Pierrepont School
2008-2009

Pierrepont School is a small, independent, co-educational elementary and high school based in Westport, Connecticut. Founded in 1999, the school moved into its current building on Sylvan Road in the fall of 2002. The school enrolls students from kindergarten through high school ages.

The faculty currently consists of twenty-two full and part-time teachers, offering a faculty to student ratio of less than three to one. Classes, therefore, are small, and student schedules are individualized. Senior faculty members typically have post-graduate degrees from leading universities and are professionally active in their fields. The school seeks and supports teachers who bring into the classroom the same passion and rigor they bring to the study of their own discipline. (See individual faculty under each discipline.)

Pierrepont seeks students who are academically motivated and engaged, and can participate successfully in a demanding curriculum. Chronological age serves as a tentative guide for placement that is answerable to the variegations in academic skills, needs and maturity among children. The schedule allows for individualized placement as students are departmentalized from the earliest ages. As a result, even the youngest students have classes with teachers who are specialists in their disciplines, although they also spend significant time in a homeroom under the care of a master teacher and an associate teacher.

Starting at about eight years old, students are fully departmentalized and have a schedule that consists of English, history, math, science, and the first of a four year grammar/reading sequence preparing the students to study a foreign language. Once the students have completed the grammar sequence, they begin the formal study of Latin. Mandarin Chinese is offered to those for whom a second language is appropriate. After two years of Latin, Ancient Greek is available as an elective. In addition, all students have classes in art, art history, music, and dance twice a week and theater (which includes both performance and reading) three times a week.

Pierrepont School does not give grades. Parents receive written assessments of their child’s progress four times a year. A cover report from the Head of School, Associate Head of School or Dean of School accompanies the June reports. The school closes for two days, one in November and one in March, for parent-teacher conferences. Standardized testing (ERB) in basic skills areas (math and language/reading) is administered annually.

Pierrepont is currently accepting applications for the 2009-10 school year and conducts regular tours for prospective parents. Please call Nancy Webber, Director of Admission, to arrange for a tour. Tuition assistance is available according to financial need.

Pierrepont School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, age, ancestry, national origin, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational programs, admission policies, financial aid policies, or any other school-administered programs.