Interim Week Supports Character, Scholarship, Leadership & Innovation

Dear TGS Families:

Students, faculty, and staff are excited for Interim Week, starting this Tuesday, September 19. Interim experiences, while engaging, novel, and a lot of fun, are designed with intention by our faculty and administration to support the pillars of our mission: character, scholarship, leadership, and innovation. To this end, Interim provides targeted, age-appropriate opportunities for active, in-depth participation in each of these critical areas.

By taking students out of their regular classroom routines, Interim allows for more social, character, and leadership building opportunities and the chance to see or try completely new things. However, this does not mean that what is being taught in the classroom is abandoned.

Imagine the organizational, computational, and cooperative skills our seventh graders will draw upon as they plan, budget, shop, prepare, and serve while creating their own restaurants. Envision our juniors in Utah actually understanding the geology surrounding them, science they learned about during a Friday Exploration with University of Arizona Professor Emeritus George Davis. Think of our sophomores and fifth graders surrounded by the history that they read  about and discuss in class.

Beyond this, Interim is a time for team and community building, for taking leadership roles, and for bringing new students further into the community, forging or reinforcing the class bond. Each Interim experience offers plenty of opportunity for every student to lead, think, participate, and create. Here are brief descriptions of what each grade level will be doing next week:

5th Grade:
Fifth graders embark on a journey across the Oregon Trail to learn about Westward Expansion and the life of a pioneer. However, the trail experience becomes so much more as we meet challenges along the way that help us learn to persevere, solve problems and successfully collaborate to reach our final destination. 

6th Grade:
Sixth grade students will learn more about our community by focusing on the natural and human-made world of Tucson. Trips will include the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Mt. Lemmon, Colossal Cave, and the Tucson Village Farm. There will also be time for a swim at the Tucson Raquet Club and a pizza, movie, and star-gazing party with the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association.

7th Grade:
One of the most legendary Interim Week experiences has seventh graders staying on campus to participate in Restaurant Wars. Using The Gregory School kitchen and dining hall, students form teams to create two restaurants, from concept to menu planning to shopping, and finally prepare a full-course meal to serve to parents and a panel of judges. A third team will create an edited video to document the entire process.

8th Grade: 
Eighth graders will spend their mornings on self-selected service projects to contribute within the Tucson or TGS community. In the afternoons, they will enjoy group activities including trips to a skating rink and trampoline park, and an overnight at Mt. Lemmon’s Camp Lawton on Mt. Lemmon, followed by a day at the University of Arizona Sky School.

9th Grade:
Ninth grade students head to Sedona and Flagstaff for adventures including hiking, kayaking, ziplining and more. Students will also relax with a movie night, some shopping time in Sedona, and plenty of time to begin forming the unique personality of the Class of 2027!

10th Grade:
Sophomores will explore all things New Mexico—from its history and nature, to its museums, culture, and urban areas. Students may experience everything from Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos to the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe to the traditional cuisine of New Mexico.

11th Grade:
Another time-honored tradition is the junior trip to Utah. This trip combines hiking in some of Utah’s gorgeous national parks with tickets to see two shows (this year it’s Timon of Athens and Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical) at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and a good dose of other fun along the way. The Utah trip is a wonderful opportunity for the class to bond as they prepare to be the next year’s school leaders.

12th Grade:
During Interim Week, Director of College Counseling Ms. Carey Eskesen encourages all seniors to do "anything and everything" college-related, whether they stay at home to work on applications or have scheduled time with her and their families on campus. (Please contact Ms. Eskesen at ceskesen@gregoryschool.org if you would like to get an appointment.) Interim Week also provides a good opportunity for students to go on college visits without the worry of missing school. The seniors’ traditional class trip to California is planned for February 18 - 21. This trip is considered the kick-off of the countdown to Commencement.

Whether this is your student’s first Interim experience or their seventh, you can be assured that an exciting, developmentally appropriate experience is planned for your student. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of our deans or grade-level faculty Interim leaders if you have questions!

Kind regards,