The ninth-grade banner is the result of months of planning, designing, and constructing.  The final presentation and parade encompass the energy and creativity of the grade and honor previous banners. 

The banner begins its journey every fall during the freshman retreat, when students meet one another and get acquainted with the upper school. The retreat concludes with proposals for a banner, which are then eliminated until the final banner theme is chosen. 

The final design is then passed to the “Architects” and “Engineers” who create a final blueprint and plan for the needed fabric. The Cutters and Sewers assemble the materials and create the banner. The Marketing & Fundraising committee plans bake sales and fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for the final presentation. Event Planners and Costume Designers figure out what to wear, what music should be played, and what the Banner Day sweatshirt should look like. 

In preparation for this year’s banner reveal, we’ve gathered below introductions of each grade’s banner theme, the process, and opinions regarding the final product. 

Freshman banner theme: You will know soon! 

Ms. Greco said, “It’s whimsical and magical and we are thinking more outside the box than in previous years.”

Sabrina Cohen ‘26 said, “Our grade put a lot of effort into the banner design and creation, although we were equally partial to other themes like a red car, or the Queen of Hearts.”

Violet Zhang ‘26 said, “After we settled on the banner design, all the different committees got to work. The problem was we had less time than we actually thought we did, and it was a struggle getting a lot of people to help sew/cut fabric.”

“This delayed the actual process of making the banner, and we had to be given a lot of motivation. I think we really pulled it together, and we have a really great banner. Our banner demonstrates who we are as a class,” Zhang added.

Sophomore banner theme: Monet’s Water Lilies

The Class of 2025 had a variety of ideas: northern lights, a jungle, Kermit the Frog, edamame, Shrek, and even Mike Wazowski. They ended up choosing Monet’s Water Lilies to be their final design. Throughout the process, there was trouble replicating the famous bridge design, and getting the banner done in time. 

Mindy Zhang ‘25 said, “We had to extend our deadline a couple of times. Eventually, a few people decided to do our banner, staying after school to finish it.”

Shifa Sayeed ‘25 said, “The final design was easy to put together because it was an easy, natural way to get all of the class colors involved and the shapes were not too complex to cut out. Some conflicts had to be factored in when deciding between the bridge painting and the northern lights theme.”

Sayeed concluded, “I personally think the final design turned out amazing since most [people] put the best of their abilities into making the whole banner come together.”

Junior banner theme: Astronauts

The Class of 2024 had two key ideas they wanted to include in their banner: three Baldwin girls and the idea of space. Ensuring everyone’s voices were heard was a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the restrictions on meeting as an entire grade. 

Jade Davenport ‘24 said, “I think most of the designs tried to keep with the theme of the three Baldwin students on the banner and our class color as the background and all the other colors incorporated, but there were a bunch of different iterations. There were a couple of them in space, the Baldwin girls in astronaut costumes but not actually in space. People wanted to do regular Baldwin girls in space or people in astronaut costumes in space.”

Senior banner theme: School bus in a field of sunflowers

The Class of 2023 were torn between two outstanding ideas: a school bus and a field of sunflowers. Instead of choosing one, the class decided to combine the two— a school bus in a field of sunflowers. There were sunflowers for each person in the grade. Other ideas were Minions/gold coins. Although not everybody agreed with the final banner idea and there was active discussion, the final result was something that everyone was proud of.

Makenna Walko ‘23 said, “There were definitely a lot of strong opinions and different ideas people wanted to incorporate. We were able to talk through, collaborate, and combine a lot of it to create a cohesive banner day theme. I feel like we were able to tie in a lot of different ideas.”

Lauren Brown ‘23 believes students should be able to give more input throughout the entire design process. She said, “[The people making the banner] should hold off on presenting it and have at least two weeks with the final draft of it, and bring everybody back together and say, ‘Okay, this is where we are at now, what changes can we make,’ so everyone can vote.”