Core Values
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
דמללו דומלל
Empowering every student to think critically and creatively while instilling a lifelong passion for learning CHARACTER םידסח תולימגו תודימ
Cultivating a sense of obligation to act with kindness, respect, integrity, and the recognition that our tradition regards every individual as having been created in the divine image CITIZENSHIP תוחרזא
Developing engaged citizens who participate thoughtfully in the civic discourse of our local area, the United States, and the broader world
COMMUNITY הליהק
Building enduring connections, instilling a sense of shared responsibility, and promoting engagement with diverse perspectives
JOYOUS JEWISH LEARNING & PRACTICE הוצמו הרות דומלת החמשב
Nurturing joyful, meaningful commitment to observance, tefilah, text study, and Hebrew language, within an anchoring framework of halachic practice
LOVE OF ISRAEL
לארשי תבהא
Fostering a connection with the people, land, and State of Israel, and recognizing their centrality to Jewish identity
The Leffell School Experience
We are pleased to share a few highlights of the Leffell School experience from kindergarten through twelfth grade. These snapshots can help you to understand the journey our students take as they progress through the school and will illuminate the many milestones to look forward to along the way. They touch on science and art, sports and Torah, engineering and nature, and travel and chesed. And though the specific programs mentioned may change as our faculty comes up with new ways to engage students, what always remains consistent is Leffell’s focus on preparing the next generation of leaders to live thoughtful, values-based Jewish lives in the ever-changing modern world.
See each division’s Curriculum Guide for a comprehensive look at academic goals and course offerings by grade.
KEHILAH AND COMMUNITY
Leffell School connections last a lifetime, for students and their families. Leffell students learn and grow together from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and the new students who join each year are warmly welcomed and enrich the already tight bonds between classmates. Alumni often share apartments after college, attend each other’s weddings, and travel Israel and the world together. Our active PTO keeps the community engaged with volunteer opportunities and parent social events throughout the year. The Leffell School families support each other during life’s challenging times and celebrate together at simchas.
ONE SCHOOL
While we are located on two beautiful campuses, The Leffell School truly is one school. We come together for schoolwide events like the back-to-school BBQ and the snow day Challahthon. High School student ambassadors greet kindergartners at the incoming students’ welcome picnic, Lower School students visit the Upper School campus for special programs, and, in a full-circle moment, the entire Lower School cheers on our seniors as they parade across the Lower School campus in caps and gowns before their graduation ceremony.
LOWER SCHOOL Beyond the Classroom
Learning at Leffell extends beyond the formal classroom to the art studio, the vegetable garden, the nature trail, the media center, and the makerspace, where kids explore, experiment, build, and tinker.
Holiday Celebrations
Shabbat and holidays offer opportunities for campuswide celebrations. Parents, grandparents, and younger siblings are invited to join us monthly to experience the energy and festive ruach (spirit) of our entire Lower School together at an All-School Tefilah. Not only will families daven (pray) with our students but they may even get to see our Head of School in a holiday-themed costume.
Greeting The Day
Students open their day with Mifgash Boker (morning meeting), a time designed to build classroom community.
Students engage in discussions and fun activities that strengthen active listening and creative problem-solving skills.
Lower School
KINDERGARTEN Buddies Program
Kindergartners and fifth graders love our Buddies program, where each kindergartner is matched with a fifth-grade mentor. The buddies bond through activities like climbing on the playground, reading books together, and sharing meals in the sukkah. Annual visits in future years allow their friendships to continue.
Shabbat Assembly
At Chagigat HaShabbat, kindergartners proudly showcase the prayers, songs, and traditions they have learned about throughout the year.
K
1ST GRADE Community Helpers
By conducting interviews, reading nonfiction books, and watching video presentations, first graders learn about the many community helpers — such as firefighters, mail carriers, doctors, store owners, and more — who together make a community thrive. Then students write a book about the helpers, which they share with classmates and families at a celebration of community.
Siddur Assembly
As they build their repertoire of tefilot, first graders are always excited to receive their very own siddur (prayer book) during their Chagigat HaSiddur.
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2ND GRADE Passover Assembly
Studies
come to life
City Planning
Throughout the year, students learn about how people adapt to life in rural, suburban, and urban environments.
Students discuss and debate which institutions (such as schools, hospitals, and stadiums) they think are most important for modern living and collaborate to design and build a model city.
