Commissioned by the Class of 1910 in memory of classmate William C. Engle, N. C. Wyeth’s The Giant was presented to Westtown on Alumni Day, June 2, 1923. The painting reflects Engle’s love of the sea, childhood imagination, and the friendship between artist and subject. The children in the scene are Wyeth’s five children, with Engle represented by the young man in the white hat.

An artist himself, Engle attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and later studied with N.C. Wyeth, living in Chadds Ford. He spent the summer of 1916 on a classmate’s family farm in West Branch, Iowa, in an attempt to recuperate from tuberculosis. That summer he painted three landscapes, which now hang in the Main Building. Unfortunately, Engle succumbed to tuberculosis later that year in November on his 25th birthday.

When William Engle came to Westtown in the fall of 1908, the only art class offered was freehand drawing. Engle always made time for his art, however. Westtown classmates later said that between classes he was always out with brush and palette, painting about the countryside. Fifteen years later, when The Giant arrived at Westtown in June 1923, George Whitney—student and friend of N. C. Wyeth—was completing his third year as the school’s director of fine arts and expanding the arts department. Bacon Cottage, which included new art studios with lots of natural light, was dedicated on the same day as The Giant.

Since The Giant came to live at Westtown 100 years ago, the fine arts program has greatly expanded. Today, Upper School students can choose from Intro to Studio Art: 2D and 3D; Drawing and Painting; Photography and Digital Art; Ceramics; Sculpture; Woodworking; and  Studio Art Forum. The Giant arrived at Westtown during a time when fine arts were gaining greater appreciation, and that has continued. However, you don’t need to be a student in art class to appreciate The Giant—it still hangs in the Dining Room for all to enjoy, and was restored last year to preserve it for generations to come. ~Chrissie Perella Clement, Westtown School Archivist 

At the Annual Meeting of the WAA Board, this film by Erik Freeland ’80 was screened. Please enjoy this lovely tribute piece to The Giant.

Westtown School has unveiled its plan to create a new dining space on campus. “After several years of thoughtful work and careful discernment, we have made the decision to create a new community dining space on campus. While construction is still a few years out, I’d like to describe in broad brushstrokes our needs, process, and ultimate decision to build a free-standing dining space,” writes Head of School Chris Benbow.” Below, you will see an early vision of the new space as conceptualized by the talented and thoughtful team at SHoP. While these are only conceptual renderings and do not necessarily reflect what will be the final design, we hope they will give you a preliminary sense of the project. This free-standing space, situated just across the Central circle on the north side of the Main Building, will enable the entire Upper School (both students and adults) to enjoy meals at the same time, both building community and removing constraints from the daily schedule. The space will provide our dining services team with the facility they require to accommodate the variety of dietary needs of our students, while aspiring to the highest standards of sustainable practices. Additionally, the location of the new Dining Room will provide much-needed and accessible space for gatherings, celebrations, and meetings all year round. Detailed plans for the newly imagined facility (kitchen, dining, and outdoor space) are in their early stages and will evolve thoughtfully to ensure that both current and future needs are met.” You can learn many more details and read the entirety of Benbow’s message here.  

Below are renderings of the early vision of this community dining space as conceptualized by the team at SHoP.

After the FIRST Robotics game was revealed on January 7, the Metal Moose robotics team got to work designing and constructing their robot. After many iterations and trials, they landed on their final designs. These systems combined to form “BAMI,” their robot for the 2023 FRC Season.

At their first competition in March, over thirty members of the team participated in a 3-day district qualifying competition. They were finalists (losing the tiebreaker in a close match), came home with two performance trophies, and qualified for the district championship. They won the Autonomous Award for the robot that best integrates environment sensing with robot performance through programming; the other award recognized their ascent to the finals.

On a weekend in early April, there was another 33-hour marathon event and the Metal Moose won the competition as well as the Excellence in Engineering Award for “design elegance and engineering robustness, performance, and full-machine integration.” They were ranked 8th in their district and 88th in the world among 3,297 teams. The intense work, focused collaboration, and iterative progress these students have taken this year now place the Metal Moose in the top 3% in the world.

By the end of the district championship, they had moved up to 7th in the district, 87th in the United States, and won the Quality Award which “celebrates machine robustness in concept, design and fabrication. Building the robot is only part of their success and the judges recognize them as a quality example to others.” This performance also qualified them for the FIRST [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology] World Championships once again and they headed for Houston. After three exciting days, Team 1391 and their alliance partners made it into the semi-finals, where they performed well but ultimately did not qualify for the finals. Now back home,  finishing in the top 7% of all teams in the world, the team is meeting to review the year, identify systems for improvement, and set goals for next year, which include aspirations for another trip to the World Championship in 2024. Well, done, Metal Moose!

Check out the galleries of student photos from their competitions here!

Westtown School and Christa Barfield, owner and operator of FarmerJawn Agriculture, are proud to announce a new partnership. Effective January 1, 2023, Barfield will lease 123 acres of the school’s campus to create an organic farm with an unconventional model.

