HADLEY — Fourteen high schoolers bid farewell on Saturday to the place they had called home for their academic careers — the Hartsbrook School — in a song-filled ceremony with their teachers, family and friends watching.

The graduation took place outside under a tent near the school’s farmhouse, providing attendees with a view of the Holyoke range, which was wreathed in mist after the morning’s rain. Colorful umbrellas dotted the landscape as people arrived, taking seats facing the stage, which was decorated with pink and purple hydrangeas and other flora.

The processional began with seniors following the faculty down the center aisle to a string rendition of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

When the seniors had taken their seats onstage, Melanie Whitney, the Hartsbrook music teacher, led the audience in singing the community song “We Shall Be Known.”

Following the musical introduction to graduation, high school chair Dina Levi delivered the welcome address.

Levi thanked the board, families and faculty from Hartsbrook for their dedication to the students and gave an anecdote about the seniors, who came to school later in the day for the final quarter. She described how much the underclassmen and teachers missed the seniors’ presence when playing a game at their morning meeting.

“It wasn’t just your musical prowess we were missing, but your willingness to jump in, be loudly wrong and then try again, bring your honest, full selves to even the silliest of morning meeting games,” Levi said. “While it is challenging to envision our community without you in it every day, you will always be a part of our community.”

After Levi’s speech, seniors Oskar Codding and Jack Codding recited the poem “Song of Childhood” by Peter Handke.

The recitation was followed by short remarks from three members of the Class of 2025: Arya Page, Graham McQuade Sharleville and Cecelia Felder. The seniors reflected on their experiences at Hartsbrook, speaking about how the school shaped their attitudes toward learning, creating, relationship building and community. They also shared advice for the underclassmen.

“My advice for you all with some time left here, is to enjoy it, enjoy the ultimate games and the parties, but also enjoy scooping compost and moving chairs, because it is all these things together that make life as a Hartsbrook student what it is, and you never know when you’ve picked your last Hartsbrook dandelion,” said Felder. “When you get to this point where you’re leaving it all behind, you might find you’re going to miss all these things too.”

One of the things that brought Hartsbrook’s graduating class together was music, so they put their own spin on a favorite song — Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” The seniors danced and sang onstage to claps from the audience; some sang, some played string instruments and one played the saxophone.

One emotional moment led to another, and the seniors sat back down to welcome keynote speaker Jessica Stark, a class teacher who joined the students in crawling through caves, organizing a class musical, and going on a trip to New York City throughout their educational journeys.

Stark emphasized the importance of community and how the relationships students make at Hartsbrook can last for a long time.

“You have built relationships here. You have community that revels in your success,” said Stark. “If you choose to keep these relationships and nourish them, you will have them always.”

She added that her hope for her students was that they would cherish the bonds that they made at Hartsbrook and that they would spread that positivity wherever they went.

“As you rush towards your next big juncture in life, there will be more change, more challenges, joy, laughter, sadness, success,” she said. “It all awaits, and my wish, my hope, is that you allow the current of love and community to lift you up and carry you along wherever you go and whatever you do, nurture your friendships, nurture your community.”

The ceremony closed with a song medley for the graduates performed by the 9th-11th grade students, featuring strings, a choir and drums.

As the underclassmen proceeded down the steps, Jen Curtis and Thomas Heineman — senior class advisors — Janis Abbingsole, chair of the board of trustees and Virginia McWilliam, all school chair, took the stage to deliver short messages about each of the graduates and hand out diplomas. After the presentation of diplomas, the graduates filed down the aisle in the recessional to a standing ovation from the audience.

Page summarized much of her classmates’ sentiments about Hartsbrook and graduation in her remarks: “As I step away from Hartsbrook and into the world, I intend to take into my future a love of learning, an appreciation for nature and an awareness of the kind of community I want to create. If I’ve learned anything from Hartsbrook, it’s that there’s always more than one way to approach learning, and that through every experience is an opportunity for internal and external reflection.”

Graduates

Hartsbrook School’s Class of 2025 includes: Oskar Codding, Fenton Cooper-Roberts, Jack Dawson, Cecelia Felder, Amardas Khalsa, Graham McQuade Sharleville, Timmy Morelli, Rowen Novick, Arya Page, Eldon Peters, Adrien Poser Davey, Aeva Schifferli, Oliver Somers and Rosa Stegeman