In the Lower School Dining Commons, GFA community members gathered to applaud the remarkable achievements of the upper and middle school GFA Dragonoid Robotics teams in their first year competing in the VEX Robotics league. The evening was filled with awards—from the heartfelt to the humorous—alongside a captivating demonstration by team members showcasing the robots in action. Amidst the shared snacks and conversations, we celebrated with the presentation of the Captains Awards, MVP Awards, and medals alongside certificates.

“What do you do when you’re not sure?” This question begins John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt, which Shawn Connors’s English elective classes in script writing viewed on Broadway at the Todd Haimes Theater this week, and serves not only the play’s plot and theme but also the course’s inquiry: What happens when you place two (or more) characters with often competing desires in a small space? What do they want? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now? It is in these high-stakes moments that the students explore through the scenes they write, where they vacillate between the certainty and doubt of knowing their characters.

On Saturday, April 6th, 25 GFA families gathered at Wakeman Town Farm for a community connection event sponsored by the Lower School Parents'. The children beamed with joy when they saw the alpacas, chickens, and sheep. They were eager to get their hands dirty planting potatoes and marigold seeds, and learning how food goes from seed to table.

Recently, GFA hosted Chris Herren, a former NBA player, for a talk on addiction with students and faculty from grades 8-12. Over the past 15 years, Herren has dedicated himself to sharing his journey with over two million students, underscoring the pivotal decisions young people face.

This month, our fourth-grade students embarked on a unique and tasty mathematical adventure —The Dragon Den Bake-Off. The challenge? To use their math skills to design and bake cookies that would be a part of a cooking competition. Fourth-grade lead teacher, Manny Lalonde observed a notable increase in enthusiasm from the outset. "Students became increasingly engaged and eager to apply their knowledge on measurements, fractions, money, and proportions in a baking setting," he said.

20 Lower School students and families gathered at the Bridgeport Rescue Mission to learn about food insecurity and to work together to stock the food pantry shelves. The Lower School students and families were eager to learn and help their community!