Classes will take place in the morning in a shortened schedule, while Brotherhood Day activities will take place in the afternoon for grade levels that are on campus.

“Brotherhood Wednesdays will include morning classes (they will be shortened to 30 minute classes that will add to the educational experience) and will conclude with some communal onsite experiences and activities that classes will rotate throughout the month,” explained Assistant Head of School for Student Leadership Mr. Ron Algeo.

Brotherhood Days were originally designed as a way to bring classes together at the beginning of the year when students would only come to campus one or two days a week. However, even as many students come in each day, Algeo argues that Brotherhood Days give students a break from classes and time to bond with each other.

“Initially, we felt that Brotherhood Days could help serve an immediate and short term need (pandemic issues of limited space and limited numbers of people gathering) of classes not being able to be together in one location very often,” he said. We want our students to be able to come to school wanting and needing to make a positive impact on their world. They need time and space to be able to do that.”

Assistant Head of School for Academics, Mr. Pat Sillup, sees the schedule change as a way for students and teachers to improve on the flow of classes.

“You have these smaller form classes, shorter timeframes, which are really the spirit of those to review questions that might have surfaced over the course of the week of instruction,” he said. “It’s not a full day, it’s a definite half, but it also allows us to preserve classified experiences there seem to be positive, just finding a way to make those happen, is a challenge.”

Sillup notes that many AP teachers have already used Wednesdays as a chance to give their students extra instruction, and took their ideas on the basis for the new schedule.

“As we were talking to faculty, assessing where they are at, what would this look like the structure piece came from, we already have a class section or sections plural,” he said. “There’re many teachers specifically AP who are already using Wednesdays, in a modified format to review concepts and answer questions.”

As Sillup says, the second half of the day will be for students to connect with each other and teachers in different activities.

“On the back half of those days and rotating features, you would have grades. be on-sight to experience lunch together, mass together in grade-wide assemblies,” he said. “We can talk about big hitting issues that are happening across campus, happening across the globe.”

For Algeo, Brotherhood Days are important for connection within Malvern.

“Celebrating together and learning together are the key elements of Brotherhood at Malvern Prep, and our goal is to provide those kinds of experiences in new ways on Brotherhood Days,” he said.