​Maggie Bibby ‘26 attempts to corral her little brother, or for a day, her little backpack and get him to stand still while the judges vote for the best “backpacks” brought in on Anything-But-A-Backpack Day. Meanwhile, Julia Cepfus ‘28 buckles up her books in a pretty pink stroller. On Oct. 18, students got creative. They brought in all sorts of things including traffic cones, mop buckets, tires, shopping carts, strollers and even a baby, to use as make-shift backpacks. “It was fun because it was something new,” Bibby said. “We got to do something we haven’t done before, it was more interactive.” Anything-But-A-Backpack Day is definitely different from anything NCS has done in the past for spirit week. Thankfully, Allie Kier, interim director of the Upper school, allowed the students to enjoy this very unique spirit day. Perhaps next year a student will bring in a puppy as their “backpack,” after all, there’s already been babies for backpacks. 

    On Nov. 12 during morning assembly, the upper school students had the privilege of having Dr. Shannon Farris, Assistant Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, speak about what neuroscience is and what she and her team do at the research institute. Somewhere in the middle of her speech, I remember hearing her mention the importance of sleep and its connection to both learning and retaining information effectively. This got me thinking; would I do better in school if I slept more?
As highschool students, we often face the dilemma of having too much to do and not enough hours in the day. Many students at North Cross participate in sports and other extracurricular activities on top of all their school work. Between going from school to sports or to extracurriculars and then home to do homework, scarf down a meal and take a shower, time can be scarce. This can lead to getting to bed at an ungodly hour, which will only make such a busy daily routine even more difficult for students to maintain.  
The article “Nightly Sleep is Key to Student Success” from Carnegie Mellon University talked about a study done at CMU which looked at the connection between sleep and academic performance among college students. The study found that the students on average “sleep 6.5 hours per night, but negative outcomes accumulate when students received less than six hours.” However, the article states that “sleep guidelines recommend teenagers get eight to10 hours of sleep every night.” The Center for Disease Control recommends that teenagers get eight to ten hours of sleep per night. Contrary to that information, the CDC states that a nation-wide study on high school students found that “about 7 out of 10 (72.7%) did not get enough sleep on school nights.” The CDC states that “children and adolescents who do not get enough sleep have a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental health, and problems with attention and behavior.”
The Office of Neuroscience Research at Washington University in St. Louis published the article “More sleep leads to better grades and well-being.” The article notes that in a study by Tim Bono, PhD, lecturer in psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, found that, “students who get a good night’s sleep night in and night out earn higher marks and feel a stronger sense of well-being than those with fluctuating sleep schedules.” Another study he did found that “the students who reported the most stable, consistent sleep patterns earned a GPA of 3.66, on average, while the students with the most variable sleep earned a GPA of 3.21. Students with regular sleep patterns also reported higher levels of well-being. These effects held even when controlling for SAT scores and baseline happiness.” 
Dr. Farris shared her knowledge of the connection between sleep and performance through an email she sent me.“Sleep is required for our brains to function, although the exact reasons for this are not entirely clear. There are some recent studies in rodents that give us hints as to why sleep is important for central nervous system function. Firstly, during sleep (or when under anesthesia), the fluid flow in the brain and spinal cord increases, and it’s been proposed that this increase in flow cleans the cellular debris generated throughout the day from our brains. This is consistent with why brain disorders (anxiety, depression, dementia) can be caused or exacerbated by a lack of sleep (without sleep, junk and debris build up and make brain functioning more difficult). Secondly, a very recent study showed that the more synaptic plasticity that occurs (changes in the strength of synaptic connections that is the molecular basis of memory) the more delta oscillations are generated, which are low frequency waves that promote restful sleep. Thus, the more you learn, the more your brain is driven to sleep! So, I would argue that quality and length of sleep should correlate with learning performance. However, learning has to occur—so sleep alone will not make you smarter, but sleeping after learning certainly will. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 8-10 hours of sleep for every 24 hours for teenagers.”
A possible solution to help students improve the amount of sleep they get could be by starting the school day off later. If the school day started at 8:30 or 8:45, perhaps students would do better in class having gotten more sleep. I was fortunate enough to spend a year in New Zealand and experience going to a school there. While there, I attended New Plymouth Girls’ High. It was very different, but a huge difference was that over there, school started at 8:40 am and ended at 3:20 pm. I not only got to sleep more, but I felt more energetic throughout the day. Perhaps if North Cross School followed a similar schedule, students would have better concentration and participation in class, on the sports fields, and in their extracurriculars throughout the day. 
I understand that transportation is something to consider when revising school start times. However, if parents or caregivers had to drop off students earlier in the day, the students would be able to complete their assignments in the time before school starts and catch up on sleep the night before, saving 30 minutes or so of work to do before class starts in the morning. 
A concern teachers might have due to the later start in the school day might be having to shorten classes. However, having experienced going to a school that started later, I can safely say that the 30 or so start time difference does not have a sizable impact on class at all. After all, it is a seven hour school day and I don’t think cutting out 1/14 of the school day is really going to affect the amount students learn a day. I honestly believe that a well rested student will learn more in a shorter amount of time then a tired one would learn in a longer amount of time. 
Finally, the question that may be pressing a critic’s mind; how do we know that students are using the extra time to sleep instead of scrolling the internet or goofing off. The answer; you don’t. It is up to students to be responsible and go to bed at a reasonable hour when possible. Perhaps a good idea would be to have students who have grades below the acceptable level to have to come to school earlier to study and complete late assignments until their grades go up. This way the students who are taking advantage of the later start will be able to get more sleep and those who are not will have extra time to get their work done. 
If changing school start times is not a possible solution, there are other ways for students to get their much-needed hours of sleep. For starters, if students get off the screen at the right time, they might go to bed earlier and even experience a better quality of sleep. The Sleep Foundation states that “Electronic back-lit devices like cell phones, tablets, readers, and computers emit short-wavelength enriched light, also known as blue light…. Blue light can also reduce the amount of time you spend in slow-wave and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, two stages of the sleep cycle that are vital for cognitive functioning.”
Students could also try to increase their productivity while in the classroom so that they do not have to bring as much work home with them. However, this all comes back to the amount of sleep students get at night. If a student is not getting enough sleep at night it will be much harder to concentrate and be productive in class. This means students will end up having to take the work home and possibly lose sleep because of it, completing the detrimental circle of sleep deprivation. Whatever it is that a student does to improve their sleep routine, it is important to remember that sleep does not just affect whether or not a student comes to school with dark circles under their eyes, it affects their grades and overall well being. 

