Campus Life

The classroom is only the beginning of a well-balanced comprehensive education, here at Kingsbury.

Photography Class

Our school is a dynamic environment that recognizes opportunities for personal growth and that learning can come in many different forms, and that creativity, personal expression, and athletic performance can be as critical to a young person’s development as academic achievement. In fact, often these are the areas where young people with learning disabilities find the most success.

Kingsbury offers numerous opportunities for students to participate in clubs, electives, and extracurricular activities where they can explore different interests, make friends outside of the classroom setting, and develop leadership skills. Many of our clubs are student-initiated, which give students the chance to learn how to organize and run a meeting and raise funds – as well as have fun with their peers.

Arts/Drama/Music

In addition to our rich course offerings in these areas, our fine and performing arts departments provides students with rich opportunities to showcase their talent and creativity. The annual Art Salon highlights students’ artistic skills, as students from both the Upper, Middle, and Lower School sing and play instruments, perform original poetry and plays, and display their artwork. Each spring, the Drama Club mounts a production for the Kingsbury community, while our percussion ensemble, “Bring the Noise,” performs at assemblies and other special occasions.

Students enrolled in advanced art and music classes also take advantage of the unique resources of the Washington, DC area. Our digital music students have visited a recording studio to make CD’s of their original compositions, while art students take frequent trips to the area’s acclaimed art museums to see and draw works of art, and our English 11 and 12 students have participated in workshops on Shakespearian drama and have written and performed their own plays as part of a city-wide contest.

Student Leadership

At the high school level, we believe in giving students opportunities to develop leadership and decision-making skills. Each year, Kingsbury high school students elect a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, as well as class representatives, to serve as members of the student government. These students serve as liaisons to the administration, raise funds for activities such as class trips, plan events including dances, and organize community service opportunities for the student body. The Student Government also operates the school store, which provides students with an opportunity to buy lunch or snacks at school.

We also launched a peer mediation program, which empowers students to solve their own conflicts. In the 2008 school year, eight students underwent intensive training to serve as mediators who help their fellow students to resolve disputes that may be interfering with learning or affecting the school environment. Students learn to respect each other and to see themselves as responsible members of the Kingsbury community.