Two brothers use their Sokoloff Prize to teach the elderly how to knit.
October 15, 2025
The School welcomed hundreds of guests to the grounds for a glimpse of Fall Term.
BY KRISTIN DUISBERG
The smiles were wide. The hugs were long. The weather was perfect.
On Oct. 10 and 11, families returned to the St. Paul’s School grounds for Family Weekend, an opportunity to get a window into the lives of the students they’d dropped off for the academic year five weeks earlier. Parents, grandparents, siblings and others — some 350 families and 850 total guests — traveled to Millville from as nearby as Concord and as far away as New Zealand to take in an art exhibit and a performing arts showcase, watch athletic practices, attend chapel, enjoy meals with their students and other SPS families, meet with advisers and hear from Rector Kathy Giles and other School leadership in a variety of venues.
As always, there were packed classrooms for Saturday morning’s “mini-school” — an abbreviated schedule of classes in which parents got a peek at what their children are learning this term — and it was standing room only for the fall kickoff of the 2025-26 SPS Parents Association Education Series, “Building Purposeful Lives Through Engagement: In Millville and Beyond.” Following remarks from Rector Giles, attendees heard from Vice Rector for School Life Theresa Ferns ’84, P’19, Dean of Students Suzanne Ellinwood P’18,’20 and Dean of Student Support and Director of Community Engagement Kate Daniels about new student life initiatives this year.
The weekend ended with a full slate of Big Red athletic contests and then a three-day mid-term recess during which many students left the grounds — an opportunity to relax and reflect on their school year to-date experience with family members who now had a clearer picture of life at SPS.