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Raiders Girls Varsity Cross Country is ready, we’ve trained all season for this moment, our moment to shine at the VISAA state championship race. This was a big race for the girls, especially for senior team captain, the great Kerrigan Chaney. Chaney 25’ had already won this race the past two years and on Nov. 8 she set out successfully for her three-peat, winning her final NCS cross country race, but for the first time, with a team.“For Kerrigan, for Kerrigan, for Kerrigan.” Ainsley Myles‘27, me, Kaitlyn Perkins ‘28, Lizzie Carter ‘29, Lilian Philips ‘29, Madison Ball ‘29, and Olivia Ball ‘29 chanted and fist-bumped as we waited anxiously to start the race. It was Chaney’s last cross country race with the NCS girls. She deserved a team win to solidify her legacy. She doesn’t need another gold medal to add to her too-many -to-count collection. What she needed was the memory of leading her team of girls to their first ever state championship, and she did. “It felt really good to win [as a team],” Chaney admitted, “I cried when I found out we won.” Photo by Karen Perkins

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By Kaitlyn Perkins

Coming in at lighting speed Spencer Britton ‘27 ran a time of 16:29 at this year’s Knights Crossing meet, setting an NCS 5k record for that race. Shortly after breaking this record, he went on to set a new personal and school record  on the Allegheny course, clocking in at 16:03. 
 
Despite it being Spencer’s first season on the Raider’s Cross Country team, he has already contributed so much, helping the varsity boys place 3rd out of 27 teams at Knights Crossing.

“Spencer just brings a good positive energy to the running environment that we are always happy to have,” teammate Harry Anderson ‘25 said, “and it's good to have someone to push with.” 

