Welcome to the Upper School!

What are you curious about? What makes you wonder?  At the RPCS Upper School, your questions and wonderings are taken seriously by your teachers, coaches, advisors, and fellow students. Our faculty and staff cultivate an environment where students celebrate each other’s strengths and empower each other to question, practice, explore, and discover. 

In our classrooms, four key principles guide the learning process:

• Learners thrive in a physically and psychologically safe, welcoming and affirming environment. 
• Independent, critical and creative thinking flourish in stimulating and collaborative environments. 
• Learning is enhanced through questioning, risk-taking, failure, and experiential connections. 
• Continuous and ongoing feedback, reflection and self-assessment are essential to deepening learning.

Every day at RPCS, teachers welcome and affirm our learners: they guide them in risk-taking, foster their creative thinking and problem-solving, and provide opportunities for reflection and growth. Our rich curriculum balances rigor with support, with differentiated instruction to meet each student where they are while lifting them up to their full academic potential. Our tri-school partnership with the Gilman and Bryn Mawr Schools opens a great wealth of additional electives and opportunities.

Our Gore Leadership Institute seminars provide all RPCS students with a foundation for ethical problem-solving, an understanding about power and identity, and opportunities to engage in local and global problem-solving through experiential, project-based learning and a wealth of internships, fellowships, and community outreach and action.

To further develop citizens of the world, RPCS offers seven modern and classical languages – French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Latin, and Ancient Greek. Students who are particularly interested in languages have the opportunity to study more than one during their time in the Upper School through our World Languages Certificate Program.

Committed to preparing our girls for the future, The Holliday Heine STEM Institute focuses on making our students effective and interdisciplinary problem solvers. And our opportunities for specialization are not just limited to academics. RPCS has an elite performing arts program with audition-based ensembles in dance and singing, and year-round stage performances. In the fine arts, we offer numerous electives, including Advanced Placement courses in studio art, 2-D and 3-D design, and photography. 

RPCS is committed to helping students to live healthy and be well through our competitive sports teams, innovative wellness courses, and vibrant advising, academic support, and counseling programs. 

Bring your questions, curiosity and talents to RPCS, and let us help you find the answers that will build the foundation of your adult lives.