Ravenscroft School is a coed independent private school located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The school enrolls students between PreKindergarten and 12th grade, and serves 1,254 students. The school has three divisions: Lower School, Middle School and Upper School.
Ravenscroft is named for John Stark Ravenscroft, the first Episcopal bishop of North Carolina and first rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. The idea of a parish school for Christ Episcopal Church was born when Josiah Ogden Watson bequeathed $5,000 to the church to employ a teacher for a new parish school in 1852. His silent bequest became known in 1862, and the church began the process of opening a new school – Ravenscroft School. Founded in 1862, Ravenscroft continued under the auspices of Christ Episcopal Church until 1966 when it became non-sectarian. Housed in locations such as Raleigh's Christ Church, St. Saviour's Chapel and on Tucker Street, Ravenscroft moved to its current location in 1969 with plans to expand to include a high school. At the same time, in 1969, Ravenscroft graduated the last 8th grade class from the Tucker Street. In 1971, the dedication of the Middle School and Upper School took place and, in 1973, Ravenscroft School graduated its first class of seniors.
Ravenscroft Private school Raleigh NC
Academics
Ravenscroft is an independent, co-educational college preparatory day school enrolling 1,254 students, pre-K through grade 12.[2] Ravenscroft employs more than 250 faculty and staff.[citation needed]
The elementary school (referred to as the Lower School) has approximately 460 students ranging in grades from pre-K to 5th grade.
The Middle School at Ravenscroft serves approximately 300 students in grades 6th through 8th. The Middle School operates on an eight-day cycle, during which each course meets six times with a long session.
The high school (referred to as the Upper School) has over 470 students.[2] In the 2019-20 school year, 273 students took 558 advanced placement exams.[2] The Upper School operates on an eight-day cycle, during which each course meets 6 times. Each student has a study hall built into their schedule.
Fine arts
Arts education includes Band, Choir, Drama, Strings, Visual Arts, Photography, Lower School Ensembles and Group Violin, as well as private lessons made available to students of all ages. Facilities include the 454-seat Jones Theatre and a 180-seat "black-box" Young People's Theatre, as well as numerous studios and practice rooms.
Athletics
Ravenscroft School football field and track
Ravenscroft's Athletic department offers 25 sports (boys and girls), and fields 53 teams in those sports at the Middle School, junior varsity and varsity levels. More than 80 percent of Ravenscroft students in grades 7–12 participate in school-sponsored athletics. The school mascot is a Raven named Edgar, after Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven.
Facilities include: Aquatic Center with 6 lanes and upper deck viewing, 4 gyms, fitness and weight training facility, 3 lighted stadiums, 6 lighted tennis courts, 8-lane rubberized track, 2 wrestling rooms.
Ravenscroft is a member of the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA) and competes in the 4A division.[3]
NCISAA Championships
2016 NCISAA Girls' Swimming State Champions (4th time in a row)
^Maupin, Armistead (2017). Logical Family: A Memoir. London, U.K.: Penguin. p. 17. ISBN9780857523518. Since I was born in Washington, D.C., while Daddy was skippering a minesweeper in the Pacific, some of the kids at Ravenscroft School said that made me a Yankee.