“He's helping us do what we're going to do all season,” teammate Josh Miao ‘25 remarked, “and he’s just a great guy to run with.”  
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​As far as training goes, he certainly pushes his teammates to be their best, although no one can keep up with him. 
  
Coach Ed Dickenson had more than a few complimentary words about the team’s newest recruit.
 
“Spencer Britton has been a fantastic addition to our varsity XC team. Last year, he ran 16:48 for the 5k and recorded a 4:32 mile during the track season, and even before he joined our team, I could see he possessed enormous potential and drive. He fully embraces the training process, and I love his enthusiasm and friendly nature. After only training with our cross country runners for a few practices, he seemed to almost immediately become a wonderful part of the fabric of our program, as if he had been with us for years. He has already put in a major performance this fall, finishing second at Knights Crossing and setting a new school record of 16:29. It will be incredibly exciting to watch his progression as he moves through the rest of the season.”

This season, the Cross Country team is striving for a win at States, and with Britton in the top five, there's certainly a chance. At the previous Knights Crossing meet, he helped boys varsity place 3rd overall and came in 2nd individually out of 220 other varsity boys. At the Bengal’s Clash meet, Britton helped the boys varsity place 2nd overall and most recently he contributed to a 4th place and 5th place finish respectively at the Clash of the Titans and Alleghany meets.

Spencer got into Cross Country because of his dad, Coach Jeff Britton, who’s now an assistant coach on the team, and who also ran in high school. When asked who his greatest role model is he said his dad. Coach Britton is a big part of Spencer’s training, he coaches Spencer and gives him weekly training programs to maximize his speed and endurance. Now Spencer is carrying on Coach Britton’s running legacy as he takes to the hills at lightning speed. 

Spencer transferred from Glenver to North Cross this year for academics and athletics. He noted that the teachers at North Cross really care about the students and that’s one of his favorite things about our school. Spencer mentioned that his English teacher, Emily Mountcastle has been an especially good teacher. 

“Spencer has improved the class by his thoughtful contributions to class discussions.” Mouncastle told me. “He is smart and provides great insights.” 

Spencer is looking forward to participating in indoor and outdoor track. He aspires to be a professional runner in the future and would love to be featured in the 1500m at the Olympics. His current 1600m time is 4:32. He also hopes to beat his dad’s PR in the 1600m race by running a time of 4:05. Currently, Spencer is working on getting a PR of a sub-16 minute 5k. 
 
Spencer can be spotted hanging around campus with his teammates, Finn Chaney ‘28,  Justus Horner ‘28  and Peter Anderson ‘28. You might spot him in the cafeteria on mac and cheese day, as that is his favorite food. You may see him running around campus, just make sure not to blink, or you might miss him. If you do get the opportunity to say hi to him, you should because his friends and teammates Finn and Jacob have nothing but good things to say about him. 

“Just meeting with him was an instant connection, there wasn't any problems trying to get with cool him,” notes teammate Jacob Johnson ‘25. “He is always straight up and is always cool about everything. He’s just been a great teammate, a great support system, and a great person to face off with.” 

Finn Chaney ‘27 sums Spencer’s character up nicely. 
“He's a lot of fun and he's really dedicated to the sport.”

If you don’t have a chance to meet him he’s got TikTok, SpencerRuns. 

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Learning Our Nation's Values:                                      
North Cross School strives to incorporate the values our founding fathers instilled in our country through the Constitution. This photo shows the Preamble of our nation’s Constitution, and demonstrates what the NCS students are taught in advisory. On Sept. 19 in advisory, students in the Upper School learned what it means to be a perfect union; having  justice, tranquility, a common defense, welfare, liberty and posterity. Each advisory class read over the preamble of the Constitution together and then played a constitution themed Kahoot. “We the people [in order to form a more perfect union . . . ]of the United States,”  science teacher Mrs. Dickinson’s ninth grade advisory class sang harmoniously, reciting the Preamble of the Constitution. One of the main reasons NCS implements advisory once a week is to teach students about how we can improve our school by honoring school values including integrity, courage and honor. By carrying out our nation's values in school, we can ensure that all students feel equal, trust each other, and experience happiness and fulfillment at NCS. 

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