Buckley Country Day School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...

providing elementary and middle education to 336 students in grades pre-nursery through eight in Roslyn,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States. Buckley was founded in 1923 and opened the doors of its first building in

Great Neck Great Neck is a region contained within Nassau County, New York, on Long Island, which covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine incorporated villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Poin ...

to a class of twenty-three children. It was begun as a day school but for a period accepted boarding students in the middle grades. In 1955, as the school's enrollment continued to increase, Buckley moved to its current location in the Village of North Hills in Roslyn. It is operated on a

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

basis by an appointed twenty-two-member

Board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ...

Trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

s. It is chartered by the

Board of Regents In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual co ...

of the

University of the State of New York The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state governmental umbrella organization that oversees all educational institutions, including schools, libraries, and museums in New York State. It is governed by the Board of Regents. D ...

. The school is accredited by the

New York State Association of Independent Schools The New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) is an association of 204 independent schools and organizations, ranging from nurseries to high schools, in New York (state), New York State. Founded in 1947, NYSAIS is the second la ...

and is a member of the

National Association of Independent Schools The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, board ...

The campus

Buckley has a

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

, which includes two classroom buildings, library, three athletic fields,

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s, and three playgrounds. The buildings house all the

classroom A classroom, schoolroom or lecture room is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other place ...

s, two science labs, an

art studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

, a woodshop, and three

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

nasiums. The Hagedorn

Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

Learning Center contains over 16,000 volumes and is used by students from pre-nursery to eighth grade. The campus includes four outdoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

s, which are open only in the summer during Buckley Camp and end-of-the-year parties, and a

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

. The campus was developed on land once part of a colonial farm owned by Isaac Underhill Willets.

Traditions

Buckley maintains a number of traditions. Every 8th grader

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

s and carves a square foot wooden

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate, usually fixed to a wall or other vertical surface, meant to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military p ...

; these are installed in the hallways of the school and remain displayed on campus forever. These plaques contain the name and graduation year of the individual student; they date to 1927. Both the 8th grade and

3rd grade Third grade (also 3rd Grade or Grade 3) is the third year of formal or compulsory education. It is the third year of primary school. Children in third grade are usually 8–9 years old. Examples of the American syllabus In mathematics, student ...

produce annual

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

. Each year the 1st graders perform ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

. Since 1973, the school has held an annual Fall Fair in October.

Athletics

Red-Blue Field Day is held annually in the spring. The school's two "

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

" and "

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

" teams compete. This tradition started in 1935 and as of 2024 the Red team is leading 47 to 40. Student records on field day are kept, the oldest being from 1981.

Pop culture

Some scenes in ''

School of Rock ''School of Rock'' (titled on screen as ''The School of Rock'') is a 2003 comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, produced by Scott Rudin and written by Mike White (filmmaker), Mike White. The film stars Jack Black, Joan Cusack, White and Sa ...

'', such as those in the cafeteria and the teacher's lounge (The Reception Room, formerly known as Room One), were

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

ed at Buckley.

Notable alumni

* Marshall Cassidy, class of 1959, horse race official and announcer * Lyn Coffin, class of 1957, author *

Barbara Cooney Barbara Cooney (August 6, 1917 – March 10, 2000) was an American writer and illustrator of 110 children's books, published for over sixty years. She received two Caldecott Medals for her work on ''Chanticleer and the Fox'' (1958) and ''Ox-Cart ...

children's author Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

, winner of two

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

s *

Melissa Errico Melissa Errico (born March 23, 1970)"Melissa Errico"
profile,

, actress *

Thelma Golden Thelma Golden (born September 22, 1965) is an American art curator, who is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is noted as one of the originators of the term post-blackness. From 20 ...

, class of 1980, Director and Chief Curator of the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an African-American art museum at 144 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African A ...

* Julian Lombardi,

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

, former World No. 1 professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player *

Patrick McEnroe Patrick William McEnroe (born July 1, 1966) is an American former professional tennis player, broadcaster, and former captain of the United States Davis Cup team. Born in Manhasset, New York, he is John McEnroe's youngest brother. He won one ...

, professional tennis player * Christian McFarlane, professional soccer player *

Leslie Peirez Leslie Peirez is an American television producer. She currently works at Verizon Media. Productions *The Meredith Vieira Show * The Million Second Quiz *The Chew *The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2008–2011The Paley Center for Media"Oprah Winfrey Show, ...

, class of 1984, television producer *

Nicole Petallides Nicole Anais Petallides (born September 20, 1971) is an American journalist who works as an anchor for the online-only TD Ameritrade Network, which is owned and operated by Charles Schwab Corporation as a result of their acquisition of TD Ameri ...

, class of 1984,

Fox Business Network Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American conservative business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios ...

anchor *

Esther Rantzen Dame Esther Louise Rantzen (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter who presented the BBC television series ''That's Life!'' for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes and founded t ...

, class of 1950, broadcaster * Gregory Raposo,

pop singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

, formerly a member of teen

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

Dream Street Dream Street is an American pop music, pop boy band that was formed in 1999 by Louis Baldonieri and Brian Lukow. The band disbanded in 2002 following a legal dispute between parents of the band members and the band's managers. In 2023, the b ...

Amber Scott Amber Scott is an Australian ballet dancer. She was a principal artist at The Australian Ballet before retiring in 2023 after 22 years with the company. Early life Scott was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia. She started dance classes at ...

, former

child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated te ...

(Maggie Banning in ''

Hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...

'') *

Marjory Gengler Marjory Logan Gengler Smith (born May 3, 1951) is an American retired tennis player. In 1973, while a student at Princeton University, she was captain of the women's tennis team and led them to an undefeated season in 1972. She was the top ranke ...

, class of 1965, professional tennis player * William Zinsser, class of 1936, writer and historian

Notable faculty

Roby Young Reuven "Roby" Young (; born 15 May 1942) is a former Israeli international footballer, and captain of Hapoel Haifa. Early life Born on 15 May 1942 in Haifa, Israel, Roby Young was raised (alongside his older brother) by his mother in a small o ...

, former captain of the

Israel national football team The Israel national football team () represents Israel in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Israel Football Association. They have been members of the European Confederation UEFA since 1994. Israel qua ...

Queens College Athletics

References

External links

Buckley homepage

Hagedorn Library Learning CenterBuckley Camp
{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1923 Private elementary schools in New York (state) Schools in Nassau County, New York Private middle schools in New York (state) 1923 establishments in New York (state)