The Fenn School Mission Statement

The Fenn School seeks to prepare boys for a lifetime of learning, leadership, and integrity by offering a broad and challenging educational program in a personal community that honors diversity.  Inspired by the ideals of honesty, respect, empathy, and courage, and guided by the motto, Sua Sponte, each boy is challenged to accept responsibility for himself, for his own education, and for the well-being of others.

The Fenn School Philosophy

The Fenn School embraces the following principles as fundamental to educating boys in their elementary and middle school years:

A school specifically dedicated to teaching boys in their elementary and middle school years has the unique ability to provide a program that empowers boys to discover their talents, to develop their intellectual curiosity, to establish their essential academic skills and knowledge, and to define their moral character.

A nurturing school community that is inspired by care offers a singular opportunity for boys to thrive and grow in personal confidence as they prepare to embark upon their adolescent and secondary school years.

An understanding of gender-related cognitive, academic, emotional, social, leadership, and character developmental needs of boys, along with a recognition of their differences as individuals, informs development of the School’s educational program.

A challenging program of substantial breadth and depth in academics, the arts, and athletics, taught with versatile methods of instruction to boys of strong intellectual ability, high academic potential, and varied learning styles, best serves our students’ learning in the present and the future.

Shared values of honesty, respect, empathy, and courage provide the moral underpinnings of our school community and offer an ethical context for shaping the individual character of each boy.

A range of opportunities for boys to care about and for others by investing their time, effort, and resources in community service and philanthropic activities serve as a central aspect of educating boys to become ethical, effective, and empathetic leaders in their communities and the world.

An inclusive school community that recognizes, respects, and celebrates the world’s human diversity, including differences in culture, race, religion, gender, ethnicity, economic class, and sexual orientation, best educates and prepares boys for success in leadership and in life.

Our motto, Sua Sponte, challenges boys to accept responsibility for their own learning and lives and instills an obligation to help ensure the well-being of others.

A Vision for an Inclusive Fenn School to Educate Responsible Leaders

Vision: Within the charge of its mission, Fenn should  educate boys in their middle school years to live and lead responsibly as adults in a diverse world. To do so, Fenn should enroll students and enlist adults in authority who represent a broad range of socially defining differences and backgrounds, including, importantly, race and class, that reflect the diversity found in the extended geographical communities of its students and their families. The Fenn educational program should foster in students the knowledge, perspective, and skills necessary to lead in a diverse world. The Fenn community should maintain a culture of inclusivity, access, respectfulness, and equity in its values, policies, and practices.      

Premises:

To prepare students to lead fulfilled and responsible lives, an effective school community must foster the ability to understand varied intellectual and social perspectives, a genuine respect for difference in its many forms, the inclusion of members from varied backgrounds, and a broad knowledge of and perspective on the world. 

To provide the foundation for a full and rich education, a school community’s members and  constituencies should collectively embody, while remaining true to the school’s mission, the breadth of defining difference in its many forms: cultural, religious, ethnic, gender, physical, learning style, sexual orientation, and social and economic class.

To enhance this vision, the culture, practices, and curriculum of the school community should, within the context of its mission, reflect values that promote understanding, respect, inclusion, access, equity and justice.

To best develop students' abilities to be leaders in a diverse world, development of their knowledge, skills, and perspective must start at an early age.