Wakefield Country Day School

In 1972, Wakefield founder William E. Lynn Jr. established the school because he wished to create a British-style private school that was affordable for the middle class. He wrote the first Word of the Day and Great 100 books, established traditions such as the annual competition between "Spartan" and "Athenian" athletic teams, and also taught English and grammar full-time at the school. Philippe Cugnon, a Frenchman and college professor, led the school for a year, and then Lynn took over. After Lynn's death, his wife took over as principal.

In 1991, while the school was under Allen Sounders's leadership, Wakefield School split off to form a separate school in Marshall, Virginia.[8] Mrs. Lynn then rebuilt W.C.D.S. with 50 students attending.[9] Wakefield School has tended to have more students,[10] while the enrollment of W.C.D.S. has hovered around or below 200 students.[11] The school has experienced numerous funding crises that threatened to force its closure, but it has always been rescued by donations and long-term loans from the community.[5]

In 2012, Jessica Lindstrom, recipient of a 1991 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Virginia Association of Independent Schools, was appointed by the Wakefield board to serve as Head of School, replacing Kathleen Grove, who had served in the position for eight years.[12] Enrollment peaked in 2014 with more than 200 students.[13]

As of 2017–2018, the school had enrollment of 180 students, including 90 high school students and 17 international students, 11 of whom were staying with host families and 6 of whom were living on campus. The student/teacher ratio was 11:1.[14] Enrollment subsequently dropped due to 25 seniors' graduating and the loss of some Chinese international students to Canadian, Australian, and Chinese schools.

In April 2019, the school's board surprised the WCDS community with a two-page letter warning that the school would have to close its doors unless a tremendous amount of money were raised in a few weeks' time, and that in the long run, it would need to enroll at least 200 students in order to survive. A small number of patrons agreed in a matter of hours to lend the school hundreds of thousands of dollars, interest-free. Tandem Friends School alumnus[15] and former Charles E. Smith Co. CFO Paul F. Larner, whose son had recently graduated from Wakefield, stepped up to become board chairman, replacing alumnus Brett Hayes following a public relations debacle.[16][17]

Larner opined that the school should stop its "overfixation on 110, 120, 150, 180" or other enrollment numbers, and avoid relying exclusively on international students as "our only salvation". Rather, in his opinion, the school should seek "to be judged by the education we deliver and the environment we create and sustain for our families" and reach out to the people of Rappahannock County "of great means, with prominent positions of sometimes national stature, who probably don't know Wakefield." With regard to the school buildings, he remarked:[18]

Wakefield is not going to sell itself on its facilities. It's when people walk through the door and feel the devotion and kindness and commitment to education that they come here. In a way our facilities in their current condition are somewhat of a marketing positive for us because it sends the message that where we spend the money is on the quality of the education — teachers, faculty, and the like — and not on building new monumental buildings.

In February 2020, the board of directors announced that after an extensive search process, Patrick M. Finn had been chosen by unanimous vote to be the next Head of School, beginning 1 July. Previously, Finn worked at The Canterbury School, St. Timothy's School, and Foxcroft School.[19] Outgoing Head of School Jessica Lindstrom, who had served in that position for eight years and made a decision in fall 2019 to step down, praised Finn's experience as an administrator in independent schools and said, "I see a bright future for WCDS and leave the school knowing it is in good hands".[20] Finn resigned on November 25, 2020.[21]

At the beginning of the 2020 COVID-19 Crisis, the school briefly appeared in local news after a student trip to Northern Italy and Provence which coincided with the first explosion of the virus in Italy raised fears that the returning students could become spreaders. The school was closed as a precaution but since there were no cases, it reopened.[22] A few weeks after, it closed again during the statewide shutdown ordered by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam[23] and transitioned to distance learning, along with the rest of the country.[2]

Although the school is currently organized as a nonprofit corporation, the Lynn family has always been involved in its governance. Welby Lynn Griffin, daughter of the founders and Latin, History, and English teacher at the school, serves on the board of directors as the Lynn family representative. The board also includes parent, faculty, and alumni representatives.[24]

