From the Headmaster

Our CCES community welcomes you. I trust that you will be impressed with the quality of the school: its people, programs, and plant. The campus is beautiful. Its 72 acres integrate the natural gifts of the landscape with classroom buildings, athletic facilities, and a centrally located chapel that provides the fulcrum for community life. When you step foot on our campus, you will encounter happy people—students, teachers, staff, and parents. Visitors are likely to be greeted by students and escorted to their destinations by members of the school community. The happiness quotient at the school results from caring and honest relationships. Students and teachers alike openly enjoy learning and strive to make the most of every day.

Every student finds bountiful opportunities for achievement at CCES. We offer a carefully coordinated P (K)-12 curriculum ensuring seamless continuity and opportunities for students to experience success. Our programs induce students to test new capacities and discover aptitudes. Eighty-four percent of 119 students, who took 218 Advanced Placement exams, earned a 3 or better. Our IB pass rate over a decade is 97%. Drama and musical productions abounded in 2010-11: the Upper School staged a spectacular production of “Hello Dolly.” Thirty percent of the Middle School student body participated in the spring musical “The King and I.” It is noteworthy that the lead male role was performed by an eighth-grader who had never participated in a production.

On the athletic front, 80% of seventh through twelfth graders participated in an interscholastic sport. CCES earned the South Carolina Director’s Cup for most points in sports competition in Class 1A in the South Carolina High School Athletic League for the 20th straight year. Four teams earned state championships, including a fourth straight in girls’ tennis and an eleventh straight in boys’ varsity soccer, a national record.

Students play leadership roles in student government, honor council, student vestry, and chapel services. They are involved in clubs, affinity groups of various kinds, and service organizations in large numbers. They manage and direct literary publications and newspapers, affording them the opportunity to learn the pleasure of teamwork as well as the sense of accomplishment of solitary pursuits. Students often arrive early in the morning and leave after a ballgame or a rehearsal in the evening, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment and personal fulfillment.

The quality that stands out at CCES is the development of habits—academic, ethical, spiritual, social, and work—that are incorporated into students’ daily lives, that persist for a lifetime, and that pay huge dividends after graduation. These habits emerge out of the daily routines our students pursue. Through practice, students learn how to study. They acquire time management skills. They develop expository writing competency. The satisfaction of service to others is a social habit that shapes behavior for a lifetime. Our students, irrespective of their religious backgrounds and outlooks on faith, learn spiritual disciplines as methods of providing perspective on life. The weekly practice of chapel services confers on all students the value of silence, prayer, ritual, and community togetherness. Our culture endorses courtesy, honorable behavior, and cooperation.

I welcome you to our community and look forward to meeting you when you visit our beautiful campus.

Yours very truly,

Dr. Leonard Kupersmith
Headmaster 

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