Boarding or Day?
Oakwood offers 5- and 7-day boarding programs, and accepts day students living within sufficient proximity to make the daily trip to and from school.
Oakwood being a boarding school, has many faculty members that live on campus with their families. Oakwood is more than just their workplace, it is their home. This makes them very accessible after normal class time for students who need extra help or lessons. Teachers here are aware that their day is not necessarily over at 3:15pm. Our program runs on all cylinders throughout the evenings as well. This proves to be a tremendous benefit to day and boarding students alike.
Boarding
Boarding life at Oakwood is a balance of work and play. Throughout the week, students are given routine and structure and are encouraged to assume an increasing level of independence, responsibility, and self-management. Oakwood Friends School offers two residential options for students in grades 9–12: Seven-day and five-day boarding programs. In each, the overall goal is the same, to help develop well-rounded, moral young people, prepared for college level academics and success.
About fifty percent of Oakwood students and more than fifty faculty members and their families reside on the campus, creating a vibrant, multi-age residential community that is joined each day by day students from surrounding towns and counties. Being a boarding student at Oakwood is a multicultural experience that builds lifelong friendships between students from around the globe. Students gain invaluable perspectives and experiences, while building lifelong friendships that help make the world a smaller place. Boarding students learn important lessons about being positive contributors to a diverse and dynamic population essential for college and fulfilling lives of conscience and consequence.
After the academic day has completed, Oakwood boarding and day students take part in athletics and extracurricular activities with their peers from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM every day. After an hour of down time to relax, our boarding students have dinner together with friends and faculty each evening at 6:00 PM. After dinner, dorm parents supervise homework and leisure time back at the dorm buildings. Students are required to attend supervised evening study halls every weekday, Sunday-Thursday from 7:00 PM-9:00 PM. Cell phone use during this time is not permitted and other electronics including laptops are only to be used for academics. After study hall, students have some free time to spend with friends before lights out. Sometimes this free time is filled with additional optional activities including discussion based lectures, club meetings, and bonding activities. At lights out, Wi-Fi is turned off and students are expected to be settled in their rooms for the night. Students have access to a full kitchen, lounge areas, and laundry rooms.
On weekends, students can enjoy a variety of school planned activities that are taking place or take time to study and unwind on their own. Students use the inviting, collaborative spaces around campus to work on class projects, enjoy pickup basketball games, or simply catch up with friends. On weekends, the Residential Life office hosts a variety of great on and off-campus activities and trips for students. Students play and attend school sporting events, while other opportunities include recreational sports tournaments, local shopping, movies, amusement parks, or trips to New York City for a show, museums, or explorating the local community and history. Students who have permission from parents at the beginning of the year, are allowed to go off campus to explore the local area and enjoy the nearby stores, restaurants, mall, and movie theaters. Students signing out of campus need to first notify the adult on duty, letting them know where they are going, how they are getting there, and they expect to be back. Everything is documented electronically to ensure at any given time, an adult can look up a student’s contact information and whereabouts simply to ensure their safety, which comes first. The residential community is an integral facet of the overall Oakwood Friends community, an environment that fosters growth and development in a safe, nurturing and comfortable setting.
Day Students
While day students live at home, they are fully integrated into school life and are given the opportunity to take part in weekend activities as a way to connect more fully with the campus community. In addition to their day-to-day schedules, day students are also always welcome to join the community at every meal and school event. Each day student is assigned an advisor who is fully invested in each individual’s intellectual and emotional growth.
