Hockaday School

The Hockaday School

Virtus Scientia (Latin: virtue through knowledge)
Address
11600 Welch Road
Dallas, Texas, 75229
United States
Information
Type Private, Day & Boarding, College-prep
Religious affiliation(s) Non-sectarian
Established 1913
Founder Ela Hockaday
Headmistress Kim Wargo
Faculty 118
Grades PK–12
Gender Girls
Number of students 1,087
Campus 100 acres (0.40 km2)
Athletics conference SPC
Sports 13 sports teams
Mascot Daisy
Endowment $122 million [1]
Tuition $22,170 - $27,095
Website www.hockaday.org

The Hockaday School is an independent, secular, college preparatory day and boarding school for girls located in Dallas, Texas, USA. The boarding school is for girls in grades 8–12 and the day school is from pre-kindergarten to grade 12.

History

The School was founded in 1913 by Ela Hockaday in response to parental demand for a preparatory day school for girls. She added a junior college in 1931 which operated until 1951.[2] While the School is noted for its students' continuing on to universities, earlier in its history it sent many girls to Smith College. The first class consisted of only ten students. Sarah Trent was one of the first teachers at the school and was influential in its development.

Hockaday founded her school on four cornerstones that were to form the basis of the students' educations: character, courtesy, scholarship, and athletics. Today, the Founder's Day award is the most noteworthy award a graduating senior can receive; the honor is given to young women who best exemplify these four cornerstones.

In a two-year period until 2011, The Hockaday School received an 18 percent increase in applications for admission from prospective students within the Plano Independent School District. Increased concerns with demographic changes, state budget cuts, and larger school populations in the Plano ISD schools resulted in increased interest in private schools like Hockaday from parents living within Plano ISD.[3]

Hockaday today

Hockaday has occupied its campus in a residential area of northwest Dallas since 1961. The enrollment is approximately 1000 students from pre-K to 12, about 450 in the Upper School. The student to faculty ratio is approximately 10:1.[4] Hockaday students enjoy also a 100% acceptance rate to college.[5]

The school colors are forest green and white, and the current school uniform for Upper and Middle School consists of saddle-oxfords, white dress shirts or polo shirts, and a uniform green and white plaid skirt. Green blazers are added on "dress uniform days" for grades 5 – 11, while seniors gain the privilege of wearing white blazers. It is viewed as a rite of passage to earn one's white blazer, along with the senior ring, at the end of junior year. The Lower School Uniform, for Pre-K to 3rd graders, consists of a white blouse and dark green jumper worn over dark green shorts. 4th graders wear an Oxford shirt and a green and white windowpane plaid kilt.

The school crest bears a unicorn and has been considered the official mascot for nearly 100 years. The daisy has always been a part of Hockaday's history but it wasn't until the 1980s that the "killer daisy" was adopted as a secondary mascot. Students are frequently referred to as Hockadaisies.

Local publications have long been intrigued by the ways in which Hockaday is not a typical Dallas school.[6]

Academics

The minimum graduation requirement for upper school students is 16 course credits, including four years of English, 3 years of math, 3 years of the same foreign language, 2½ years of history, 3 years of science, and 1 year of fine arts, as well as a physical education requirement each year.

The faculty consists of 118 full-time teachers and 10 part-time teachers, of whom 66 have a masters degree and 10 hold doctoral degrees. The average tenure of the faculty is 18 years.[7] The school has introduced a laptop program (all 6th through 12th grade students are issued laptop computers to use in and out of school for their assignments) as well as the addition of Smartboard technology to each classroom.

The school follows a semester system with 80-minute classes that each meet three times in a six-day rotation. Exams for upper school students take place only once per school year, in mid-March immediately prior to Spring Break.

The ranges of SAT scores for the middle 50% of the Class of 2010 were 610-740 (Critical Reading), 630-730 (Math) and 630-730 (Writing).[4] 23 Members of the class of 2015 have received commended status in the National Merit Scholarship competition.

Boarding

Hockaday's Residence Department boards 74 students from 8 states and 12 countries. Girls who board live in one of the School's two dormitories—Morgan and Trent. Hockaday Boarders take advantage of the educational offerings of Hockaday as well as extracurricular activities, including sports, clubs and organizations, and community service.

Campus facilities

The academic classrooms for the Middle and Upper Schools are held in two adjoining and parallel two-story buildings near the center of campus recently renovated in 2005. They house Hockaday’s Middle and Upper School Foreign Language, History, English, and Math classes in addition to two student commons and break-out study rooms.

The Lyda Hill Steam Institute has chemistry, physics, and biology labs as well as an outdoor green area, Idea Labs equipped with two 3D printers, an engineering lab, a planetarium, and Clements Lecture Hall.

The Horchow Fine Arts wing features a classroom for Hockaday’s art and music history courses; music and practice rooms; a black box theater and rehearsal space; a ceramics studio with kilns; photography labs; and an art studio. It is also home to Hoblitzelle Auditorium.

Completed in 2002, the Liza Lee Academic Research Center, known as the ARC, is a facility that houses Hockaday’s libraries, technology hub, science exploration lab, audiovisual editing bays, and publications rooms.

The Lacerte family gymnasium, known as the Small Gym, contains two basketball courts, Hockaday’s indoor pool, and a variety of equipment. Middle and Upper School physical education and wellness classes take place in the Penson Athletic Center.

