Week

Times

Camp

Age

Cost

July 1st-July 5th (Thursday off due to holiday)

HALF DAY

9AM-1:30PM

Junior Chefs Camp

Introduction to our campus, gardens, STEM and STEAM programming!

Incoming 

K- 3rd

grades

$130

Click here to register!

July 8th-12th

FULL DAY

9AM-4PM

Garden Grab Bag

Advanced programming for multi-aged campers!

Incoming 

1st-6th 

grades

$260

Click here to register!

July 15th-19th

HALF DAY

9AM-1PM 

YMCA Partnership Camp

Campus exploration and STEM in the garden!  Transit offered from YMCA to Compass.

Incoming

2nd-7th 

grades

Registration thru YMCA

Ask for member pricing!

July 15th-19th

AFTERNOON

2-5 PM

Sewing and Natural Plant Dyes

Introductory through Advanced 

Incoming

2nd-7th 

grades

$110

Click here to register!

July 22-26th

FULL DAY

9AM-4PM

Young Farm Stewards

Principles of ecology and outdoor adventure! 

Incoming 3rd-7th grades

$260

Click here to register!

July 29th-August 2nd

HALF DAY

9AM-1PM 

YMCA Partnership Camp

Campus exploration and STEM in the garden!  Transit offered from YMCA to Compass.

Incoming

2nd-7th

grades

Registration through YMCA Ask for member pricing!

July 29th-August 2nd

AFTERNOON

2-5PM

Dungeons and Dragons 

Introductory level  required

Incoming 4th-9th grades

$110

Click here to register!

August 5th-8th

HALF DAY

9AM-1PM 

YMCA Partnership Camp

Campus exploration and STEM in the garden!  Transit offered from YMCA to Compass.

Incoming

2nd-7th

grades

Registration through YMCA Ask for member pricing!

August 5th-8th

AFTERNOON MINI-CAMP

2-5PM

Culinary Arts 

Farm-to-table

Introductory through Advanced

Incoming

2nd-7th 

grades

$110

Click here to register!

Aug 12th-15th

FULL DAY

FULL DAY

9AM-4PM

Garden Grab Bag

Advanced programming for multi-aged campers!

Incoming 1st-6th grades

$260

Click here to register!

The post Summer Camp Registration 2024! appeared first on The Compass School.

The deadline is Friday, December 20th, 2019!

The Compass School Farm

School Outreach Garden Program Description

With generous support from the Newman’s Own Foundation, The Science Engagement Center at the Compass School Farm is excited to offer 6 schools the opportunity to build or enhance their own school gardens.

Benefits: Selected schools will receive…

• A materials grant in the amount of $1,500 to build or enhance a school garden

• Consultation support from The Compass School Outreach Farmer

Eligibility

• All schools public and private are eligible to apply for this grant.

• The school principal must authorize teachers to utilize the garden during the school day as an instructional resource. A minimum of 3 teachers need to demonstrate commitment to incorporate garden into curriculum

• Application preference will be given to schools serving the Washington County Area.

Recipient Commitments

• The school-based coordinator for the project must commit to seeing the grant through to its completion.

• Each school will assemble a school garden team consisting of both adults and students.

• The  school-based coordinator agrees to visit the Compass School Farm with the school garden team during the planning phase of the school garden design.

• The school agrees to incorporate students in the garden including but not limited to the planning, design, build, maintenance plan, and decision-making process (as appropriate by age).  

• The school commits to organizing at least 2 community garden build days which include students, families, and teachers.

• The school-based coordinator commits to completing the end of grant report that summarizes the successes and challenges of the garden build experience. The Compass School will offer a template which will include both narrative and photo elements.

• The school garden team must develop a 3 year plan for maintenance of garden during summer vacation.  This plan must demonstrate coordination with school facilities and maintenance staff as well as any outside landscaping services hired.

The post The 2019-2020 School Garden Outreach Application is Live! appeared first on The Compass School.

Remember this quote from Monday’s Update? 

We’re Achieving it!  Or, as Owen would say, “For real, Compass!  For really, real life.” It’s happening! 

Thanks to our big outreach grants from Newman’s Own Foundation and Main Street Resources, we are able to help 6 schools build their own gardens, inspired by what they learn at The Compass Farm.   

With the grant funding, we’re hiring a Compass Outreach Farmer (interviews will take place this Thursday).  We already have more school’s applying than we can support – the demand is there – we’re doing this thing!  

If you know a school that’s interested in building a garden with our support, remind them that the deadline is THIS COMING MONDAY and they can find out more about the opportunity on our website: http://compassschool.org/science-engagement-center/

As you know, I’m big on making sure everyone understands the WHY of our choices at Compass, so just to recap, here are the top 5 reasons WHY we launched the Science Engagement Center at The Compass School Farm and WHY we’re so excited that it’s real – for really, real life. 

• Reason #5 – Charter Renewal: A new part of the charter renewal system (we get evaluated every 5 years) requires charter schools to demonstrate how they are sharing best practices with other schools. 