Publishing Parties
Second graders are emerging authors who write, edit, and revise pieces for “publication” that are shared at each class’s publishing party, a tradition that is continued in later grades.
in Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies)
as second graders reenact Yetziat Mitzrayim (exodus from Egypt) onstage in a performance for their families.
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3RD GRADE Lenape
Museum
History, geography, science, and literacy all come together as third graders learn about the Hudson Valley region. After studying local waterways, plant and sea life, and the Lenape people, as well as taking field trips to local museums and regional sites, students create their own artifacts in the makerspace and invite families to learn about Native Americans during a third-grade museum night.
Chagigat HaChumash
Third graders learn to navigate the Chumash, including locating parashiot, perakim, and pesukim (portions, chapters, and verses). Their study of Parashat Vayera and Parashat Chayei Sarah focuses on family relationships and hachnasat orchim (welcoming guests), so it is only appropriate to welcome families to the Chumash Assembly, where each third grader receives their very own Chumash.
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4TH GRADE Torah Reading
Students deepen their connection to our traditions by learning the ancient skill of leyning (chanting) Torah with trope, the melody used in synagogues around the world. At the grade’s Chagigat Bereshit, fourth graders demonstrate what they have learned by chanting Torah at a tefilah service attended by their families.
American Revolution
Fourth graders travel back to colonial times during a visit to the Stony Point Battlefield, where they learn about the American Revolution, see how soldiers lived during wartime, and watch a blacksmith forge iron hooks and nails.
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5TH GRADE Shakespeare Play
The entire fifth grade takes to the stage to perform an age-appropriate version of a Shakespeare classic. Acting out the Bard’s play is an effective — and fun — way to deepen students’ understanding of his work.
Fifth-Grade Shuk
After creating an in-class economy where students can earn and spend class currency, the fifth grade holds a Shuk or Market Day. Students form their own businesses and are responsible for producing and marketing their handmade products. On the day of the Shuk, students can buy the goods offered by their classmates with the money they made in their class economies.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL
Growing Independence
The Middle School experience features increased academic choice and independence within a nurturing structure of personalized support. Elective classes in engineering, art, foreign languages, music, and theater give an opportunity to pursue new interests or further explore long-held passions. Students begin to learn self-awareness and selfadvocacy, as they reflect on their work and participate in yearly parent/teacher/student conferences.
Middle School
6TH GRADE Renaissance Faire
The sixth graders step back in time for the annual Renaissance Faire. The Faire showcases student performances and projects about prominent artists, leaders, and scientists of the era. The students’ preparation helps them understand innovations of the past and the impact they have on society today.
Chagigat Sefer Shemot
Chagigat Sefer Shemot provides families and students with a unique opportunity to learn together with Leffell’s Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies) faculty, exploring the narrative themes of the Book of Exodus.
Adapting to Middle School
Throughout the year, an executive functioning class provides students with strategies to manage the increased expectations and responsibilities of middle school. These organization and time management skills will prepare them for success in the years to come.
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7TH GRADE American History Trip
Whether touring Capitol Hill and the National Archives in Washington, DC or walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, students enrich their understanding of US History during their seventh-grade class trip. Visits to museums and cultural sites illuminate our country’s past, and fun evening activities give students the chance to relax with their classmates outside the school environment.
Purim Celebration
Students create interactive games and puzzles through which to teach their peers and family about Megilat Esther and the story of Purim at the Chagigat Megliah v’Simcha. As part of the celebration, students also engage in the other mitzvot of Purim: matanot l’evyonim (gifts to those in need), a seudah (festive meal), and giving tasty mishloach manot treats.
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8TH GRADE Israel Experience
As a communal celebration of the bar/bat mitzvah process, the eighth-grade class spends two memorable weeks in Israel. Students explore the country’s development from the biblical era through modern day as they tour cities, hike in the desert, visit museums and historical sites, and participate in hands-on volunteering. This much-anticipated highlight of the Middle School years firmly establishes a lifelong connection with the land of Israel.
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HIGH SCHOOL Responsibility for Learning and Growth
In and Out of the Classroom
The High School prepares students for college and beyond with a focus on students’ thinking independently, exercising confident decision making, and taking responsibility for their own learning and growth. The challenging academic curriculum is supplemented by our Advisory program, with each grade discussing topics relevant to their mental well-being and social development.
