The Nightingale-Bamford School is an independent all-female university-preparatory school founded in 1920 by Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford. Located in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, Nightingale-Bamford is a member of the New York Interschool consortium.
Overview
Nightingale's Lower School includes grades K-4. Middle School includes grades 5-8, and Upper School includes grades 9-12. Nightingale holds a small size of 560 students, approximately 45 pupils per grade level. The student-faculty ratio is 7:1 and the average class size is that of 12 students for academic and up to 22 for PE and the like.
History
Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford founded the school in 1920. NBS was originally named Miss Nightingale's School; officially becoming "The Nightingale-Bamford School" in 1929. Since 1920, NBS has graduated nearly 3,000 alumnae. As of 2008, the School endowment is at $74.9 million.
Faculty
Paul Burke has been head of school since July 2012. He succeeded Dorothy Hutcheson, who was head of Nightingale for the prior 20 years.
Academics
Nightingale features a traditional, rigorous curriculum. Like its contemporaries, the school has a preponderance of required courses until upper school, when electives are increasingly offered.
Students have excelled in a variety of these electives as well as many notable extracurricular activities. For example, in April 2013, a team of five upper school students won first place at Technovation Challenge, the world's largest tech competition for girls. The $10,000 prize was used to develop and market their winning app. The next year, a Nightingale team won first place in the middle school division of the 2014 Technovation Challenge and also sent their upper school team to the finals. In addition, Nightingale is well known for their thriving debate program, which won second place at States in 2016.
Advising
Joyce Slayton Mitchell, Nightingale's former college advisor, is the author of Winning the Heart of the College Admissions Dean (Ten Speed Press, 2001, 2005). Heather Beveridge is the college advisor.
Nightingale hosts the Manhattan College Fair for New York City Independent School juniors and their parents.
Admissions
Nightingale's admissions process has received some media attention in the past few years.
Financial aid
As of the 2008-2009 school year, 32% of the NBS student body received financial assistance with $2.8 million in grants being awarded.
Rankings
Nightingale is typically ranked among the top ten all-girls private schools in the United States, and, like many private schools in Manhattan, is ranked as one of the most expensive
Diversity
Nightingale-Bamford has a diverse community for an independent school with 26% of the student body being students of color. The school has a program called Cultural Awareness for Everyone, or informally CAFE. CAFE touches on the basis of not only race, but also class, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and age.
Partner schools
Nightingale-Bamford has no official partner or brother school. However, the school has activities with St. David's and Allen-Stevenson (both boys schools) and is a member of Interschool, which organizes programs and activities for eight New York City independent schools: Trinity, Dalton, Collegiate, Brearley, Chapin, Spence, Nightingale-Bamford, and Browning.
Notable alumnae
- C.C. Elian, 1968. Artist, creator of Elian script
- Millicent Fenwick, 1928. Politician
- Amina Gautier, fiction writer
- Isabel Gillies, 1988. Author, actress
- Lisa Grunwald Adler, 1977. Novelist
- Mandy Grunwald, 1975. Political consultant and media advisor
- Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, 1993. Fashion designer
- Olivia Palermo, 2004. Socialite and fashionista
- Michèle Rosier, 1948. French fashion journalist
- Sarah Thompson, 1997. Actress
- Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, 1921. Socialite
- Elizabeth Winthrop, 1966. novelist
- Cecily von Ziegesar, 1988. Novelist. Author Gossip Girl series
In pop culture
- Nightingale-Bamford received mention in the Woody Allen film Everyone Says I Love You.
- In the Gossip Girl book series by NBS alumna Cecily von Ziegesar '88, the character's elite all-girls school Constance Billard School for Girls, is based upon Nightingale-Bamford and the lives of the girls who attend the School. "[Constance Billard] is completely based on Nightingale," von Ziegesar told ABC News. "But I exaggerated to make it more entertaining."
- Nightingale-Bamford is mentioned in the book How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
- Mentioned briefly in Bunheads by Sophie Flack
References
External links
- Official website