Welcome from the Head of School
Dear Prospective Parents and Guardians,
Welcome, and congratulations: You have discovered a pre-K-8 school unlike any other!
How so? As any current Burgundy parent or student can attest, Burgundy students love to come to school each day. At our Alexandria campus, a former dairy farm, every indoor learning area opens to outdoor space and woods. Nature is our laboratory for hands-on science and an ideal setting for active learning projects, whether at the Barn, pond, or stream in Alexandria, or at our 500-acre Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies in West Virginia.
The Burgundy Family, like our campus, is a beautiful, colorful tapestry. Students, approximately one-third of diverse backgrounds, learn to celebrate both their differences and their commonalities. Our graduates, confident, articulate students who are comfortable in their own skins, thrive in a range of exceptional college preparatory high schools and universities and a range of professions.
What is the magic? It is more than our campus and diversity. Burgundy embodies the phrases learning comes alive and joy in learning. At the core of our program’s success are:
- a challenging, engaging, integrated academic program;
- excellent teachers who know and love their students and their craft; and
- a close educational collaboration between families and the school.
At Burgundy, we live, as we have for 60 years, the tenets of holistic, developmental teaching and personal care. We have always taught the whole child. Many schools today avow student-centeredness and individualized instruction, diversity and multiculturalism, and environmental and global awareness as central to their missions. At Burgundy, these values were cornerstones of our school’s founding, and we continue to model them!
We invite you to visit our unique Alexandria campus to experience for yourself the magic of Burgundy!
Sincerely,
Jeff Sindler
Head of School
Read more about the head of school »
Jeff Sindler, Head of School
Before coming to Burgundy, Jeff served as headmaster for ten years at Baltimore’s St. Ignatius Loyola Academy, a tuition-free middle school for boys from low income backgrounds. The school specialized in providing a whole child-centered, pre-college prep education to boys who normally would not aspire to college.
Following graduation from Duke University, Jeff served as an administrator, teacher, coach, dorm parent and alumni director at his alma mater, McDonogh School (Baltimore), and the Kinkaid School (Houston). He taught and coached for a year in the Baltimore City Public Schools. Jeff earned a master’s degree with honors from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. He has taken coursework recently with the Johns Hopkins program for Educational Leadership in Independent Schools, as well as independent school leadership workshops with NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) and ISM (Independent School Management). Jeff was a founding board member of the Washington DC SEED Public Charter Boarding School and has consulted with several start-up schools that serve urban and at-risk students.
Jeff’s educational philosophy honors the individual needs of each learner and focuses on meeting students where they are socially and academically, building on their previous learning and life experiences. Jeff is a great advocate of differentiated instruction and project-based learning. He plans to guide Burgundy into a position of leadership in progressive education and environmental science, as well as a model for diversity and collaboration.
Jeff and his wife, Tee, their daughter Tonasia (Burgundy ’07), and their dog Luke live near Springfield. Jeff has two adoptive sons, Ed, 25, and David, 24, St. Ignatius and Georgetown Prep alumni, who are both currently serving in the U.S. Army. An Outward Bound alum and outdoor enthusiast, Jeff’s other interests include reading and creative writing. He is currently researching for a cycle of historical short stories focusing on race in America.