Adjoining the Penson Athletic Center, Hockaday's Wellness Center, completed in 2003, includes the 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) Hill Family Fitness Center, a 1,800-square-foot (170 m2) aerobics room with aerobic and resistance equipment, and athletic training facilities that are equipped for the treatment of sports-related injuries.

Hockaday’s athletic fields are located east of Penson Athletic Center. They include five playing fields, a softball diamond and an all-weather six-lane track. The tennis center includes a covered gallery and 10 tennis courts, some of which are lit.

The Ashley H. Priddy Lower School building adjoins the Liza Lee Academic Research Center. The artwork of Lower School students lines the hallways; and a large common room is the stage for special events, such as Pioneer Day and the Medieval Festival. The Lower School building also houses an art room and several music rooms as well as a French café.

The Lower School Addition, which houses pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and primer classrooms, opened in the fall of 2001. Each room features hand-painted tiles created by the Lower School girls themselves and child-height cooking and food preparation areas. The space is finished with a wall of windows that look out on Hockaday’s playground, the duck pond, and the new Wellness Center.

Tuition

The tuition averages $25,000 for upper school day students (not including books). For resident students, costs are approximately $44,473 - $49,123. Financial aid is granted on the basis of demonstrated family need and the school's availability of funds. In 2010-2011, 17% of the Hockaday students received financial aid.

Athletics

Athletics are another aspect of student life at Hockaday. Hockaday competes in the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) in 11 sports: basketball, cross-country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field and volleyball.

Hockaday has won SPC Championships in basketball (2008), field hockey (2010), golf (2008, 2011 and 2012), soccer (2008, 2011 and 2012), swimming & diving (2008 and 2009), tennis (2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014), Cross Country (2011) and volleyball (2008). Hockaday lacrosse was named 2008 and 2009 Texas State Division I Champions and the 2010 Texas League Lacrosse North District Division I Champions. The basketball and field hockey teams won Division II titles in 2010. Seven seniors from the Class of 2010 signed as student athletes in soccer, tennis, track, rowing and swimming.

From age four, girls participate in daily PE classes, and even in high school, students must participate in either physical education class or athletics (varsity, junior varsity, or out-of-school with demonstrated level of intensity) during every quarter.

Clubs and organizations

Some of the more popular clubs are Model United Nations, Quizbowl, Junior Engineering Technical Society and Robotics club, Mosaico (the Spanish literary magazine), ORFF, Math Club, SCRATCH(a computer coding program), as well as Junior World Affairs Council (JWAC). If a particular club does not exist, students may enlist a faculty sponsor, recruit members, and create a chapter on campus.

Middle School and Upper School schoolers are given the opportunity to contribute to various student-run publications. In Middle School students learn leadership and responsibility in addition to journalism skills as they write, edit and conduct interviews for Newsway, a student-run newspaper that is published several times a year. Currently, Newsway is an option on elective choices. It is not required for Middle Schoolers to attend this elective, but those who choose it may. The Middle Schoolers also put out Banner, a literary magazine which teaches them skills in editing and drawing, layout and design, cooperation, and judging works anonymously. In Upper School, students have the opportunity to experience the atmosphere and process of a professional newspaper while working on The Fourcast. The Vibrato literary magazine showcases the works of upper school students. It was recently inducted into the NSPA (National Scholastic Press Association) Hall of Fame for earning 10 All-American ratings in an 11-year stretch. The school yearbook, "Cornerstones," is produced entirely by students and as such, students are responsible for the design, layout, copy, and photographic content. Freshmen in Upper School have recently been made mandatory to take a class titled "Intro to Journalism" before proceeding to "The Fourcast" or "Cornerstones."

Beginning in the fifth grade there are areas for extracurricular leadership by serving as a club officer or participating in an elected council. Upper schoolers may participate in student government, community service board, the honor council, athletic board, fine arts board, technology board, form council (grades 9-12 are referred to as forms I-IV), academic council and house council (boarding department governing system) as well.

The School has a community service program, which operates in conjunction with St. Mark's. In the middle school, each grade level is required to do service, with supervision by the school, with St. Marks. The program later requires every upper school student to perform at least 15 hours of service every year, although many students far exceed this quota. H-Club, the school's hosts and tour guide society, is a popular program. Another notable organization is Hockaday's debate team, which ranks in the top five nationally for secondary schools.

Notable alumnae

References

  1. ↑ "The Hockaday School". Boarding School Review. Retrieved 2012-03-06.
  2. ↑ "Ela Hockaday". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2012-03-06.
  3. ↑ Meyers, Jessica. "Plano students trickling out of district into private schools." The Dallas Morning News. October 10, 2011. Retrieved on October 11, 2011.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "At a Glance: Facts". The Hockaday School. Retrieved 2012-03-06.
  5. ↑ "The Hockaday School FAQ". Retrieved 2012-03-06.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "School Profile 2012-2013" (PDF). The Hockaday School. Retrieved 2012-03-06.
  8. ↑ Associated Press (2000-04-04). "Bush used private school option". Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  9. ↑ "Cheryl Hall: Ex-Hockaday girl wrangles wrestlers". Dallas Morning News. 2005-09-27. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  10. ↑ The Hockaday School (2005-06-20). "Hockaday Alumna Wins Tony Award". Alumnae News. Archived from the original on 2007-05-26. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  11. ↑ NNDB. "Patricia Richardson". Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  12. ↑ They're Engaged!, San Antonio Express-News, April 16, 1961

External links