Ecole d'Humanite

The Ecole d’Humanité is a progressive, international boarding school in the heart of the Swiss Alps that fosters the discovery and development of individual talents in an atmosphere that encourages self-determination, innovation, and tolerance.

At the Ecole d’Humanité, students live and study on our charming village campus where they are encouraged and supported to discover both their academic and personal potential.

We are a progressive school with a holistic approach to teaching, meaning we attend to all aspects of our students’ development - academic, artistic,  athletic, and social. Our curriculum is balanced in three parts, each playing an essential role in our students’ education: academics; arts and handcrafts; and outdoor education.

At the Ecole d’Humanité allows  students  to delve deeply into core academic subjects. Our classes are held in small, multi-aged groups, and are structured more like university seminars than typical high school classes. In consultation with their academic advisors, students select courses not according to age or grade, but rather to interest and readiness. This allows our students to challenge themselves with more advanced classes when they’re able to, and receive support where needed. Thematic topics guide our boarding school’s classes and cater to students’ interests and passions. Classes organized around compelling themes captivate students’ curiosity,  and motivate them as they build their knowledge base and acquire new intellectual skills.

120 Students and 40 teachers from over 20 different countries live together here in a dynamic community overflowing with academic, artistic, practical, athletic, and social opportunities. We get to know each other from all sides: a math teacher might also be a hike leader, an Ecole family head, a climbing instructor, and the supervisor of a community service group, and will herself experience students in as many roles.

Whether modeling projectile motion in a calculus-based physics class or performing an original piece of guerilla theater, summiting a 4000 meter peak or designing and offering their own elective classes, Ecole students are challenged to actively discover and pursue their passions, and share them with others. All this in a stupendous mountain setting that inspires awe, humility, and a sense of nature’s beauty and power.

Academic life at our school is not a spectator sport! Choice and passion, negotiation and what-ifs: at the Ecole, students actively shape their own learning. Even before classes start, Ecole students determine when and how they will study what, constructing an academic program that they themselves will own, not just participate in.

Once classes start, students work together in small groups, develop original problem solving skills, and dare to ask difficult questions. They receive individualized, carefully differentiated feedback instead of grades, and actively and regularly reflect on and evaluate their own work. Our graduates become diverse learners and leaders who possess the intellectual, social, and ethical habits to positively impact their communities.

A belief in the utter uniqueness of each student forms the core of the Ecole’s philosophy of education. We trust in and respect our students in all their diversity, and we listen to and value their voices. We foster a culture of individuation and negotiation, a dynamic middle way between conformity and rebellion. Ecole students co-construct their school experience, reflect on their successes and struggles, and find their own particular niches in a cohesive and lively community. Here they are able to grow and express their uniqueness, knowing all the while that they are a necessary and valued part of the whole. In such an environment they develop confidence in their strengths and aptitudes, a realistic appraisal of their weaknesses and stumbling blocks, and an intrinsic sense of responsibility and compassion. When creative risk is encouraged, education becomes an adventure.