’t allow any child to fall through the cracks.
—Suzanne Piela P’22, Science Department Chair
