Message from Head of School
April 02, 2026
Dear Rumsey Families,
As the school year draws to a close and summer stretches before us, I find myself thinking about what our students will carry with them from this year.
There is a scene in Charlotte’s Web where the children play on an old rope swing in a barn. Holding the rope, they stand at the edge and look down, scared and dizzy. A child grips the rope, steps out, and for a moment feels as though they might fall, until the rope catches, and suddenly they are carried forward, wind rushing past, suspended between fear and exhilaration.
The swing serves as a metaphor for childhood, the constant motion between dependence and independence. A child on a swing is both supported and free, held by the structure yet moving outward into space, gradually testing how far they can go. Childhood often moves this way, back and forth between moments of confidence and retreat, courage and uncertainty. As adults, we stand nearby, watching closely, sometimes worrying how far they might go. And yet, as the author reminds us, “Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will.”
Even as your children have stretched toward greater independence, they continue to draw strength from the people, places, and experiences that ground them. They hold on to friends, teachers, family, and accomplishments. In partnership with you, we have worked to ensure that each child is known, supported, and encouraged to take those next steps forward.
This year at Rumsey your children have built relationships and memories that will hold, connecting them to one another and to the adults who care for them. And they have done so within a community shaped by the partnership between home and school, each of us holding the rope in some way.
As summer begins, the moments that mattered most from this year may reveal themselves in the memories your child chooses to share. It may not be a test or a trophy. It may be a friend who sat beside them at lunch, a teacher who helped them feel brave, or a moment when they realized they were more capable than they had believed. These memories are the true story of this year and the things that will last long after the final bell has rung.
With gratitude,
Brooke Giese P’23, ’27
Head of School
