THE WATERFORD SCHOOL

The Waterford School reflects the grandeur of its dramatic setting. The school's tradition is liberal arts. The focus is on each student learning. Here, expectations are high, the curriculum rich and the scholarship engaging and renewing.

Whether in Class II or Class X, the students share the essence of The Waterford School—learning for the sake of learning. The experience is centered in the classroom. Waterford begins there, as does each student's day. Lower Schools, Middle School and Upper School, from Nursery to Class XII, start at eight a.m. and dismiss after three. What some see as extras in a school schedule are at Waterford not extras at all. The courses stretch the liberal and fine arts emphasis from math to biology, wheel thrown pottery to Latin, violin to lacrosse and soccer, and English composition to computer programming.

Classes are small; homework is essential. A student's age is measured not so much by height as by the size of the bookbag or backpack. Academic research constantly expands the Waterford model; rigor is the standard measure. In-class essays and writing assignments, discussions, debates, the classics, field study and lab journals, concerts, class assemblies, history time-lines, web pages and state athletic championships speak of a pace that embraces so much and so many.

Amid the focus and the reaching, trying and then trying again are recognized standards that speak of respect for one another, courtesy, cooperation, self-discipline and effort. The Waterford School represents a wholeness that esteems passion for a discipline, that finds nobility in working hard over time, and that recognizes with learning comes the responsibility to live truthfully, to live purposefully. To live, always learning.

Welcome from the Head of School, Nancy Heuston

‘Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves.’ Waterford teachers connect and weave, and their students become scholars and artists, creators and innovators, weavers of the world.