The Bishop's School is an independent college preparatory Episcopal day school in La Jolla, a community in San Diego, California. The school offers courses for students in the sixth through twelfth grades and has an 8:1 student-teacher ratio.
The earliest parts of the campus were designed by architect Irving Gill, responsible for a multitude of buildings in La Jolla. The current tower building was designed by Carleton Winslow as a replacement for the original Gill tower.
Bishop's became co-educational after merging with the nearby San Miguel School in 1971 under the leadership of headmaster Philip Perkins.[citation needed] The boarding department was closed after the 1982–1983 school year.[3]
The school expanded to include sixth grade in the fall of 2009,[4] with the first cohort graduating in 2016.[5]
The school in 1968
School structure
The Bishop's School has consistently been named a top private school both nationally and in California.[6][7][8][9]
The Wall Street Journal recognized Bishop's in 2007 for its high matriculation rate to eight selective American colleges,[10] and CBS recognized the school in 2011 noting Bishop's had higher matriculation rates to east-coast selective colleges than Deerfield Academy.[11] The College Board'sAdvanced Placement program ranked the AP Biology program the strongest in the nation for two consecutive years (2004 and 2005), as Bishop's achieved the highest rate of achievement for medium-sized schools (300–799 students).[12][13] As of 2023, Bishop’s remained ranked as the top Christian high school in California.[14]
Extracurricular activities
Arts
The school offers physical arts programs in drawing and pottery as well as performance arts in theater, musical instruments, and choir. One of school's Choirs, known as The Bishop’s Singers, have performed in New York's Carnegie Hall[15] and in Chicago's Symphony Hall.[16]
Athletics
The school (known in competition as the "Knights") has 36 upper school and 31 middle school teams, with 80% of upper school students play on at least one sports team.[17]
Bishop's is known for its athletics prowess, holding more than 118 California Interscholastic Federation titles.[18] The school has won numerous state titles in men's water polo (2002-2006, 2008, 2010, 2019–2021), women's water polo (2000-2002, 2004–2007, 2011–2018, 2020–2022), men's football (1997, 2010).[19]
After graduation, 20% of students continue to play sports in college.[18]
Academic League
The Bishop's Academic League team participates in the Northern division of the City League. The Bishop's Academic League team has placed first in San Diego County for several years including in 2015, 2016, 2019, and 2023.[20]
Mock Trial
The Bishop's Mock Trial team won the San Diego County championship in 2010–2012, 2014, and 2015.[21]
Speech and debate team
The Bishop's School Speech and Debate team competes in Congressional debate, Parliamentary debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and various individual speech events.[22]
Advanced Topics in Economics
The Bishop's School began offering advanced economics classes in 2015. The work product of the class relating to the consumer price index across income levels was presented to the Dallas Federal Reserve.[citation needed] In 2017, members of the class won first place in the country at both the Stanford and Harvard Pre-collegiate Economics Competitions.[23]
Model UN Team
The Bishop's Model United Nations (MUN) team has participated in regional and national MUN conferences for over two decades. The team has won numerous awards, most recently at the Columbia Model United Nations Conference and Exposition, the UCSD Triton MUN conference and the USD MUN conference.[citation needed] The Secretariat of the Bishop's MUN team also hosts an annual conference for other high schoolers, dubbed KnightsMUN, every December.[citation needed] In 2019, over 150 participants from 20 schools across Southern California attended the conference.[24] Due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, the 2020 KnightsMUN conference was virtually hosted on Zoom.[25]
Campus
The Quad and surrounding buildings: Bentham Hall, St. Mary's Chapel, and the Tower
The Bishop's School's 11-acre campus[26] is located in the heart of La Jolla.[27] At the center of the campus is a grassy quadrangle, where tradition prohibits anyone from setting foot on "the quad" before noon.[28]
The original campus surrounds the quad and includes buildings dating back to the turn of the twentieth century with many original buildings designed by famed architect Irving Gill, one of the pioneers of the modern movement in architecture.[29] The school has been acquisitive of the surrounding real-estate, expanding the initial campus significantly over more than a century.[30] Additions have included a science center,[31] a football and field athletics center, and an aquatic center.[32] The school has further plans to expand the campus.[33]
The campus in its entirety was designated a historical landmark in 1998,[34] with several buildings gaining individual historical standing of significance over the years starting in 1994: Bentham Hall (Irving Gill, 1909), Scripps Hall (Irving Gill, 1910–11), Gilman Hall (Irving Gill and Louis Gill, 1916), St. Mary's Chapel (Carleton Winslow, 1916), The Tower (Carleton Winslow, 1930), Wheeler J. Bailey Library (Carleton Winslow, 1935), and gardens.
Anna Frances O'Hare Bentham was appointed the inaugural headmistress.[citation needed]
Philip Perkins, who served as headmaster till his retirement in 1974 [citation needed]
Dorothy Anne Williams was appointed headmistress. [citation needed]
Michael Teitelman was appointed headmaster.[43] He retired in 2016[44]
Aimeclaire Lambert Roche was appointed head of school.[45] During her time as head of school, Roche served as the President of the Association of Independent Schools.[46]
In 2018, longtime Bishops’ administrator Carol Barry was appointed interim head of school when Aimeclaire Lambert Roche retired.[47]
In 2019, Ron Kim was appointed the permanent headmaster.[48][49]
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