The Fenn School Mission Statement

Guided by our motto, Sua Sponte, and inspired by our core values of honesty, respect, empathy, and courage, The Fenn School challenges each boy to take responsibility for himself, for his own education, and for the well-being of others. Our boys thrive in a diverse community that celebrates our shared humanity and embraces difference. As part of an ever-changing, interdependent world, Fenn empowers each boy to develop strong character and lead with integrity.

our Philosophy

Sua Sponte (It’s in your hands; on one’s own responsibility)
Our motto, Sua Sponte, challenges boys to accept responsibility for their own learning and lives and instills in them a sense of obligation to others.

Core Values
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.
 

With distinctive elementary, middle, and early high school programs, Fenn provides:

• A nurturing community dedicated to relational teaching that gives boys meaningful opportunities to thrive and grow into lifelong learners. Teachers and boys build personal connections within a shared community that emphasizes relationships and a mutual learning environment.
   
• A supportive environment where boys learn self-reliance, confidence, and resilience. Boys are encouraged to develop personal responsibility and build self-advocacy skills to prepare them for their adolescent and secondary school years.
   
• An understanding of the cognitive, academic, emotional, social, leadership, and character- development needs of boys, along with a recognition of their differences as individuals and learners.
   
• A challenging program of substantial breadth and depth in academics, the arts, and athletics that, through versatile teaching methods, teaches boys of strong intellectual ability, high academic potential, and varied learning styles.
   
• A stimulating curriculum that empowers boys to discover their talents, develop their intellectual curiosity, establish their essential knowledge, define their moral character, and build their leadership skills, preparing them for secondary school and beyond.
   
• An inclusive community that respects and celebrates the world’s human diversity, including differences in culture, race, religion, gender identity, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and sexual orientation.
   
• Opportunities for boys to invest their time, effort, and resources in service learning, sustainability, and philanthropic activities, inspiring them to pursue ethical and empathetic global citizenship.

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.