Buxton School

Buxton is a small, progressive and diverse boarding and day college preparatory school nestled in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. For the past 90 years, our faculty and staff have delighted in welcoming students to our egalitarian community to inspire and nurture their academic, artistic and social growth.

• Challenged to participate fully and meaningfully in their academic pursuits
• Called to create an authentic intellectual culture both in and out of the classroom
• Encouraged to immerse themselves in creative activity
• Expected to live a conscious, responsible life in the context of a receptive and responsive community
• Asked to contribute their ideas, energy and labor to the care and maintenance of the school
• That education should be the process of learning how to live fully as an individual and effectively in the social world
• That the child can develop into an adult who knows how to live only by first living fully and effectively as a child
• That to do so, the school must provide challenges and outlets for all of his or her potentialities

The Buxton student – and the Buxton experience – is like no other. We welcome diversity in all facets and believe that people thrive when differences are honored. We encourage our students to engage not just with each other but also with the world beyond our doors. We believe that young people can be trusted to live lives that are balanced, ethical and productive. We maintain that academic pursuits are a valid and just asset of a vibrant life.

For almost 90 years, Buxton School has been educating students to be ethical and engaged citizens of the world. The school has long believed that a student’s entire lived experience is the most important aspect of his or her education; as a result, Buxton was designed (and continues) to provide an experience that helps young people grow as thinkers, community members, creators and do-ers. Through small, challenging seminar-style classes; multiple leadership opportunities; hands-on service to the community; a broad and deep arts program; a diverse student body; and an intentional living experience, Buxton students have a high-school experience that is smart, compelling, and long-lasting. Our students relish their time while they are here, and they leave Buxton ready to take on—and succeed—in college and in life.

Buxton is able to provide this unique and precious educational experience because it is small. All teachers know all students. All students know each other. Students from every kind of background get to know each other well, finding common ground through layers of difference. Classes are focused and intense. Students feel genuine ownership of the school they maintain (through Work Program and work jobs) and help run (as dorm supervisors and crew heads). And our annul Urban Intensive Trip is an extraordinary exercise in vivid, lived education. Even our graduation, which is the capstone and highlight of the year (and of many a student’s time at Buxton), would not be possible if the school were bigger.