Founded in 1935, the Putney School is based in Southern Vermont on a beautiful 600+ acre campus with a working dairy farm. As a progressive school boarding school with day students, we foster intellectual freedom and student agency. We believe teenagers are capable and trustworthy. Our guided independent studies and opportunities for student leadership promote personal initiative and adaptability, engaging all parts of a student’s development, not just the academic part. Our culture embodies respect for the individual and the rewards of participation in a community.

We regard the curriculum as everything we do here and therefore eschew the word ‘extra-curricular’. The four pillars of the school--rigorous academics, the work program, the arts, and physical activity--all combine and intertwine to create students who understand what it takes to get things done. One of the hallmarks of Putney is transparency with our students and our willingness to engage them in the running of the school. We allow and often require our students to struggle with the real dilemmas of crafting a community in which rights and responsibilities balance. Much of a student’s life at Putney is experiential education, and they enjoy both independence and responsibility.

Founded as a progressive school, social justice has been a core value at Putney since its founding in 1935. Putney is committed to building an inclusive community that respects and affirms each of its members, honoring their diversity of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and socioeconomic status. We continue to build an educational program that recognizes and values the many peoples and perspectives of our community and the world. We realize that conflicts may arise in the creation of such a community, but we see these possible conflicts as opportunities for growth, for open and honest communication, and for learning. Through our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion The Putney School community prepares students for the challenges and choices they will face as citizens of the world.

We seek to ensure that all aspects of student school life — including admissions, staffing, curriculum, residential life, evening arts, and athletics--reflect our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and that they are diligently assessed and actively supported.

We recognize that our school and students exist in an ever-changing world, and that our understanding of, and support for, diversity, equity, and inclusion will grow and evolve. All faculty and staff are working to understand what it means to commit to being anti-racist, and specifically in regard to anti-Blackness, and to foster this understanding in our student community.