News & Events

This summer, Grace Zhao ‘24 was a semi-finalist in a competitive, national one-on-one Gladiator Mock Trial Tournament. The winner is hailed as the nation's best “mock trialer.” Just to get there as one of the thirty six students, out of the hundreds of applicants, is quite an honor.

Country Day student Saheb Gulati ‘25 has created and launched the Pivotal Essay Contest for high school students to engage with the world’s most pressing problems.

How exciting to see our students working together in the world! Phoebe Rogers ‘29 provided a fun book review to Elise Craig ‘02 for a special kids section of the New York Times.

Country Day teachers are lifelong learners who are always striving to improve their teaching. Many Lower School faculty members spent summer time learning more about thoughtful, systematic writing instruction by taking The Writing Revolution training and will be adjusting their writing instruction and grade-level curriculum maps accordingly. 

Responsive Classroom is an evidence-based approach to teaching and discipline that focuses on engaging academics, positive community, effective management, and developmental awareness. It ensures that students' needs for belonging, significance, and fun are met in each classroom and encourages positive engagement throughout the school day.

Daniel Holz '26 placed 15th at the Division 1 (senior) men's saber event at the October NAC. This was a stacked event of over 200 of the top fencers from all over the world and included five Olympians and many NCAA fencers.

Former SCDS fourth grade teacher, Helen Diepenbrock, joined fourth graders last week for this hands-on program designed to promote respect and understanding of California’s native people and how they used the resources around them to live before the arrival of John Sutter to New Helvetia.

Diversity is a core value of our school, in which the inclusive community promotes equity and understanding through meaningful conversations, welcomes all voices, and celebrates individuality.

The “Habit of Helping” has long been an attitude and institution of Sacramento Country Day, and a term coined in 1989 for the 25th anniversary of the school. Service projects take shape on campus when students, parents or staff show an interest in a cause that gains attention, strong support and often carry on as a tradition for many years.

For many years, we have made regular donations to River City Food Bank. We are proud to bring beautiful, fresh, organic food to our neighbors in the Arden Arcade area. Some of our food is for cooking in the Middle School Farm to Fork elective.

The high school literary magazine The Glass Knife received an All-American rating from the National Scholastic Press Association for its 2022 edition. The All-American rating is the highest of its kind awarded by judges who are professional journalists to the best-scoring publication during their critiques.

The Orff Schulwerk approach is a way of teaching music and dance to children in the way they learn best - play! Ashlie Kirby teaches Music and Movement in PK-3rd Grade and uses this process that is over 100 years old but remains fresh and is reimagined anew with every group of children because it honors the child as the artist.

Natalie Park ‘23 is part of the Sacramento Master Singers this year. She has been singing with choirs for most of her life, including the Sacramento Children's Chorus, for eight years before switching to the Sacramento Master Singers this year.

Four of our Octagon students were recently honored by the National Student Press Association.

Middle School and High School Concert Bands, Concert Choirs, and Chamber & String Orchestras performed beautiful holiday music with the 4th grade and Elementary Choir in the State Capitol Rotunda.

The Lower School Learning Specialists, Adie Renteria and Sue Ryan, began administering AimswebPlus assessments in Kindergarten through 5th grade. AimswebPlus is a universal screening, benchmarking, and progress-monitoring tool from Pearson that helps us assess literacy and math proficiency.

Each year, the Advanced Topics in English Literature classes, led by Jason Hinojosa in our High School, reads The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman. This play focuses on the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay man named Matthew Shepard. As a supplement to our studies, Country Day annually hosts a Queer Voices panel of people who identify as LGBTQ+ and who wish to share their personal perspectives with our community.

The CMEA-CS honor orchestra had six Middle School students and six High School students participate.

Our High School Model UN team Jessica Kravchenko '26, Ryan Xu '25, and Siri Atluri '24 attended their inaugural conference this weekend in San Jose.

Our Middle School's annual Poetry Slam took place last week. Participants worked individually and in pairs to write a poem and perform it in front of a packed audience. Poems were humorous, serious, imaginative, and all around OUTSTANDING.

Dominant victories Saturday in both the Quarterfinals and Semifinals earned the Mock Trial team the opportunity to battle for the County Championship.

Our fourth graders spent the day on the annual Sutter’s Fort field trip. While they learned weaving, baking, candle making, and many other tasks of the time, no period costumes were required and the tone of this authentic Gold Rush experience has also changed substantially. 

14 of our ninth graders (and one eighth grader) participated in the annual Sacramento County History Day competition. Sacramento County History Day is part of National History Day, which is an international research competition in which half a million students participate each year.

As part of the 68th Annual Golden Empire Music Festival this month, our Sacramento Country Day Chamber Quintet performed at their best.

Across Lower School, students are embarking on this year’s engineering challenge to plan, build, test, and revise a structure that can withstand the big bad wolf’s powerful huffs and puffs.

Seniors Adam Akins and Samhita Kumar, were awarded the Leadership Award in Student Journalism for student leadership in our high school literary magazine, The Glass Knife.

The Octagon was given a Silver Crown Award by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association during a special presentation at Columbia University in New York City. This is an impressive feat, as CSPA’s Board of Judges selected only 225 finalists from over 800 entries submitted from across the country and around the world. 

Third graders spent a week with our High School Happy Heart Club teaching them about heart health. Savanna Karmue (‘23) started Happy Heart Advices (HHA), a non-profit organization, with the help of her parents at age 8, dedicated to leading the charge in educating and empowering communities to live happy, healthy lifestyles.

Music & Movement (M&M) Teacher Ashlie Kirby was inspired by our first grade study of rivers, so she worked with the students to make water dances based on the book I Can Make a Water Dance.

When our core values of Critical Thinking and Creativity come together, it's always amazing for our students. Recently, Lower School students decorated and sent cups to the bottom of the ocean!

Our incredible Lower School art teachers, Ashlie Kirby and Alma Ponce answered some great “Q & A” for Sactown magazine in this month's issue.

In June, our talented team of budding journalists on campus was presented with the 2021 California Journalism Award for General Excellence.