News

The Hickory Campus was abuzz last Friday as the announcement of the spring musical was released over the loudspeaker. 

The Middle School and Upper School celebrated their first chapel of the school year at the Hickory Campus.

Lower School students began the school year with great excitement. The energy in the building was tangible as students began classes with the first “morning meeting” and began to organize folders and binders and color code schedules and assignments. 

Kindergarten teacher Betsy Carter is Covenant's 2017-18 Golden Apple Award Recipient. The Golden Apple honors outstanding teachers in schools throughout Albemarle County and Charlottesville City.

Three Covenant athletic teams are competing this weekend in VISAA state semi-final and final tournaments. Congratulations to Girls Soccer, Boys Tennis, and Track & Field! Here are the tournament schedules:

The Covenant School is pleased to announce that Betsy Carter has been named Director of Admissions and Financial Aid. Betsy, who will begin her new role on June 11, brings nineteen years of teaching experience, the last eight of which have been spent serving as a kindergarten teacher at Covenant's Lower School.

The Covenant School is pleased to announce a 100% college acceptance rate for the Class of 2018.

Last weekend, seven Covenant Middle School girls competed in the 7th Annual Girls Excelling at Math competition, hosted by the Village School. 

Avery Paladino's longtime work with The Crayon Initiative is reaching new heights. Last weekend, she traveled to New York City for a national #ShareYourColors Giving Campaign.

It is with great pleasure that we announce our 2018 Commencement speaker, Dr. Teresa A. Sullivan, President of the University of Virginia. In her time at the University, Dr. Sullivan has been a champion for the liberal arts.

Fifth grader Hannah Sumhka was recently named a winner of the Bus Lines Poetry Contest. Bus Lines "puts poetry in motion" during its annual solicitation of original student works.

Lower School teacher Cathy Meaney and her family volunteer with International Neighbors, a local non-profit organization offering a variety of support systems for refugees in Charlottesville. 

From the youngest grades, Covenant students learn to formulate a testable scientific question, perform research, form a hypothesis, conduct experiments, a write a conclusion. Experiments increase in difficulty as the years go on, and Covenant's Middle School Science Fair winners advance to the Piedmont Regional Science Fair.

Fifth and sixth graders at the Lower School have partnered with the Charlottesville Debate League, a free student-run organization at the University of Virginia. Sponsored by 5/6 Language Arts teacher Karen Zimmerman and coached by two undergraduate students at UVA, Covenant students have competed in three meets over the course of the year. 

Last week at the VISAA Swimming Championships, senior Noah Holstege won the 50 yard freestyle swim with a time of 20.96. Not only was he the private school state champion, this winning time makes him one of the top swimmers in Virginia, including Virginia public schools. Congratulations, Noah!

On Saturday, February 10, Covenant senior Emerson Helmbrecht took first place at the English Speaking Union Charlottesville Branch Shakespeare Competition, held at Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton.

Congratulations to 8th graders Wilson Chen and Betty Yu, and 7th graders Carter Brown and Nathan Klintworth who took home the 3rd place team trophy at the MATHCOUNTS Regional Competition in Weyers Cave on Saturday, February 10.  

In preparation for the Upper School production of South Pacific, faculty and students are discussing the musical's common themes including race and culture barriers. 

Five Upper School students were recently chosen for District Band and will perform with the District XIII honor ensemble on February 3rd.

The Covenant School is pleased to announce Chris Madison as our new Head Baseball Coach and Program Director. Madison is a native of Crozet, where he graduated from Western Albemarle in 2010. He has served as a college assistant coach at Southern Virginia University along with coaching the Western Albemarle baseball program for 3 years, working with both Varsity and Junior Varsity in all areas of the program.

Several members of the Class of 2017 returned to campus recently to speak to the Senior Class about the college transition. They relayed their own experiences of life after Covenant, answered questions, and offered advice.

An old, dethroned king losing his mind in the midst of a storm; a young woman wishing her lover wasn't her father's enemy; an ambitious man wrestling with the temptation to violently achieve his desires--these were all characters brought to life last week in Covenant's annual Shakespeare Monologue Competition.

Covenant alumna and second grade teacher Julia McCurdy '07 is coaching the Strong Girls' Running Club at the Lower School this year.

Headmaster George Sanker has been published in Comment magazine, a core publication of Cardus, a think tank dedicated to social architecture and Christian thought. 

Covenant's Middle School Math Club was very active throughout the fall, training weekly and competing in several national math competitions. In October and November they competed in the 2017 AreteLabs/AMC Mathematics National Championship (aka, "Math Madness"), in which they went head-to-head with other middle schools from across the United States in a 64-team bracketed tournament.  

When Avery Paladino ’24 was eight years old, her brother Ethan was diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer known as DIPG. The months that followed were spent in hospitals as Ethan underwent treatment. It was during this time that Avery and her brother began to take comfort together through art.