Welcome to Wooster School!At Wooster School, our learning environment is built on the bedrock of relationships because we know that people learn best when they feel physically, intellectually and emotionally safe. Through small class groupings (5 – 15 students) students learn to develop relationships with teachers and fellow students that allow them to best develop their own intellectual and emotional intelligence. An emphasis on the whole life of the Wooster school community, and the roles and responsibilities of students as community members, has been intrinsic to our culture since our founding in 1926.

Wooster is a school of thinkers, learners, and creators.

We understand that young people need the opportunity to explore developing interests and passions as they progress through school. This is one of the best ways to build skills, dispositions and confidence. At Wooster, we strive to create opportunities for all students to

pursue passions regardless of their current level of skill or expertise.

We want students to explore and participate, because that is how they will learn more about themselves. When given the chance, and faced with our high expectations for them, Wooster students just keep getting better.

We ThinkSkills, dispositions and knowledge are the three pillars of our approach to thinking and learning. We know that thinkers and problem-solvers need to apply skills and dispositions in their personal, school and eventually, professional lives, so reading, writing, numeracy, and design skills are the threads that hold the Wooster tapestry together from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

We CreateWooster School prides itself on being a community of learners. We create the time for teachers to study and discuss teaching and

learning, and to collaborate on enriching their own practices in the service of better student outcomes. Our teachers model for students the skills and dispositions that we want them to develop – curiosity, questioning, design, experimentation, reflection, and many more.

We WorkOur Self-help philosophy dictates that all students participate in the life and culture of the school, from cleaning and maintaining the campus through our Jobs Program, to daily participation in our smaller classes. Self-help has been in place for decades and is testament to the fact that we figured out a long time ago how important dispositions are in the development of young people. At Wooster, Self-help means learning about resiliency, persistence, and collaboration through taking responsibility for the physical and cultural environment of the school.

We PlayWhen people come to visit our campus, they frequently observe that our students appear to be happier than those that they’ve seen

elsewhere. We hear from our own parents that their kids look forward to coming to school. We’ve designed a place where students can be happy because happy people learn better.

We RelateAt Wooster, our programs are designed so that every student should make a difference every day. Collaboration, participation, and meaningful input are mandatory. In our learning environments, students have to make their thinking “visible,” and as they get older and progress through the Upper School, students can see the difference that they are making in the life and culture of the school community. We Learn

LOWER SCHOOL (GRADES PRE-K – 5)In the Lower School we create in each child a love for learning by integrating language arts, math and science, world languages, and

hands-on learning. A cornerstone of our program includes building a love of literature through Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop. Students at Wooster become deeply engaged in mathematical thinking through the Singapore Math program. Students learn to be proficient

problem solvers and understand mathematics deeply with this approach. In the early grades, students learn the encoding and decoding skills they need to be successful readers through Fundations. Our early childhood students look forward to this fun program each day.

MIDDLE SCHOOL (GRADES 6 – 8)Wooster’s Middle School offers a challenging curriculum taught in small cohorts by dedicated faculty. Faculty and parents work hand in

hand to navigate the waters of early adolescence and create autonomous learners with a true passion for learning. Meaningful connections are made for students by integrating experienced-based learning with technology and traditional classroom learning. Access to the arts,

athletics, and co-curricular activities round out a student’s experience, preparing them for a successful Upper School career.

UPPER SCHOOL (GRADES 9 – 12)In the Upper School at Wooster, we prepare every student for college and beyond by engaging them in meaningful work within and across traditional academic disciplines. In a culture of thinking, everyone’s thinking is made visible, so students collaborate and take center stage

on a regular basis. In order to foster this kind of learning environment, we have redesigned many of our traditional learning spaces to allow for the kinds of purposeful, creative, and critical thinking that is required in university settings and in the contemporary idea-driven,

knowledge economy. The Felton Learning Studio in the recently renovated Coburn Hall, the newly created Makerspace, and the latest addition of the SciBox Physics classroom, are examples of our innovative spaces for visible thinking and learning.

PROSPECT PROGRAMThe Prospect Program at Wooster serves students in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades diagnosed with language based learning disabilities, ADHD, and executive functioning weaknesses. The Prospect Program is for students who can be successful, but have not achieved grade

level success due to their diagnosed learning disability.

BRIDGE PROGRAMThe Wooster Bridge Program is a 9th, 10th, and 11th grade literacy program for high achieving students diagnosed with language-based

learning disabilities. Students in the Wooster Bridge Program enter in 9th grade. Bridge students are projected to transition from a literacy-focused, moderate support model in 9th through 11th grades, to a traditional Wooster experience in 12th grade.

We are Wooster. Are you?At Wooster School, our academic program is generated by our culture of thinking. We are a professional learning community that puts thinking at the center of the learning enterprise. Our teachers value collaboration and see themselves as learners as well. We ground the academic experience at Wooster by operating from the premise that strong skills in numeracy, problem-solving, reading, writing, and communicating will generate the best thinking in our students. We develop those skills by engaging students in a challenging, inquiry-based curriculum that takes students deeper into the study of various disciplines and “big ideas” as they progress through grade levels. Because of our small class sizes and excellent ratio of teachers to students, we are able to accomplish these goals in learning environments that make learning personal, meaningful, and visible for teachers and students.

College Matriculation

Bard Belmont University

Bentley Berklee College of Music

Boston University Carleton

Carnegie Mellon Castleton State

Catawba Clark

College of Wooster Colorado State

Columbia College (IL) U. of Connecticut

Cornell Dartmouth

Davidson Dean

U. of Delaware Denison

Dickinson Drexel Eckerd

Elizabethtown Elon

Emory Eugene Lang

Evergreen State Fordham

George WashingtonGettysburgHampshire

HartwickHarvey Mudd

HaverfordHoly Cross

Indiana U. at BloomingtonIthaca

LafayetteLasell

LehighLewis & ClarkLoyola (MD)

MaristMass. Coll. of Art & Design

U. of MiamiU. of Michigan

Mount HolyokeNew York University

Northeastern

NorthwesternU. of Notre Dame

PacePratt Institute

ProvidenceQuinnipiac

Rensselaer PolytechnicRhode Island School of Design

RITSacred Heart

ScrippsSiena/Albany Medical

SkidmoreSmith

SuffolkSyracuse

TulaneUnion

VassarWestern New England

Western CT StateWheatonWilliams

Worcester Polytechnic

Students of the past three classes (2012-2015) have attended the following institutions:

Wooster School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Episcopal Schools, and the Cum Laude Society.

91 Miry Brook Road, Danbury, CT 06810 phone: 203-830-3916 | woosterschool.org

Wooster School