Traditions

Spirit week is celebrated early each Fall. This all-school week-long event promotes community spirit and sisterhood across all grade levels.

The most inclusive school-wide gathering this week is the Panther Pride Parade. During the parade, each class dresses to fit a class theme, the jazz band plays from a float, faculty and staff dress-up, and good times are had by all. The parade route begins in front of Lower School, crosses over Granger Hill, and ends at the tennis courts where the Blue and White teams engage in an enormous freeze dance competition.

The week culminates in the Upper School with the Flashback Dance, sponsored by the Representative Assembly.

On the Monday before Thanksgiving the entire school gathers in the James Whittier Lewis Theater for the Thanksgiving Assembly. Traditionally, the program includes student representatives from each division speaking about Thanksgiving and what it means to them as well as a community sing-a-long. Especially near and dear to the seniors is the final stanza of “All the Good People” written especially for the graduating class each year.

No one knows the precise date that the Holton-Arms School first opened its doors, but it was sometime in February 1901. As a result, each February (usually on or near the 14th), the School celebrates “Happy Birthday Holton-Arms!” with a special lunch and a D.J. in the Dining Room. The Upper School also makes a "birthday gift" to Holton by making a donation to The Holton Fund!

Every two years, Holton's birthday is also marked by a Lip Sync competition, where teams from each grade in Upper School choreograph and perform for the "judges" (the three division directors and the Head of School). On occasion, the faculty and staff have performed a number of their own while the judges conducted their "deliberations."

Senior Spirit Day takes place every spring on the last day of classes before Senior Projects begin.

The day starts early in the morning (or late, late at night). Seniors decorate campus and then line the entrance of the School to celebrate their time at Holton and cheer the arrival of fellow students, parents, and teachers. Following this cheer session, the normal morning assembly time is replaced by a skit or video presentation by the senior class.

After assembly, the fun really begins. The first two hours of school are occupied by a huge party in the Centennial Garden with the Upper School and the faculty and staff. There is a moon bounce, pizza, ice cream, music, and, the focal point, a huge homemade waterslide.

Following these festivities, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, faculty, and staff sing songs to the seniors, which usually results in a lot of crying. The seniors then sing a song to the people they will leave behind as they head for life beyond Holton.