BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

50 Years of Excellence at The Briarwood School

By Abbie Seay, The Briarwood School, School Buzz Editor | May 10, 2017

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The Class of 2017 ladies pose with the 50th year bronze mustang. (Back row, from left) Alex Day, Abbie Seay, Allie Klein, Christina Lauritsen, Sarah Driscoll, Katrina Day, Sarah Cate Jones, Abby Reichert; (front row, from left) Elyssa Eversole, Hope Schultz and Shelly Schaffer. (Photo: Annie Seay)

2017 has been an exciting year for The Briarwood School as we are celebrating the school’s 50th year. Briarwood began in Memorial Drive Baptist Church in 1967 with eight students and two teachers. The first graduating class was only six students.

This year’s Class of 2017 is the largest ever to graduate with a total of 29 seniors. The 50th year celebration has been incorporated throughout the school year. Our annual gala theme was, “Building on Our Legacy and Embracing Our Future.” Another big event for the school was the donation of an 8-foot bronze mustang proudly on display outside of the school’s front door. The parents of the late Brian Boles, who graduated from the school, donated it in his memory.

Every year the school changes, but it changes for the better. Teachers continue to be highly trained in methodology that works with LD students; teachers instruct in the way that students learn best. Whether it is with student life or academics, The Briarwood School administrators work to make the school a better place for students, teachers and staff.

Celebrities like Woody Harrelson and Henry Winkler have walked the halls of The Briarwood School and some have even attended the school. Woody Harrelson was a Briarwood student when he was a child. “Briarwood changed my life,” Woody told the student body last spring. He reminisced about his time in Lower School as he advised students to find their passions, their strengths and to embrace their own learning differences.

If you were to walk the halls of The Briarwood School, one mantra you would hear regularly is “Trust the Process.” The school’s philosophy is “Every child can learn and has the right to be taught in the way that he or she learns best.” Because parents have trusted the process for 50 years, students’ lives have been changed.