Both stewardship of the land and the educational potential of Westtown’s 600 acres has long been a focus of the school. This intentional work is prioritized in the school’s Strategic Vision alongside a commitment to fostering equity, access, inclusion, and belonging.  

A portion of the school’s land has been leased for farming use since 1996. Upon the announcement of current farmer Pete Flynn’s retirement, the school began a search for a partner with a commitment to a reciprocal, regenerative, and restorative relationship with the land. The school created a Farmland Task Force and commenced a months-long search for a mission-aligned partner. Head of School Chris Benbow shares, “The task force was impressed by Barfield’s experience, approach, and strong alignment with the school’s mission and Strategic Vision and is pleased to invite her to campus as our new partner.”  

Barfield is a dynamic entrepreneur and a passionate advocate for healthy, organic food and for regenerative farming practices, with a vision to restore access to farmland and farming for Black farmers. She currently operates two Philadelphia-area businesses—FarmerJawn Agriculture and Viva Tea Leaf. Her organization includes a retail and garden learning center in Germantown, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) business, and five acres of farmland in Elkins Park.  Barfield shares, “FarmerJawn is excited to expand our regional network to Westtown School to create a just food system that perpetuates regenerative and organic health for people and the planet.”

Barfield will farm half the land and use it to stock the farm market already located on the premises. The farm market will operate under a new name and will eventually include a CSA, prepared foods, and other locally grown and sourced products. The remaining acreage will become a “farming incubator,” comprising five ten-acre cooperative farms operated by a cohort of Black farmers. This incubator model will offer educational development opportunities and a “pathway to entrepreneurship” via sales at the farm market.

The Common Market recently presented Westtown School — our Food Services Department in particular — with a Certificate of Support. This certificate recognizes Westtown’s efforts to purchase sustainably farmed local food. Rachel Terry, National Partnerships Director at Common Market, writes, “Congratulations on a tremendous year of supporting local farms! 2021 came paired with undeniable challenges, making your innovation and dedication to getting your communities nutritious, local food all the more inspiring. Your support has also translated to deeply meaningful commitments to our supply chain partners—our sustainable family farms located throughout our region…As local food advocates, you have an enormous opportunity to strengthen the health and wealth of our communities. And your purchases contribute to a food system that works for all. We thank you for choosing to buy local with us. I’m excited to present your organization with a Certificate of Support that highlights your local procurement efforts in 2021, including: The number of regional, family farms your community helped support, the dollar amount your community invested in the local economy, and, the number of pounds of local food your community purchased.” 

As you can see on the certificate, Westtown School supported 34 local farms, invested $41,753 in the local economy, and purchased 30,132 pounds of food locally. We extend our congratulations and thanks to Beth Pellegrino and the entire Food Services team who partner with Common Market and are dedicated to nourishing the community with nutritious, locally sourced, sustainably produced foods!

April was Earth Month and the community celebrated by demonstrating their commitment to our sustainability practices!  A few highlights include: 

The Lower School is learning by living by invigorating their composting program. Lower School science teacher  Amanda Jeanne Strode and her students explore lessons about food waste, recycling, and evaluating data. You can learn more here.

Our librarians encourage all ages to celebrate Earth Month with a book!  Find one you or your child might enjoy here.

The Sustainability Committee created a calendar with environmentally focused activities for families to enjoy.

The Facilities Department continues their work to find new and environmentally-sensitive ways to keep our campus looking beautiful. They have started using electric, battery-run equipment that not only helps in the efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and air pollution, but also reduces noise pollution.

And finally, Westtown was well represented at the Growing Greener Summit for teachers and administrators on Earth Day at Tower Hill School. Organized by ADVIS, PAISBOA, and PAIS, the Growing Greener Summit had over 180 participants.

Westtown science teacher Dana Jensen and Mary Ann Boyer of Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants presented “A Carbon Footprint Challenge©: A Real-World, Solutions-Based Climate Change Project” and Westtown’s Case Study.  Boyer provided an overview of the program and background information. Jensen shared examples of student work where students collected campus greenhouse gas emissions, identified solutions and curated a plan to reduce emissions.

Senior Isabel Yuste gave a presentation about her “Sustainability Deep Dive Certification and Green Coalition Project.” Green Coalition, a student-run environmental advocacy club, connects students with the natural world around them, as well as exposing students to climate justice efforts both locally and globally. Yuste described Westtown’s student-facilitated clothing swap drive that promotes “thrifting” shopping on campus instead of promoting “fast-fashion.” (See more below.)

Westtown’s Director of Outdoor Education, Chris Henwood-Costa, presented “Connecting Students with the Natural World – Critical Step Toward Sustainability” where she focused on outdoor experiential and sensory activities, group discussion and individual reflection. Henwood-Costa sees place-based nature connection work as a critical step toward sustainability.