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A Typical Day

Do you wonder what you might do during the day at Blue Ridge Sudbury School? Our school is unique because we give you full responsibility for your learning. Since you are unlike any other person, you will have your own interests and ways of choosing what you like to do. During your day, you might like to do the same activity for an extended period of time. You may play all day, talk all day, do arts and crafts, cook, or study all day. You may like to do many different things for short periods of time. You might go between visiting your friends, building a model plane, eating, playing chess, playing on the computer, reading a book, and watching a video. You may decide you want to learn something new but need help, and ask one of the other students or a staff member to help you with your idea. While one day you might constantly be busy, another day you may be contemplative.

Your parents might wonder, then, what kind of structure we have if all our students simply spend their day doing whatever they want. The truth is, we do have structure, a lot of it. Blue Ridge Sudbury School has a school Rule Book that students and staff are required to follow. And every school day at eleven o'clock, our Judicial Committee (JC) meets to preside over cases written up by students and staff of the school who feel that a rule has been broken. JC is a required part of the school day because it assures our school community is respectful, responsible, and reasonable. When you are selected to sit on the Judicial Committee with other students and staff, you will motion to take up cases written up by the students and staff from the previous day, gather evidence, listen to testimony of students and staff involved in each case, decide if a rule was broken, and then help the committee come up with a reasonable consequence for the guilty party or parties. This might sound intimidating, but don't worry! All of us get "written up" once in awhile, including staff. And at Blue Ridge Sudbury School, we don't frown upon people getting written up. Making mistakes is part of learning about yourself and the people around you. The JC experience is a powerful one. It might be the first time you feel that you're in a school where everyone, students and staff, is equal and valued. And because of this, you'll find you're around friends of all types and ages.

Our weekly School Meeting happens each Thursday at 12:30pm. You don't have to come to school meeting unless you want to, but it's the place where rules are proposed, amended, repealed, and voted on, committees can request money or new equipment, individuals can appeal JC case rulings that they disagreed with, and other things can be voted on. It's definitely a time during the week where debates take place, new ideas get proposed, and students can really keep up with the goings on of the school.

Even with the weekly School Meeting and daily Judicial Committee, time takes on a different meaning at Blue Ridge Sudbury School—there are no bells to tell you when to stop your activity or teachers to tell you to close your books. There are no designated grades that separate you from other students or learning. And as you find that you can trust yourself to learn the things that you want and need to learn, you'll become a whole individual that is uniquely you.