The Grade 1 team turned a literacy unit on the elements of fables, featuring story arcs and character traits, into a multi-week adventure. The unit culminated in an interactive student-led performance, complete with costumes, sound effects, and a live audience, showcasing their learning better than any test could ever illustrate. Students created original stories and…
From the history of the French baguette to the journey of a Vietnamese immigrant, a classroom expedition invites students to discover how language, culture, and human stories connect us. What can a sandwich teach you about language, history, immigration, and the ways cultures influence one another? For Mount Vernon’s G7 French students, the answer came…
What if students didn’t have to wait until they graduated to turn an idea into something real? At Mount Vernon, entrepreneurship starts early. Not necessarily with a business plan or a pitch competition, but with a belief that students can identify an opportunity, ask questions, and do something about it. That mindset grows throughout the…
For kindergarten students, a Force and Motion unit becomes an opportunity to investigate scientific concepts, apply them in the real world, and learn from students across campus. What happens when a kindergarten science lesson moves beyond the classroom? On Lower Campus, it might look like a golf club in the hands of a five-year-old, a…
Inside Innovation Diploma’s Fall 2026 Design Briefs At the start of each school year, junior and senior Innovation Diploma students in the Upper School begin with a real design brief from a real organization. Something that they have been preparing for and building towards since their freshman year. Design Briefs are not a simulation. Not…
Read More from When the Work is Real, the Learning is Different
Every fall, something remarkable happens in the Upper Campus gym. The bleachers buzz with anticipation. Students in red, pink, green, and blue pack together on one side, draped in scarves, and wearing hats and gear in their House colors. On the other side sit the newcomers: every sixth grader and student new to Mount Vernon,…
Read More from You Belong Here: Inside the Middle School’s Annual House Sorting
Ask a Mount Vernon Grade 9 student what they’re passionate about, and you might not get a straight answer right away. That’s okay. In fact, that’s the point. The Inquiry Pathway gives students four years to turn personal curiosity into sustained exploration, real-world experience, and original work. It begins not with a predetermined subject or…
Read More from Starting with Question Zero: Inside the Inquiry Pathway
The Upper Campus gym was dark, and the screens on either side of the stage played a video in front of a crowd, which began with Emma Neal (Class of 2029) on the cross-country trail writing a note, then folding it into a paper airplane and launching it into the air. The plane flew over…
Read More from Mount Vernon Launches the 2026–27 School Year with a Milestone Moment
Every summer, Mount Vernon gets to work. But this summer? This one was different. From the upper campus athletic complex to the Lower School hallways, this has been a season of meaningful change, the kind you can see, feel, and be proud of when you walk through our doors this fall. Here’s a look at…
Read More from While You Were Away: A Summer of Transformation at Mount Vernon
The Lower School Activities Hall has become an immersive celebration of creativity, collaboration, and student agency thanks to a Grade 5 fashion and design installation led by Lower School Arts teacher Dianne Johnson and Lower School Maker teacher CeCe Tahtinen. What began as a reflection on students’ growing interest in fashion design evolved into a…