A huge thank you to Jennifer Rhoda Marsh ’93 and Meredith Wrighton for all their hard work on the Winter Formal Form I Dinner—especially for expertly pulling everything together after the date change! We are also incredibly grateful to our Middle and Upper School Athletic Liaisons, Hannah Strom and Erin Hendricks, for coordinating team parents and collaborating so seamlessly with the Athletics staff. We couldn’t have done it without you!

The online scheduling site for Parent-Teacher Conferences on March 12 and 13 will close on Tuesday, March 10, at midnight. If you need to reschedule your conference before then, just return to the Parent Resource Board, click the “Parent-Teacher Conference Scheduling” tile, and follow the instructions on the screen. Childcare for your Hockaday daughter (no siblings, please) will be available in the “Fishbowl” (the multipurpose room across from the L.S. Office) during your scheduled conference time.

Lower School Grandparents’ Day will take place on Thursday, April 2, 2026. We look forward to welcoming our grandparents and special friends that morning for a meaningful day of connection and celebration. More details coming soon. Please note:  In order to have both Middle School and Lower School grandparents on campus that day, Lower School will complete their events by 11:15 am and dismiss all Lower School students at 11:30 am. There will be no Happy Haps.

Rising Fifth Grade families are invited to campus on Thursday, April 9, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm in The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Theater. This meeting is for new and rising Fifth Grade parents and their daughters. At 5:30 pm, there will be a reception for families to socialize in the Hoffman Lobby of The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Theater. The parent program about Fifth Grade will begin at 6:00 pm in the theater, and your daughters will be introduced to the rising Fifth Grade class and engage in fun activities around campus. Current Fourth Grade parents will receive an email communication from Mrs. Christenson the first week of March.  

When I was little, I can remember being scared of the witch in The Wizard of Oz (and most of my friends were scared of those flying monkeys). My parents watched 30 minutes of the nightly news, which my sister and I found boring and had no interest in. But the sources of information have changed, and our daughters are growing up in a world where news pops up everywhere from YouTube to TikTok and Instagram. Even if you monitor these sites, kids often overhear adult conversations, and then then they talk to their friends.

All Middle School students will take the online CTP5 assessment provided by the Educational Research Bureau on the mornings of Tuesday, March 31 and Wednesday, April 1. Afternoon classes and activities will be held at the conclusion of testing on both days.

This assessment provides a standardized data point for the school and teachers to use in conjunction with classroom assessment to provide an overview of your daughter’s educational growth and our school programming. There is no special preparation needed for any CTP5 test except to be sure students get a good night's sleep and eat a nutritious breakfast. We ask that you not schedule any doctor or dentist appointments on those mornings; we do not provide make-ups as we value and study the longitudinal implications of these assessments rather than the results in any individual year. When you receive the results of these assessments in June, a detailed interpretation of your daughter’s scores will be included. Please keep in mind that these percentiles and stanines indicate how your daughter performed on certain tests on a given day and should be viewed in context of her overall classroom experience in learning and not considered an indicator of her future academic success.  

On the morning of Wednesday, March 11, the Eighth Grade class will attend 8/9 Transition Day. This annual program is an exciting opportunity for students to get a peek into Upper School life and provides them with a chance to talk with Upper School students, administrators, and faculty. Eighth graders will return to a normal schedule at 11:40 am, attending Middle School lunch and afternoon classes.   

 

An overview of what to expect is outlined below.  

Save the Date - Rising Form I Student/Parent Orientation 

Grandparents’ Day will be held on Thursday, April 2, and the program for grandparents of Middle School students will be in the afternoon. Students will have regular arrival and dismissal times, and Daisy Den and Middle School Athletics will follow their regular schedules. Parents have received more details from Mrs. Christenson in a separate communication.

As hard as it is to believe, it’s course selection time for the 2026-2027 School Year! Your Upper School student has recently received information on the course selection process for next year. You can discuss this information with your student and their advisor during US Conference Days on Thursday, March 12 and Friday, March 13. Your student and their advisor should be well-informed about the process and their options for next year, and the 2026-2027 Upper School Course Catalog will also be posted on the Hockaday website to help you answer any questions. Once your student decides what they want to take next year, they will receive paperwork from their advisor where they can record their choices, and they will also register using the Hockaday website. They must enter their choices in OnCampus by April 1 at 11:59 pm.

 

If you still have questions after discussing options on Conference Day, please contact Upper School Registrar Katy Lake.