• Reason #4 –  Your Kiddo Won the Lottery: We have a pretty special thing going on at Compass, but we’re limited; only 174 students get the Compass experience each year.  By partnering with other schools, we’re paying it forward and hoping to enrich the broader educational landscape with some seeds from Compass…literally

• Reason #3 – Mission Deep Dive: We’re doing a deep dive into our mission.  Learning about the plight of the pollinators in the Lavender Labyrinth and Biodiversity gardens, understanding the gifts animals can offer, and tasting the delicious flavors of a tomato you’ve grown yourself …all of these experiences immerse our students in our environmental sustainability mission. 

• Reason #2 – It’s all part of my master plan…  Building something great and sharing it attracts big $ donors…who might then fund the barn renovation project…which helps Compass say goodbye to the modulars that we pay almost $4,000 painful dollars per month for…which lets us invest more in instructional expenses for teachers and materials…which stops Ms. Brandee’s  annual budget heart attacks.   

• Reason #1 – Our Compass Kids: If we build great programming to share with other schools…it means that our Compass kids get the benefit of using it right here at their own doorstep! Priceless. 

Above: The Compass Farm After School Program – photo credit: Rachel Axelson 

On behalf of the Compass School’s Health, Safety and Wellness committee, thank you for your ongoing support of The Science Engagement Center at The Compass School Farm! 

Thank you all for leaning in to support me and our Compass Council as we work to move our special school forward with all of this important and exciting work. 

The post Update on The Science Engagement Center at The Compass School Farm appeared first on The Compass School.

Compass is delighted to have received a $9,000 grant from the NRCS to install a seasonal high tunnel on our farm.  This will allow us to extend our growing season and further enrich the experiences at the Science Engagement Center at the Compass School Farm.

This structure will be different than our greenhouse where we prep seedlings in soil blocks on tables. In a high tunnel, you plant right in the ground – the covering protects the plants when the weather gets cool. 

Where will the new high tunnel go?

First, The Vision:

Ideally, the high tunnel will be placed in the area abutting the goat pen on one side and the raised beds on the other.

Next, The Reality:

We have some neighbors who notified us that they intend to speak out in opposition to our special permit for the high tunnel at our upcoming Special Permit Hearing in front of the SK Zoning Board. When our Navigators (7th/8th) heard this, they became all fired up and inspired to act.  With support from Ms. Harlyn in ELA, they are writing persuasive letters explaining why Compass should  be able to have a high tunnel even if our neighbors would prefer not to see one. We will then practice those at our Student Voice and Leadership session.  Even those who are not official members of SVL are welcome to participate if they would like to join the Compass advocacy team.  The big showdown is scheduled for:

• December 20th at 7:00
• 180 High St., Wakefield, RI 02879 

We’re first on the agenda, so it shouldn’t be too late of a night! I invite our Navigators and their families to come and use their Loud and Proud voices to read their persuasive letters to the zoning board.  I am optimistic that our student advocates will be more persuasive than our neighbors

The post Coming Soon: A High Tunnel for the Compass School Farm appeared first on The Compass School.

Eighteen 8th grade boys from the San Miguel School spent the day at Compass doing tours, workshops, service and hanging out with our Navigators (7th/8th). This is the agenda we used.

We had a spectacular day. One of my key takeaways was reflecting again on how fortunate Compass kids are. The activities that we prepared for our visitors are every day experiences for us. When I saw our “normal” through the eyes of visitors, I remembered that it’s actually pretty extraordinary.

In Farm Headquarters, San Miguel students learn to make tasty smoothies using fruit and kale from our farm.
Workshop presenter: Sheryl Parente

Students who have never even seen a goat or chick before learn to feed them by hand (and walk them on a leash!)
Workship Presenter: Ms. Christine Skaggs

Farmer Kati teaches that even flowers can be edible.

San Miguel students do service work to help us maintain the largest school garden in RI.

We’ve been so focused on satisfying the charter regulations about sharing our innovative best practices with other schools that we didn’t realize how much we (Compass) would benefit from the exchange. Preparing to have the San Miguel students from Providence on Compass campus brought about some really important discussion about diversity and stereotypes. Then, hosting this awesome school and seeing first-hand the similarities and differences between us was really valuable exposure and awareness building for Compass students.

Compass and San Miguel students play football together.

What’s more is that San Miguel has asked if they can host us next! They have a strong robotics program and would like to have the chance to be a leader and a host just as our kids did this week! Wednesday’s field trip was heart-warming. This partnership is already proving to be a reciprocal learning exchange for both schools. I’m thankful that through our Science Engagement Center at The Compass School Farm, we’re able to dive deep into our environmental sustainability and our social responsibility missions. I just love it

Compass students gather with their new friends from San Miguel.

Cheers to these achievements and more to come! Special thanks to the Navigator (7th/8th) teachers and students, Christine Skaggs, Farmer Kati, nutritionist Sheryl Parente, and San Miguel Director John Wolf!

