The American School in London

Summer Break is officially here, and we’re already missing our students—as well as the many wonderful employees who moved on from ASL to exciting new adventures over the course of the 2025–26 school year. Read our post (https://bit.ly/3SaXGdh) to find out who left the School this year. We have so much to thank each of them for, and will miss them dearly as we wish them all the best in their next chapters. Please keep in touch, and remember: Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. 🧡🦅

There’s only ONE day left until summer, Eagles… ☀️ No matter where you’ll be or what you’ll be up to over the coming months, there’s one thing that binds our whole community together: a love of summer reading!

Our middle schoolers recently got a head start at their last quiz bowl assembly of the year, playing a life-size version of “Roll… Read. Repeat!” as MC’d by “Mr. Monopoly” herself, a.k.a. Ms. Fox! (Swipe for more photos of the giant gameboard in action, plus some shots of our younger readers testing it out for themselves in the Lower School Library! 🎲📚)

We have fantastic summer reading resources and challenges available for everyone this year! Look online for divisional resources and challenges—very happy reading this summer, Eagles!

Caps off to the Class of 2026! 🎓 We’re still buzzing from the excitement and emotion of this past weekend’s beautiful Commencement ceremony in the heart of Westminster. The love that the Class of 2026 shares with one another was on full display on Saturday, and while you all may be done with your years as ASL students, we know that the bonds you all have built here will last a lifetime. We ♥️ the Class of 2026, and miss you already here on Waverley Place, where the halls feel a bit too quiet without you! (Don’t forget to stop by and let us know what you’re up to every now and then!) 📸 Some Commencement photos are up on Eagle Photos already—keep an eye out for more in the coming weeks.

Roll out the red carpet… Monday evening brought the 21st annual ASL Film Festival to Everyman Cinema for an evening of student-made film and fascinating discussion! Seven short films, all of which were entirely written, directed, shot, acted, and edited by students, were featured, and all in all, more than 30 high schoolers took part in this year’s movie magic.

Mark Mazzenga, a high school English teacher and co-producer of the festival alongside visual arts teacher Erik Niemi, had this to say: “It was a night of gore—lots of people lost fingers in the movies; it was kind of a running theme—as well as passion and pathos.”

Monday’s attendees were also treated to a moderated conversation between Patrick McKay P ’33 ’35, a seasoned television writer and producer (and, recently, showrunner of the Amazon Prime series ‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’) and ASL alumna Isabel Daly ’15, a screenwriter and director whose debut feature film, ‘Washed Up,’ recently premiered at BFI Flare! 🎞️ Thanks to all who played a role in making this year’s ASL Film Festival such a hit!

What does university-level research look like in high school? Look no further than the Learning Commons today, where our 15 Advanced Independent Research Colloquium (AIRC) students have been presenting their year-long independent research projects in scientific and social science topics. Sam Guider, teacher of the science section, shared, “I was really blown away by the ideas that came into the class this year—in terms of passion, ingenuity, and breadth. There were projects ranging from environmental sustainability to genetic engineering to cancer research to solar panel optimization—all so aligned with what our society needs to make sense of in the natural world right now.”

Laurel Waterhouse, who teaches the social sciences section of AIRC, said that, this year, her students' projects covered an incredible range of topics, from the way dietary guidelines are presented, to recent geopolitics, to artistic representations of beauty across cultures.

To reach this point, seniors in the two sections have spent a full school year conducting literature reviews, formulating project proposals, and researching independently—with final projects culminating in 50+ page papers for the social studies cohort, and extensive scientific posters for the science crew. 👏 Consider us deeply impressed… and grateful to get to hear from these student researchers!