About
Our Mission: To inspire lives of character, scholarship, leadership, and service within a diverse, inclusive, and close-knit community.
Groton is different. Here's why ...
List of 9 items.
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Everyone Belongs
In a school of 380 students, you can be yourself and feel at home. Groton students are united by a deep commitment to each other and to the community. -
Exceptional Scholarship
Superior performance on standardized tests, high rates of admission to selective colleges, and impressive performance in college and beyond demonstrate how well prepared our graduates are. -
Depth and Breadth
We avoid the contemporary emphasis on specialization: Groton believes that adolescents should expand their vision, not narrow it. Students develop the talents they already know, but also explore and nurture new ones. -
Individualized Education
Students can design tutorials in subjects of special interest, under the guidance of a faculty member. They also may opt for afternoon Faculty-Sponsored Activities (FSAs), which allow in-depth study of anything from chemistry to photography to literature to rugby. -
Character
We celebrate goodness and kindness, integrity and civility. The school’s motto, cui servire est regnare (for whom service is perfect freedom) inspires a desire to look beyond oneself. From President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Groton 1900) and three current U.S. Congressmen to those working at neighborhood nonprofits, many alumni work for the common good. -
Prefect Year
Groton entrusts every senior with the responsibility to lead. Every Sixth Former leads a dorm, and many also assume other “prefect” roles throughout the school. Groton graduates understand their leadership style and capabilities. -
Spirituality
Spirituality can help us make sense of a complicated world. Weekday Chapel services provide grounding and daily wisdom, while classroom study instills religious literacy, a critical component of a well-rounded education. Students attend weekly services in their religion of choice, reflecting the inclusivity embraced by Episcopal schools like Groton. -
The Circle
Groton's property, 35 miles northwest of Boston, stretches across 480 acres but centers around the Circle—a setting so scenic that Architectural Digest named it the most beautiful independent school in the state. Designed by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the Circle is purposefully open to the West, with mountain vistas suggesting infinite possibility. -
Traditions
Groton traditions range from morning Chapel and Roll Call to handshaking every night and at the end of each school year. Surprise Holidays, St. Mark’s Days, the school birthday dinner, Lessons & Carols, and other beloved traditions serve not as empty rituals, but rather as significant practices that build our sense of community.
Inclusion
As soon as Headmaster Temba Maqubela first stepped on the Groton Circle in 2013, he began talking about Inclusion. He spoke of it so often that students began referring to it as “the I-word.”
As an anti-apartheid activist in his native South Africa, the fight for inclusion was deep within Mr. Maqubela’s heritage. But he made others understand that it is deep within theirs, too. He regularly helps the Groton community understand that diverse backgrounds and experiences are crucial components of an excellent education, and that education itself can help people maintain their dignity.
As an anti-apartheid activist in his native South Africa, the fight for inclusion was deep within Mr. Maqubela’s heritage. But he made others understand that it is deep within theirs, too. He regularly helps the Groton community understand that diverse backgrounds and experiences are crucial components of an excellent education, and that education itself can help people maintain their dignity.
For Whom Service Is Perfect Freedom
Cui Servire Est Regnare
The school's motto, Cui Servire Est Regnare, derived from the Book of Common Prayer, originally referred to a person's service to God. The motto is now accepted more broadly to connote service to the community and the world, and it inspires many Grotonians to make community service part of their lives. Groton had two earlier mottos, before the turn of the twentieth century: Esse quam videri (To be rather than to seem) and the lesser-known Deo Magistro Semper Condiscipuli (Forever fellow-learners, God, our Master, blessing).
Groton School Mission: To inspire lives of character, scholarship, leadership, and service within a diverse, inclusive, and close-knit community.
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