Buddies

Across grade levels, students are assigned buddies with whom they participate in organized activities.  This buddy system of older and younger students paired together for both fun and academic activities creates role models and life-long friends. Every kindergarten student is paired with a fourth and eighth grade buddy who have themselves been buddies since they were in kindergarten and fourth grade.


Kindergarten Birthday Bell

The bell tower atop Harding’s kindergarten building is host to one of the most memorable traditions for children. On their birthday (or half birthday for children who do not have their special day fall during the school year) every kindergarten child rings the bell the number of times as their age. Parents and siblings are invited to join the celebration which is concluded by classmates cheering. As the bell rings throughout campus and the neighborhood, everyone knows that someone is turning 6 or 7!

Graduation Bricks

Harding Academy's outdoor classroom contains rows of bricks inscribed with the name and class year of each individual graduate.  Every spring, the bricks of that year's graduating class are installed, enabling eighth graders to enjoy their brick every day until graduation.  The graduation bricks remain an important campus destination for alumni upon return visits to campus and are the core of the middle school's outdoor classroom.

Rose Ceremony

The day before Harding’s graduation each year is perhaps the most touching ceremony to conclude a student’s time at Harding. In the rose ceremony, each eighth grader and his or her buddy meet each other in the middle of the graduation stage. Eighth graders are presented with a rose from their buddy as a symbolic gesture of the kindergartner carrying on the Harding traditions and community code after their buddy has graduated.