Overview

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Buxton is a small, progressive and diverse all-gender boarding and day college preparatory school nestled in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. For almost 100 years, our faculty and staff have delighted in welcoming students to our egalitarian community to inspire and nurture their academic, artistic and social growth.

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Our Mission

To create an environment where truly progressive education can be lived every minute of every day, where learning is personal, meaningful, equitable, and relevant. By doing this, we equip Buxton students and alumni to be deeply reflective and creative builders and shapers of every community they touch.

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Our students are:

  • Challenged to participate fully and meaningfully in their academic pursuits
  • Called to create an authentic intellectual culture both in and out of the classroom
  • Encouraged to immerse themselves in creative activity
  • Expected to live a conscious, responsible life in the context of a receptive and responsive community
  • Asked to contribute their ideas, energy and labor to the care and maintenance of the school

As articulated by our founder in 1928 and unchanged today, our core beliefs are:

  • That education should be the process of learning how to live fully as an individual and effectively in the social world
  • That the child can develop into an adult who knows how to live only by first living fully and effectively as a child
  • That to do so, the school must provide challenges and outlets for all of their potentialities
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Our Philosophy

For almost 100 years, Buxton School has been educating students to be ethical and engaged citizens of the world. The school has long believed that a student’s entire lived experience is the most important aspect of their education; as a result, Buxton was designed (and continues) to provide an experience that helps young people grow as thinkers, community members, creators and do-ers. Through small, challenging seminar-style classes; multiple leadership opportunities; hands-on service to the community; a broad and deep arts program; a diverse student body; and an intentional living experience, Buxton students have a high-school experience that is smart, compelling, and long-lasting. Our students relish their time while they are here, and they leave Buxton ready to take on—and succeed—in college and in life.

The Alchemy of Small

Buxton is able to provide this unique and precious educational experience because it is small. All teachers know all students. All students know each other. Students from every kind of background get to know each other well, finding common ground through layers of difference. Classes are focused and intense. Students feel genuine ownership of the school they maintain (through Work Program and work jobs) and help run (as dorm supervisors and crew heads). And our annul Urban Intensive Trip is an extraordinary exercise in vivid, lived education. Even our graduation, which is the capstone and highlight of the year (and of many a student’s time at Buxton), would not be possible if the school were bigger.

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Why Buxton?

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Land Acknowledgment

It is with gratitude and humility that the Buxton School community acknowledges we are gathering and living our education together on the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.  We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.

Learn More

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Testimonials

  • "Buxton has given me the freedom to be the person I want to be, make the art I want to make, and learn the things I want to learn. At Buxton we learn not only in the classroom, but in the community. We learn how to be good to each other and how to support each other. Buxton has so much to offer students, both inside the classroom and outside of it."
    Sadie
    Sadie Great Barrington, MA
  • “At Buxton you get to focus on what you want to be learning; whether it is social skills or in-depth studying- you learn to take responsibility of your education.”
    Francis Magai
    Francis Magai Troy, NY
  • “Living your education means to not only learn things, but to use what you learn in your everyday life.”
    Naima Nigh
    Naima Nigh Mexico
  • “To me, living your education means to be independent, to take charge, to not be afraid of asking for help, to learn from your peers, to love to learn, to take what you have learned from a loving environment and take it into the world.”
    Kat Hallowell
    Kat Hallowell New Hampshire
  • “Your education is more than just your time in class, it’s your life as a whole. Learning is not limited to a teacher teaching you something in a classroom.”
    Cynder Johnson
    Cynder Johnson Missouri
  • “To me, at Buxton, it’s not boundaries that you make, but the ones you break through.”
    Roy Malone
    Roy Malone New York, NY
  • “At Buxton, I can choose what I want to do with my education. I can design my own path and invest my time studying topics that I’m really interested in.”
    Nora Mittleman
    Nora Mittleman New York, NY
  • “At Buxton you can experience your intellectual development in a community that accepts your perspective of the world.”
    Ben Nigh
    Ben Nigh Mexico
  • “I felt instantly at home when I stepped on the campus. At Buxton, we are in school 24/7. We learn things in the classroom, but we really learn valuable things outside of the classroom. We learn how to work with others and respect each other’s spaces. Our education surrounds us and we learn new things everyday.”
    Emily Woodside
    Emily Woodside Albany, NY
  • “I chose Buxton over public school because I think I function better in a smaller environment. You’re able to get to know students and faculty on a deeper level, which is rare.”
    Charlie Starenko
    Charlie Starenko Williamstown, MA

Live your education at Buxton

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