Springside Chestnut Hill Academy

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (also known as SCH Academy or SCH) is an independent, non-sectarian Pre-K through grade 12 school located in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, approximately 10 miles from Center City.

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
Address
500 West Willow Grove Avenue

Philadelphia
,
Pennsylvania
19118

United States
Information
TypePrivate, Day, College-prep
Established1861
Head of schoolDr. Stephen Druggan
GradesPreschool through grade 12
GenderSingle sex from Pre-K through Grade 8, then coeducational in high school
Enrollment1,080 (2020)
Campus size62 acres
Athletics conferenceInter-Academic League
MascotBlue Devils
Websitewww.sch.org
All SCH students make regular trips down to the Wissahickon creek, along its trails, and through its woods as they develop their sense of environmental stewardship, learn about sustainability, enjoy its natural beauty, and study the challenges facing this native habitat.
One of the school's buildings is the Wissahickon Inn, a structure that was built in 1884 and is now on the National Historic Registry.
SCH's athletic teams play in the Inter-Academic League (Inter-ac) which, since its inception in 1887, remains the nation's oldest interscholastic athletic conference.

The school—also known as SCH Academy and SCH—has a unique educational model, stemming from its history as two independent, single-sex institutions. The Lower and Middle Schools, grades Pre-K to 8, continue to be single-sex and follow many of their traditions, such as May Day (girls) and Blue and Blue Day (boys), and the Upper School is coeducational.

SCH serves over 1,000 students from more than 100 zip codes, as well as from other countries. 35% of its students identify as people of color.

History

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy was formed by the 2010 merger between all-girls Springside School and all-boys Chestnut Hill Academy (CHA), private Pre-K–12 schools on adjacent campuses.

Founded in 1861, Chestnut Hill Academy was an all-male Pre-K-12 independent college preparatory school located in northwest Philadelphia. CHA was the oldest all-boys school in Greater Philadelphia.

Springside was founded in 1879 by Ms. Jane Bell and Ms. Walter Comegys as a French and English boarding school for young ladies and girls.[1] The school was located on Norwood Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Springside was initially a boarding school and attracted students from across the northeast, particularly in New England, where most boarding schools were only for boys.

Campus

The school is situated on a 62-acre campus adjacent to the Wissahickon Creek watershed in Fairmount Park and includes the Wissahickon Inn, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

The school will open its new McCausland Lower School & Commons in fall 2019. The learning experience will remain single-sex, with gender- and age-specific classrooms, while leveraging the benefits of shared common and cooperative space and access to outdoor learning areas. The building is perched on 10 acres of SCH woods adjacent to the Wissahickon Watershed.

Academics and Extracurricular Offerings

There are more than 100 electives available to Upper School students, including forensics, architectural design, global economics and multivariable calculus. There are also more than 40 student-led clubs, boards, and activities. SCH teachers have an average of 18 years of experience, and 73% of faculty hold advanced degrees.

Athletics

SCH's athletic teams play in the Inter-Academic League (Inter-ac) which, since its inception in 1887, remains the nation's oldest interscholastic athletic conference.

Students can choose from 18 sports, 15 of them offering junior varsity and varsity levels. The school offers cross country, field hockey, football, golf, soccer, tennis, volleyball, tennis, crew, basketball, ice hockey, track and field, indoor track, squash, wrestling, life sports and fitness, baseball, lacrosse, and softball.

Sports facilities include nine playing fields, including two turf fields, the longest continuously used baseball diamond in the U.S., 10 squash courts, and an indoor rowing tank. In 2017-2018, SCH won three PAISAA state titles: boys and girls soccer and softball. SCH also won a SEPA championship for girls soccer and three Inter-AC championships for boys soccer, softball, and girls track and field in 2018.

In their third year, the Philadelphia Eagles held training camp at Chestnut Hill Academy prior to the 1935 season.[2]

Programs

In 2012, SCH Academy established the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) to complement its core curriculum and to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. Philadelphia magazine named SCH one of 19 area schools rethinking education in big and small ways for its CEL program in 2018. The center is unique in the nation in that the entrepreneurial curriculum is built into student schedules from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12.

In addition to its Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, SCH has robotics, global travel, new media, outdoor, and sustainability initiatives programs.

Since 2018, SCH's high school robotics team has competed in 15 of the last 16 FIRST Robotics World Championships, finishing four times in the top 10 and winning the FIRST Chairman's Award eight times.

SCH was also one of the first Philadelphia independent schools to offer classes in video production and design and fabrication. Students have won awards in the Greenfield Youth Film Festival, Cappies, Scholastic Art Awards, national DiscoverDesign Competition, Philadelphia Independence Awards, and the WHYY Youth Media Awards.

SCH prioritizes sustainability efforts, including its native arboreta, rain gardens, LEED Gold science and technology center, and rooftop solar panels. SCH was also recognized with a 3-Star Green Restaurant rating for its school cafeterias and a Green Flag Award from the National Wildlife Federation.

Notable alumni

References
  1. "Springside Chestnut Hill Academy: Our History".
  2. Frank, Reuben (August 17, 2020). "A history of each Philadelphia Eagles training camp site, from 1933 to 2020". nbcsports.com/philadelphia. Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
  3. Bell, Daryl (December 19, 2018). "Mo'ne Davis chooses Hampton University to play softball because 'everything felt right'". The Undefeated. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  4. Bengel, Chris (February 10, 2020). "Mo'ne Davis, former Little League World Series star, makes college softball debut for Hampton". CBSSports.com. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  5. Hepp, Christopher. "Penn's Isaac Starr, 94, Pioneer In Cardiology". The Inquirer. Retrieved 27 October 2011.

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