From May to November 2019, benefactors donated more than $2 million to the school for tuition assistance and to support ongoing operations.[31] This included $1.2 million in scholarships to fund 25 students for three years.[29]

According to the school, every family with demonstrated financial need is offered assistance via scholarships or financial aid, with most of them ultimately accepting it and enrolling their children, deeming the help sufficient to meet their needs. As of 2020, 65 percent of Wakefield students were receiving some form of financial assistance. However, the school notes, "no family at WCDS receives full tuition assistance. All families are expected to pay something toward their children's education".[32]

Facing the highway, this is the central facade of the historic building. It was constructed in 1972 from prefabricated A-Frames, chosen by the founders to give the school an architecture distinctly different from the public schools of the time.

W.C.D.S. traditions include the weekly assembly in which the headmistress makes announcements to the school body,[33] the annual Spartans vs. Athenians competition, Certamen, the Latin convention,[34] and the Classical Recital, the Lord of the Rings Feast, and the Medieval Banquet. All 7th and 8th graders travel to England as an extension of their study of British history.[33] High schoolers take a trip to Italy (for upper school classics), France, Spain, or Argentina (for upper school language immersion), and/or Budapest (for Model United Nations).[35]

Academic traditions include the Word of the Day in which students memorize vocabulary, and the Great 100, in which students memorize the biographies of 100 important historical figures. The school's colors are red and white; in the Spartans vs. Athenians competition, which is inspired by the Ancient Olympic Games and serves essentially as a field day, the students are divided into two teams, with the Spartans wearing red and the Athenians wearing white. First, each team assembles into a formation of parallel rows for inspection by the faculty for proper discipline and deportment. Then, they participate in a series of competitions, such as Capture the Flag.

British traditions such as the use of demerits and elected prefects to enforce discipline are practiced.[36] Prefects may be put in charge of overseeing their classes in the absence of the teacher, and together the prefects form a court to question students suspected of violating the academic honor code. Older students also mentor younger students through the Language Ambassador, Reading Buddy and Bus Buddy programs.

Students wear a uniform, including a dress uniform on Wednesdays, the day of the weekly assembly. Among the stated goals of the uniform are "discouraging the superficial expression of 'individuality' in lieu of positive and substantive development of each student's unique personality", allowing students to "focus on learning and achievement without the distractions of variations in clothing", causing students to "see themselves as neat, well-dressed, and attractive" and reinforcing "school identity, a sense of community, school pride, and school security" by making students who attend the school readily recognizable.[37]

Other traditions have included the Christmas and spring plays,[27] and the Christmas concert.[38] A former courtesy that used to be practiced was that all male students would rise whenever a lady entered the room; this has since been revised to state that all students stand when an adult of either sex enters the room.[33]

Notable students have included, for example, Leonard M. Cowherd III, who graduated from West Point, graduated third in his United States Army Armor School class at Fort Knox, and was commissioned as a U.S. Army second lieutenant.[39] While stationed overseas in the Iraq War, he wrote a series of guest columns to the Culpeper Star-Exponent about his experiences and observations as a tank platoon leader.[40][41] After exiting his tank[42] to secure a building near Karbala's Mukhayam mosque, which had been the scene of intense fighting during a recent raid to oust the Mehdi Army insurgents who had been using the mosque as a base of operations,[43][44] he received enemy sniper and rocket-propelled grenade fire and was killed. Subsequently, his story and correspondence were featured in the Bill Couturié documentary Last Letters Home.[45] A scholarship was established in Cowherd's memory.[46]

Another notable student was Jacob G. Foster, who placed number one in the world on advanced placement tests in French literature, calculus, modern European history, biology, Latin, physics, and other subjects; scored a perfect 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test;[47] and became a Rhodes scholar and later a mathematical physicist and sociologist.[48][49][50]

• Wakefield Country Day School