The Nightingale-Bamford School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

all-female

university-preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

school founded in 1920 by Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford. Located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the we ...

, Nightingale-Bamford is a member of the

New York Interschool The New York Interschool Association Inc., is a consortium of eight independent schools in Manhattan that serves students, teachers, and administration. Overview The Interschool is designed primarily for the coming together of the eight Manhatta ...

consortium.

Overview

Nightingale's Lower School includes grades K-4. Middle School includes grades 5–8, while Upper School includes grades 9–12. As of 2021, Nightingale enrolls 686 students, the student-faculty ratio is 6:1, and the average class size is 12 students. Nightingale is typically ranked among the best all-girls private schools in the United States, and, like many private schools in Manhattan, is ranked as one of the most expensive.

History

Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford founded the school in 1920. NBS was originally named ''Miss Nightingale's School'', officially becoming "The Nightingale-Bamford School" in 1929. Since 1920, NBS has graduated nearly 3,000 alumnae. As of 2008, the School endowment was $74.9 million.

Faculty

Paul Burke has been head of school since July 2012. He succeeded Dorothy Hutcheson, who was head of Nightingale for the prior 20 years.

Technovation Challenge

In April 2013, a team of five upper school students won first place at Technovation Challenge, the world's largest tech competition for girls. The $10,000 prize was used to develop and market their winning app.

Admissions and financial aid

Nightingale-Bamford's admissions process has received media attention for its strict, high-stakes nature. As of the 2020–2021 school year, 20% of the student body received financial assistance with $5.9 million in grants being awarded.

Diversity

Nightingale-Bamford has a diverse community for an independent school with over 30% of the student body being students of color. The school has a program called Cultural Awareness for Everyone, or informally CAFE. CAFE touches on the basis of not only race, but also class, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and age. To keep diversity at the school a priority, Nightingale recruits actively from an inner-city program called Prep for Prep. Prep for Prep is a leadership development program that offers promising students of color access to a private school education based in New York City.

Partner schools

Nightingale-Bamford has no official partner or brother school. However, the school has activities with St. David's and Allen-Stevenson (both boys schools) and is a member of Interschool, which organizes programs and activities for eight New York City independent schools: Trinity, Dalton, Collegiate, Brearley, Chapin, Spence, Nightingale-Bamford, and Browning.

Notable alumnae

Millicent Fenwick Millicent Vernon Hammond Fenwick (February 25, 1910 – September 16, 1992) was an American fashion editor, politician and diplomat. A four-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey, she entered politic ...

, 1928 – politician * Amina Gautier, – author *

Isabel Gillies Isabel Boyer Gillies (born February 9, 1970) is an American author and actress. She played Kathy Stabler, Elliot Stabler's wife in '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''. Her memoir ''Happens Every Day'' was a '' New York Times'' bestseller, and ...

, 1988 – author, actress * Lisa Grunwald, 1977 – novelist *

Mandy Grunwald Madeleine Grunwald (born January 23, 1957) is an American professional political consultant and media advisor for the Democratic Party. Grunwald is one of the few women at the top of the field, having helped elect numerous senators and governors ...

, 1975 – political consultant and

media advisor A media consultant is a marketing agent or public relations executive that is hired by businesses or political candidates to obtain positive press coverage. Media consultants usually draft press releases to highlight positive achievements of a ...

* Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, 1993 –

Fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashio ...

Sophie von Haselberg Sophie Frederica Alohilani von Haselberg (born November 14, 1986) is an American actress, best known for co-starring in the Woody Allen film '' Irrational Man''. Early life and education von Haselberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the d ...

– actress, daughter of Bette Midler *

Renne Jarrett Renne Gail Jarrett (born January 28, 1946) is an American actress. She appeared in TV dramas beginning as a child. Notable TV roles included the title role in the short-lived NBC comedy '' Nancy''. Jarret has made more than 100 commercials, and ...

– actress *

Sakina Jaffrey Sakina Jaffrey (born February 14, 1962) is an American actress. Early life Jaffrey was born in New York City, the youngest daughter of Indian-born parents, actress and food and travel writer Madhur Jaffrey, and actor Saeed Jaffrey. Her parent ...

- actress *

Alexa Ray Joel Alexa Ray Joel (born December 29, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Her parents are singer-songwriter Billy Joel and model Christie Brinkley. Joel released an EP ''Sketches'' (2006) and several singles on independent record ...

– model, daughter of Billy Joel and Christy Brinkley *

Signe Nielsen Signe Nielsen is a landscape architect and a founding principal at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects in New York City, US. She is also a professor of urban design and landscape architecture at Pratt Institute and an active participant in Ne ...

, New York Public Spaces landscape architect

*

Olivia Palermo Olivia Palermo (born February 28, 1986) is an American socialite, fashion influencer, entrepreneur, model and television personality. Palermo gained celebrity status when she sued socialiterank.com for releasing a letter that was proven to be ...

, 2004 –

Socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having tradit ...

and fashion influencer *

Michèle Rosier Michèle Lazareff Rosier (; 3 June 1930 – 2 April 2017) was a French fashion journalist and designer who founded the V de V sportswear label. In addition to this, she worked as a film director and screenwriter since 1973. Early life and educat ...

, 1948 – French fashion journalist *

Beatriz Stix-Brunell Beatriz Eugenia Stix-Brunell (born 1993) is an American ballet dancer. Her career started with Morphoses when she was 14. She joined the Royal Ballet in 2010, was promoted to first soloist in 2016, and retired in 2021. Early life Stix-Brunell ...

– ballet dancer * Sarah Thompson, 1997 – actress *

Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt (born Maria Mercedes Morgan; 23 August 1904 13 February 1965) was an American socialite best known as the mother of fashion designer and artist Gloria Vanderbilt and maternal grandmother of television journalist Anderson ...

, 1921 – socialite *

Cecily von Ziegesar Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar ( ; born June 27, 1970) is an American author best known for the young adult ''Gossip Girl'' series of novels. Early life and education Cecily von Ziegesar was born in New York City into a German noble family. She i ...

, 1988 – author of

Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...

series * Dana (Pam) Wilkey – television personality

In pop culture

*Nightingale-Bamford received mention in the

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

film ''

Everyone Says I Love You ''Everyone Says I Love You'' is a 1996 American musical film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Allen, Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, Tim Roth, Natasha Lyonne and Natalie Portman. Set in New Y ...

''. *In the ''

'' book series by NBS alumna

'88, the character's elite all-girls school,

Constance Billard School for Girls ''Gossip Girl'' is an American young adult novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar and published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group. The series revolves around the lives and romances of the privileged soci ...

, is based on Nightingale-Bamford and the lives of the girls who attend the school. " onstance Billardis completely based on Nightingale," von Ziegesar told ABC News. "But I exaggerated to make it more entertaining." *Nightingale-Bamford is mentioned in the book ''

How I Live Now ''How I Live Now'' is a novel by Meg Rosoff, first published in 2004. It received generally positive reviews and won the British Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the American Printz Award for young-adult literature. Plot Fifteen-year-ol ...

'' by Meg Rosoff. *Mentioned briefly in ''Bunheads'' by

Sophie Flack Sophie Flack (born August 8, 1983) is an author, freelance writer and editor, and former dancer with the New York City Ballet. Early life and education Flack was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, to a family of Jewish background. She moved to ...

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Girls' schools in New York City Private K-12 schools in Manhattan Upper East Side Preparatory schools in New York City 1920 establishments in New York City Educational institutions established in 1920