Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School

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Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
RG-NS
Motto	Work, Study, Worship
Established	1903
Type	private co-educational
Affiliation	Presbyterian Church
Headmaster	John D. Marshall
Founder	Andrew Jackson Ritchie
Students	~310
Grades	6-12
Location	339 Nacoochee Dr., Rabun Gap, GA, United States
Colors	White, Green and Gold
Mascot	Eagles (formerly Indians)
Yearbook	Ragana
Newspaper	Mirror Images and MS Happenings
Website	www.rabungap.org

Rabun Gap - Nacoochee School (RGNS) is a small, private college preparatory school located in the mountains of north Georgia. It is both a boarding and a day school.

[edit] History

Rabun Gap Industrial School was founded in 1905 by Andrew Jackson Ritchie and his wife Addie Corn Ritchie to provide education for the people of area. Andrew Jackson Ritchie was the first college graduate from Rabun County. The students of the school worked in addition to attending classes. They grew their own food as well as maintaining the campus. After a fire in 1926 at the Nacoochee Institute the two schools merged. Nacoochee Institute was started by Presbyterian missionary Reverend Joel Wade in 1903 in nearby Sautee. John Knox Coit later became the headmaster and developed a curriculum based on the classical education tradition.

RGNS had a Junior College Program for several years and operated simultaneously as a private boarding school and a local public school for residents as late as the 1970s.

RGNS is one of two schools in the United States that offer a circus program inside the school. They have an impressive array of apparatus, including trapeze, german wheel, silks, spanish web, climbing wall, triple trapeze and much more. Every year in February, the school puts on a circus performance, and is getting international fame every year.