The post The Science Engagement Center at the Compass School Farm – Visit from San Miguel School appeared first on The Compass School.

The Compass School was thrilled to welcome Sejal Lanterman, Turn to 10’s Plant Pro, along with Kate Venturini from URI’s Cooperative Extension to visit our farm one blustery morning in October.

Plant Pro: Charter School’s Garden

In this week’s Plant Pro with Sejal Lanterman she takes us to see a local charter school’s garden.

The post Compass Farm Featured on Turn to 10 Plant Pro appeared first on The Compass School.

Our new goats, Kevin and Sierra moved into their new home at The Compass Farm today!

I am at a conference today, so I missed the arrival of our Compass goats.  I asked Ms. Julie to send me a picture and while I was in the middle of a workshop on report cards, the picture above popped up on my phone.  I gasped, smiled, then got downright misty…to the point that the other superintendents sitting around my conference table asked, “Ummm…Brandee…is everything okay?”

It is so much more than okay, it’s downright spectacular.  While I think these goats are just about the most adorable critters I’ve ever seen, that’s not why I had such a strong reaction.

Student-centered learning is at the heart of our school; while we are not perfect, there are moments like this one that take my breath away.  I remember last October’s brainstorm with the Investigator (5th/6th) Student Voice and Leadership group when they pleaded to bring goats to the farm that did not yet exist.  I remember the Navigators (7th/8th) digging holes for the posts of the goats’ fence.  I look at the picture of students putting the finishing touches on the shed independently earlier this week so that I could remember their sense of purpose, their engagement, their pride.

A special thank you goes out to Ms. Harlyn, the champion of the goat project (a Navigator elective course)

Compass is a special place, but not because we have goats.  The power is in the process that got them here.  We asked the students what they envisioned, we helped them create an action plan to make their dream possible, and we wrapped the supports around them that they would need to be successful. The Compass School experience is not about the students, or the director, or the teachers, or the families…it’s about ALL of US, working together to make the magic possible.

The post If You Build It, They Will Come…Goats at The Compass School appeared first on The Compass School.

The sun rises just as the first drips of water come out of the automatic sprinklers, so that the sun beams and a shower of water arches over the Garden of Ideas at the same time. Not long after, a crew of about 6 people tromp over the grounds, deciding what task to take care of each day on the farm. This crew is the summer farm interns led by Farmer Kati. All of these interns are either current or previous Compass students who have attended Compass through many different times, but all marvel at the progress The Compass School has accomplished in just the past few years.

Each intern came for a different reason, from a those just needing a summer job to others who are interested in more specific things that Compass has to offer, but all of them have agreed that they have walked away with so many new skills, just from the 8 weeks of the internship. Here is a community list of some examples we created.

Another huge success that I would love to touch on is the first ever Farm Camp. For those of you who don’t know, farm camp was two separate weeks of camp for kids currently at Compass. Every day, we would have some sort of fun activity along with guests.

These guests ranged from Ms. Monique who taught about soil to a local family who brought in their ducks for the day. The day would also be filled with water games, harvesting food to bring home to families and some sort of work to help the farm grow. This could be something like transplanting strawberries or weeding tomatoes.

All the campers thrived from working and playing outside during the hours of camp from 8am-noon. The interns all rotated in and out, helping as needed and teaching the campers some things about their own interests. A successful first year has us excited for more campers and camp weeks next year!

We have accomplished so much during our short time here at the Farm, and still have much more to do to complete our vision of Compass. We were so successful on the farm that we were able to harvest around 100 lbs of fresh produce in addition to 65 bunches of greens and 10 bags of herbs (harvest log from June 26th-August 11th).  There’s so much more still coming in!  

Having Farmer Kati and her interns at the farm this summer was vital to this success. This blog will continue on to show the development of the Compass School Farm!

The post A Lively Summer at the Compass School Farm appeared first on The Compass School.

Welcome House of South County | Home

Established in 1989, Welcome House of South County (WHSC) is a leading provider of support services for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in southern RI. It consists of an emergency shelter, community housing and support services as well as a meal-site serving lunch to the local community.

Compass School Helps expand Welcome House Garden

Friday, July 7, despite a torrential down-pour, four students, led by Kati Maginel, Farm Coordinator with the Compass School, a Charter School in Kingston, along with Welcome House staff and guests helped to expand the Welcome House gardens which provide fresh produce for the community kitchen during the summer months. Planting the herbs, lettuces, squash, beans, and greens were ZuZu Crane, Narragansett HS, Rose Bell, URI, Miranda Forman, East Bay Met School, Jesse Fitzelle-Jones, the Compass School, and Veronica Sweet and Joe Dziobek from Welcome House. The Compass School mission is towards environmental sustainability and social justice — the farmers look forward to continuing to partner with Welcome house to support the kitchen and local foods community. We thank everyone for their contribution in helping Welcome House become more naturally self-sufficient.

The post Welcome House of South County | Home appeared first on The Compass School.

The post Cleaning and Preparing: Compass Farm Headquarters! appeared first on The Compass School.