Return of the Golden Broom Award!

Seventh Grade, Class of 2025, with Ms. Robyn Thomas, Class Teacher and Mr. Mark, display the newly designated Golden Broom.

In 2015, WSP instituted the Golden Broom award, an idea borrowed from the Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School in Viroqua, Wisconsin, to encourage students to thoughtfully care for their physical spaces. Each Friday, Grades students gathered in assembly to share class presentations and award the Golden Broom to the class that maintained the most clean and orderly classroom throughout the week. With the return to weekly Grades Friday assembly, we are excited to also see the return of this tradition.

The first Golden Broom Award of the year is typically chosen by the Head of School or Facilities Manager. In the subsequent weeks, the class with the Golden Broom stealthy reviews other classrooms as well as observes the general care other students are providing for the grounds and common spaces. Here is a 2015 excerpt from a parent email for the Class of 2022 while they were in Grade 2:

“The class received the Golden Broom for the second time this school year, primarily for having clean floors and organized shelves—definitely not for the cleanliness of their teacher's desk. We formed an ad hoc committee of four second graders—hastily titled the Not-So-Secret Council—who investigated and assessed other grades classrooms during the following school week. The committee recommended that we award it to the Eighth Grade, a motion that passed unanimously.”

— Mr. Kevin Seal, Class Teacher (Grades 1–5)

This friendly competition has grown into a beloved tradition as well as a way for WSP students to show care, gratitude, and pride in their school. And so it is with great pleasure that we reintroduced this tradition this Friday morning. Mr. Mark Staley, Facilities Manager, presented the award to the Seventh Grade, to a thunderous applause from students. Second Graders were overhead discussing the Golden Broom as they walked to their classroom. It seemed there was a lively, bemused discussion about whether it was truly “golden” or just from our storage closet (it is not). The Golden Broom seems to have made an impression! Congratulations, Grade 7, for your care of your unique and large classroom—often referred to as “the chapel.” And thank you for paving the way for next week’s honorees. Who will it be?

Proud fourth grade classmates from the Class of 2019 display the Golden Broom.