St. Albans School

St. Albans opened its doors to 34 students in the fall of 1909. Many students are attracted to St. Albans because of our reputation for academic excellence and our rigorous college preparatory program. By the time our boys graduate, they see that their time here was about something more. It is this—the transformation of a young man’s vision, values, and character—that is the promise of a St. Albans education.

We expect a great deal from our students, believing that boys have the capacity for rich intellectual, moral, and emotional lives. They rise to these expectations because we see the best in every boy and insist that they see the best in themselves.

Our faculty view teaching as a calling. The relationships between our students and their teachers and coaches lie at the heart of everything we do. In small classes, at seated family-style meals, and during engaging chapel services, we cultivate in students a passion for excellence, a love of learning, and a commitment to the enduring questions at the heart of the human experience.

As an Episcopal school that welcomes students of all faiths, we are an intentionally diverse community that believes in the essential dignity of every student and the vital importance of a child’s moral and spiritual growth. St. Albans boys aspire to be accomplished scholars, athletes, and artists, but also good men: thoughtful, empathetic, honorable, humane, and generous of spirit. They graduate prepared to lead thoughtfully and compassionately, to pursue wisdom, and to serve causes greater than themselves.

As a school located beside Washington National Cathedral overlooking the nation’s capital, we are always looking upward and outwards, drawing our boys into lives of thoughtful engagement with the highest spiritual and civic ideals. But underlying this is where the soul of the school is ultimately found: in the abiding sense of warmth, community, and joy that fills our students with genuine affection for one another and lifelong devotion to their school. Only time spent on our campus can fully capture the intangible qualities that make this such a dynamic, close-knit community.

We set high standards for our boys in all that we ask of them. We believe that classes should be small enough to promote vigorous inquiry, critical thinking, and spirited discourse; that our core curriculum of arts, sciences, and humanities, along with our extracurricular offerings and opportunities for international experience, develops an aesthetic appreciation for and understanding of the world, teaching boys to express themselves clearly, independently, and confidently; that our coordinate classes with National Cathedral School for Girls enhance opportunities and growth for both schools; that required sports teach teamwork, discipline, and lifelong habits of physical fitness; and that a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum paired with a creative and inspiring faculty can challenge every boy to realize his potential.

We believe that learning extends beyond the classroom, to the chapel, the athletic field, the stage, and the refectory. Essential to this belief is the community of faculty and staff, alumni and parents that challenges and supports our boys to lead lives of honor and commitment. Through precept and example, they learn that good character comes from kindness, from an open heart and mind, and from embodying what has become a touchstone of ethical behavior in the school: choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. We rejoice as graduating seniors, so nurtured by our school, charge forth from the Cathedral at Commencement, eager and equipped for worthy and sustaining lives of achievement, leadership, and service.

For more than a century, St. Albans School has been a place where boys come to learn and grow academically, physically, and spiritually. We offer a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4–12, with opportunities for coordinate education beginning in grade 7 and continuing through grade 12. Our students strive to reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievement. As an Episcopal school, we place equal emphasis on moral and spiritual education. Our students value lives anchored by spiritual understanding, and they look to serve the communities beyond where they live. We seek to admit young men who will add to the vitality and diversity of the school.