Fayerweather is known for our unique culture, which helps students connect with their own curiosity to find joy in the learning process. Our vibrant classrooms are filled with passionate teachers and engaged learners. We hope our website inspires you to come see for yourself how we are igniting confidence by truly knowing each child, engaging their intellect, and awakening their imagination.
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Commitment to Social Justice
Fayerweather is committed to developing a strong sense of community in which every member feels valued.
Fully Knowing Each Child
Our educators are committed to forging connections with students and are empowered to respond to students’ passions and curiosity in the classroom.
The Potential for Joy in All Learning
Honoring the pace of childhood and nurturing joy is key to a fulfilling educational experience.
Learning in Community is Powerful
Students at Fayerweather learn in collaboration, building their classroom communities by finding commonalities and valuing differences.
Addressing The Themes and Issues of Our Time
The heart of progressive education is imperative to respond to the world around us.
We Are All Global Citizens
Part of being a responsible citizen is taking care of the environment and understanding our behaviors' impact on the earth.
At Fayerweather we are committed to keeping our school affordable to families of different economic means, believing that socio-economic diversity is an important component of our mission. We work closely with each family to do our best to make tuition and a Fayerweather education within reach for as many applicants as possible. Extracurricular activities and extended care are pro-rated at approximately the same level as tuition. In the 2020-2021 school year, Fayerweather allocated more than $1,200,000 to a program of need-based tuition assistance. This year 30% of the student body will receive tuition assistance. The average aid amount is approximately $21,000.
FSS News
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Community Engagement at Fayerweather Street School
Read MoreAs I prepare to rejoin Fayerweather after a few months of parental leave, I’m thinking about one of the most fulfilling parts of my work in Advancement at Fayerweather, which revolves around community engagement. I see community engagement not just as outreach, but as relationship-building, cultivating partnerships that extend the values of FSS beyond our doors while inviting the broader community into our school in meaningful ways. Working closely and with the leadership of Karina and Ann, I’m grateful to lead and help support some great projects geared towards community engagement. -
Go Boats! Celebrating Tradition, Innovation, and Joy as a Catalyst for Learning
Read MoreFor more than 50 years, the Fayerweather Regatta has been one of the most joyful and uniquely “Fayerweather” traditions of the school year. If you’ve stood in the recess yard on a sunny May morning — listening to nautical tunes from Rob and Kate, watching boats wobble and glide across the pool, and joining a crowd united in the chant of “GO BOATS!” — you know this is much more than a race.Each spring, students have the option to design and build boats through our Shop program. They imagine, sketch, revise, problem-solve, collaborate, and ultimately launch their creations into the water. Some boats are engineered for speed. Others are whimsical works of art. This is project-based learning at its best.Students are navigating real challenges, revising their work, and seeing how their ideas perform in the real world. The Regatta asks students to think creatively, explore intellectually, and engage meaningfully with their community; exactly as our mission calls us to do.The Regatta also embodies our belief that there is potential for joy in all learning. It is rigorous, yes, but it is also playful, musical, communal, and loud in the very best way.When the entire crowd cheers “GO BOATS!” rather than rooting for a single winner, we are modeling something powerful: collective celebration. The joy is not reserved for one champion; it belongs to everyone who dared to build, test, and launch. -
School as a Sanctuary
Read MoreThere is a word I've been sitting with lately: sanctuary.At its root, sanctuary means a place set apart. Sacred, protected, consecrated to something greater than the pressures of the ordinary world. Historically, sanctuaries were spaces where people could enter and know, with certainty, that they were safe. That the chaos outside could not follow them through the door.I believe that is exactly what a school is meant to be. And right now, in this particular moment, I believe it more urgently than ever. Children cannot learn when they are afraid. This is not a philosophical position; it is a neurological fact, backed by decades of research in child development and the science of learning. When a child's nervous system is in a state of threat or hypervigilance, the parts of the brain responsible for curiosity, memory, and meaning-making simply cannot do their work. Safety is not the soft part of education. It is the foundation upon which everything else rests. -
Teaching Westward Expansion in the Latest Era of US Imperialism
Read MoreIn the 3rd & 4th grade classroom, we started our unit on Westward Expansion (“How the 13 colonies became the 50 states”) shortly after the Trump administration abducted the leader of Venezuela. We are wrapping it up as the Trump administration is attempting to take over Greenland. The 3-4 class has learned about the Louisiana Purchase, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Mexican Cession, the sale of Alaska, and the annexation of Hawaii at the behest of American sugar companies, and we have considered the methods and motives of American imperialism in the 19th century. The parallels between US imperialism of the 19th century and the 21st century can feel heavy to us, as teachers, but they also remind us of why we teach history, and why we teach it the way we do. -
STEM at Fayerweather: Conferences, Curriculum, and Camaraderie
This past fall, Stacey and I attended the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers (MAST) conference in Marlborough, where we immediately felt at home among the tables of science merch, lesson resources, and a healthy dose of enthusiastic puns. MAST is the local chapter of the National Association of Science Teachers that put on the much larger conference we attended and presented at in Philadelphia last spring. The MAST schedule was packed with relevant workshops ranging from outdoor education and STEM simulations to data set integration and the evolving role of AI in the classroom. Navigating the dense program required some tough choices, but I was particularly drawn to sessions focused on integrating science into elementary classrooms and building teacher confidence in STEM. Attending these sessions reinforced just how advanced Fayerweather’s Lower School science program truly is; while many educators are just beginning to bridge these gaps, our school has spent years refining our curriculum through dedicated professional development.Read More
Coming Up at FSS
List of 5 events.
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1-2 Publishing Party Curriculum Share
Our authors and illustrators continued to put finishing touches on their animal stories. With just a few more days of editing and final touches, we will be all set for the Publishing Party and Potluck. As a reminder, there is no parking at the school, all families are asked to park at the reserved FSS spots at the Beth El Temple Center (click here for picture from FSS Family Handbook). -
Parent and Caregiver Visit Mornings
Parents and caregivers are invited to visit Fayerweather and accompany their students to their classes.
Visits happen on Thursdays starting at 8:15 AM and end between 8:45 -9:00 AM as teachers begin their schedules for the day. -
3/4 Latin America Experience
Students have been putting the finishing touches on our Americas research projects and figuring out how to display all of our research and information from our interviews. We are very excited about our Latin America Exhibition!
As a reminder, there is no parking at the school, all families are asked to park at the reserved FSS spots at the Beth El Temple Center (click here for picture from FSS Family Handbook). -
Music & Art Fest
The official program begins at 6:30pm, but you're welcome to come at 6pm with a BYO picnic dinner and blanket to enjoy in the Big Yard before the program. Please do notarrive earlier as Extended Day will be in the yard. Don't forget to visit inside, especially the Library and front hallway for a display of student artwork.
Schedule:
6:30 pm: Music Program Starts
Chorus and Glee will start the show outside, and then we will move into the gym for the 5-8th grade performances
Questions? Contact Kate Lee (katelee@fayerweather.org).
Fayerweather Street School | 765 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 | 617-876-4746
Fayerweather is a private PreK, kindergarten, elementary and middle school. We engage each child’s intellect.
NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS
Fayerweather Street School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin (ancestry), or disability in administration of its educational, admissions, and financial aid policies, as well as, athletic and other school-administered programs.