Community Meetings

Community meetings are among Harlem Academy’s most cherished traditions. These weekly gatherings offer an opportunity for students to recognize their peers’ exemplary contributions and reflect upon their own behavior. During each meeting, teachers recount moments in which students exhibited exemplary behavior. Then a weekly message examines an aspect of the school creed, emphasizing the habits most critical to students’ success. To close the meeting, community members shake hands, recite the creed, and share a quiet moment before a silent recessional.

During the final year of lower school (grade four) and middle school (grade eight), each student works with a teacher and two classmates to prepare a community meeting. This process challenges students to internalize the core habits valued at Harlem Academy. They must engage in thoughtful planning, consider a message that will challenge their peers to reflect on the school’s pillars of character, and lead a meeting for the school community.