Students take responsibility for their growth outside the classroom as well. Whether competing as a Leffell Lion on the sports field, participating in a minyan (prayer service) that fits their spiritual style, or representing their peers in student government, students grow by trying new activities and by leading student-run clubs. There are more than forty clubs offered, including the Culture Club, the robotics team, and the Friendly Fridge community service club, among others — and each year students create new clubs to meet the ever-expanding interests of our student body.
Community Service
The Leffell School fosters a lifelong commitment to chesed and compassionate kindness through our curriculum’s four-year community service program. Whether volunteering at a food pantry, an animal shelter, or a senior living facility, students support worthy causes with their time, energy, and talents.
Engineering & Entrepreneurship (E2)
The renowned E2 program is a multi-year design, innovation, entrepreneurship, and management course. Students are encouraged to approach real-world engineering problems fearlessly and to use their skills and creativity to solve them, building their inventions in our three makerspaces, our FabLab, and our outdoor Exospace.
High School
9TH GRADE Fall Shabbaton and Spring Tiyul
The ninth-grade experience is bookended by a fall Shabbaton and a spring Tiyul (trip). The fall weekend gives students who have been at Leffell for years and those who are new to the school the chance to spend time together and build new friendships. During the spring Tiyul, the grade can reflect on their first year of high school together and enjoy a few days of food and fun before parting for the summer.
Activities Block
Starting in ninth grade, the Activities Block ensures that all students have time allocated on their schedules for nonacademic pursuits. Students may join Mock Trial, an American Sign Language class, the Scuttlebutt weekly news broadcast, the Lion’s Roar newspaper, or another exciting option. Activities Block gives ninth graders a chance to learn with and form connections to students from across all High School grades.
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10TH GRADE Chesed Trip
A highlight of tenth grade is the Chesed Trip to Washington, DC. After learning about homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity in their Sophomore Seminar, students spend two days participating in political advocacy and lobbying on Capitol Hill and working directly with various organizations aimed at serving those less fortunate. Some of the time is devoted to Street Torah, during which students turn the Jewish texts about social responsibility into action by meeting and speaking with DC’s homeless population. There is also time for sightseeing and fun during this memorable and meaningful trip.
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11TH GRADE Beginning College Exploration
The college counselors get to know each student individually so that they can advise them throughout the process and ultimately help students matriculate at a school that matches their learning and living preferences. A trip in the spring includes visits to multiple colleges and allows students to see campuses of various sizes and settings, so it is a great way for students to determine which types of schools appeal to them.
NYC Shabbaton
By eleventh grade, students have the maturity and skill level to participate in all types of telifah services. The eleventhgrade Shabbaton takes place each year on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which has an active and diverse Jewish community, and during the Shabbaton students can explore minyanim with a range of different customs and practices.
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12TH GRADE
WISE
During the spring, seniors participate in the Wise Individualized Senior Experience (WISE), engaging in an activity that reflects their career or personal interests. Guided by their own self-motivation and under the direction of a faculty mentor, students can opt to work an internship, conduct intensive research on a particular topic, or take on an individualized project such as writing and illustrating a graphic novel or restoring a grandparent’s antique car to working condition.
Lev v’Nefesh
The capstone experience of a Leffell School education is the transformative Lev v’Nefesh trip to Poland and Israel that truly touches the heart and soul of each student. Twelfth graders spend eight weeks walking in the footsteps of Jewish history and discovering their own paths as Jewish leaders of the future.
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Leffell School Students
Acquire the fearlessness to take on challenges with confidence and the curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking skills to solve them
Develop a strong personal identity and learn to interact kindly, comfortably, and respectfully with people whose beliefs and worldviews are different from their own
Demonstrate a commitment to chesed, the responsibility and compassion to serve the community in ways big and small Thrive in the modern world while also engaging in traditional Jewish life in joyful, meaningful, and fulfilling ways
Develop the historical knowledge and nuanced understanding of multiple perspectives that are necessary to become strong and effective advocates for Israel, on campus and throughout their adult lives
Build cherished, lifelong friendships with peers and establish enduring connections with the caring adults who serve as transformative mentors
Leffell School graduates are prepared to act as leaders in their generation and to serve as examples for the generations that follow.
leffellschool.org
Lower School Campus 30 Dellwood Road White Plains, NY 10605 914-948-3111
Upper School Campus 555 West Hartsdale Avenue Hartsdale, NY 10530 914-948-8333
