On November 14, The Panel’s Executive Staff, Alex Laidlaw ’25, T.Z. Snail ’26, and Jaiden Lee ’26, experienced a long-held tradition between the editors of the Panel and Winsor School’s newspaper, the Banner: Switch Day. The trio went to the Winsor School to experience the daily lives of their Executive Staff, Katina Handrinos ’25, Julia Bae ’25, and Anya Weerapana ’25.
We arrived around 7:45 A.M. and immediately noticed a significant difference: the relaxed dress code, much unlike our coat and tie requirement. While students can wear sweatpants, hoodies, and even slippers, most students sport jeans and sweaters, balancing comfort and professionalism. After entering the school, we toured the Senior Homeroom, Windsor’s Senior Commons. Painted at the start of the year by the rising seniors, the room, far more secluded than the Goodband Commons, was filled with couches and chairs. Before the first period started, we also visited a fifth-grade classroom where, every Tuesday and Thursday, seniors went to play board games with the youngest students on campus.
Shadowing the three executives of The Banner, Alex, Jaiden, and T.Z. took various classes. Alex’s schedule included Contemporary British Literature, AP Macroeconomics, Musical Theater, and Senior Spanish Seminar. T.Z. took AB Calculus, Politics of Identity, Musical Theater, and AP Macroeconomics. Jaiden attended Contemporary British Literature, Politics of Identity, Information Science, and AP Macroeconomics.
As we took our seats in our first classes, we noticed several differences compared to Belmont Hill. First, every class had more students than the average Belmont Hill class, with around 15-17 students. Most classrooms had desks instead of a Harkness table; however, similar to ours, seats were arranged circularly so that everyone could see each other during engaging discussions. The classes did not use Promethean boards; they used projectors on whiteboards instead. Lastly, with no bell system, the end of class time was a mystery.
Lasting 75 minutes, Winsor classes operate much like our long blocks. However, Winsor’s longer school day, ending at 2:45, allows for four daily long blocks instead of three. This extra block allows students more freedom in their classes, and many students have more than one long free block. On the day we visited, Anya only had two classes, meaning she had two and a half hours of free time. Much like our long blocks, the extra time allowed classes to be much more productive and fostered in-depth discussions. Most classes were primarily activity-based, with students being active leaders. Politics of Identity and Musical Theater were especially student-driven, with almost no teacher intervention.
After the first class period, we attended Assembly. Functioning much like our Chapels, Assemblies last 50 minutes every Thursday and feature a variety of programming. The Assembly began with an impressive dance number performed by the cast of the school musical. Then, they moved to the main event, where a student panel interviewed a Winsor alumna about identity and the first-generation experience as children of immigrants. Comparing the experience to a BH Chapel, we noticed that Winsor students asked more questions than BH students tended to. Additionally, we noticed that the youngest students sat at the front of the theater.
One of the benefits of Winsor’s urban campus is the school’s vicinity to many nearby shops and stores, allowing students to grab non-school food if they wanted to. During our visit, The Banner Execs took us to Panera during their lunch block.
Ultimately, the Panel-Banner Switch Day was a fun, educational experience for our Executive Staff as they experienced the life of a Winsor student and observed the many differences between all-boys and girls prep schools. The Panel would like to thank everyone who organized this event, especially The Banner’s editors. We hope this tradition will continue for future generations of Panel and Banner editors!
Indresh Chandel