Head of School's Letter - Back to School Night & AISNE 2026

Dear Families,

Next Thursday’s Back to School Night offers families an opportunity to see more fully what their children are experiencing each day. We will begin with a Parent Reception at 5:30 p.m., hosted by our Trustees, followed by Back to School Night from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. You will spend time with homeroom and advisory teachers, hear about the curriculum and expectations for the year ahead, and gain a clearer sense of how learning develops across your child’s grade and division.

That same spirit of looking closely at the life of the School is also guiding another important piece of work this fall: Brookwood’s re-accreditation with the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE).

Last year, our faculty and staff completed an extensive self-study examining Brookwood through AISNE’s fourteen accreditation standards, which span nearly every aspect of school life. This October, we will welcome an AISNE visiting team to campus for the next stage of that process. The team, composed of educators and school leaders from other independent schools, will spend several days immersed in the life of Brookwood. They will visit classrooms, meet with faculty, staff, Trustees, students, and parents, review the work of our self-study, and consider how what they observe aligns with both AISNE’s standards and the School we have described ourselves to be.

It is an unusually thorough process, and an important one. Accreditation is not simply a moment of external review every ten years; at its best, it creates the discipline for a school to look carefully at itself. The visiting team brings an outside perspective, but the deeper value lies in the questions the process requires us to ask: Are our practices serving our mission? Are our aspirations reflected in the lived experience of students? Where are we especially strong, and where should we continue to stretch?

Those are questions worth asking regularly, accreditation year or not.

In that sense, Back to School Night and the AISNE visit share something important. Both invite us to look closely at Brookwood: at the relationships, ideas, and experiences that shape a child’s education here.

I look forward to seeing many of you next Thursday.

Warmly,

Jon