The Loomis Chaffee School

The Loomis Chaffee School is a renowned New England boarding school located on a 300-acre campus in Windsor, Connecticut. Chartered in 1874 by five siblings whose children all died tragically and who then selflessly determined to found a school as a gift to the children of others, Loomis Chaffee provides a superb education for boys and girls regardless of religious or political beliefs, national origin or financial resources. 

Today, the student body comprises 690 students, 20 countries, and 26 states. Academically challenging, the school promotes active learning and close faculty-student bonds within a respectful and civil community.

Of the noticeably dedicated full-time faculty members, more than one half have been at the school for more than ten years and continue their forebears’ legacy of setting exacting standards for students, fostering in them a willingness to prize excellence in both the processes and the products of learning and community. The school’s diverse collection of teachers has 106 advanced degrees and teaches a rich and expansive array of 190 regular, advanced and Advanced Placement courses.

Loomis Chaffee offers challenging courses in English, Chinese, French, Latin, Spanish, art, dance, history and social science, mathematics, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, science and theater arts. Noncredit diploma requirements include library skills and physical fitness and health. Advanced Placement courses are offered in English, French, Latin, Spanish, economics, U.S history, calculus AB and BC, statistics, chemistry, environmental science, physics, music theory and studio art.

Emblematic of the talents inherent in the student body and the faculty, the school had 82 Advanced Placement Scholars, including 2 National Scholars in 2009 and has had 24 National Merit Finalists in the last three years. Seven members of the Class of 2009 were identified as potential U.S. Presidential Scholars by the U.S. Presidential Scholar Commission. In 2009, 247 students were administered 469 AP exams, 84% of which were awarded the three highest grades of 3, 4, and 5.

Facts and figures, though, fail to capture the real spirit of this special secondary school. Like the two rivers at whose confluence the school is perched, Loomis Chaffee has a dual mission: to inspire in its students a commitment to both “the best self and the common good.”  Its excellent academic, athletic, artistic and social programs combine to cultivate the spirit, mind and body of each individual, firm in its attachment to the founders’ guiding principles that social equality trumps social standing, fairness conquers favoritism, academic and physical rigor invigorate and inspire, and a caring and trusting community breeds in the individual an abiding appreciation for the importance — and the means — of contributing to the needs of the community. In the wake of their personal tragedy, the Loomis family members inspired and compelled future generations in the very best of directions. Their story resonates in a remarkably contemporary, even timeless, way.