Our Mission

The Bement School provides an education based on time-honored school traditions and values for children in kindergarten through ninth grade, day and boarding. From the classrooms to the dorms, we live and learn as a family, while encouraging responsibility for our own work and actions. Bement actively seeks an academically diverse, international, and multicultural student body. Students and adults at Bement work together to create a climate of acceptance, kindness and challenge which nurtures each child intellectually, creatively, physically, and emotionally.

 

The Bement School was founded in 1925 by Grace “Menty” Allan Power Bement, a tutor and drama coach deeply interested in education and women’s suffrage. Mrs. Bement moved to Deerfield in 1920 with her husband Lewis and their three children when Lewis became the president of the John Russell Cutlery Company.

The school grew quickly as word spread about Mrs. Bement’s revolutionary education philosophy. She believed that education should be tailored to the needs of the individual child, while also emphasizing responsibility for the rights of others. Her radical theory was uncommon, but her students and faculty expressed loyalty and deep affection for her. This early foundation persists today, as Bement is dedicated to meeting/catering to the unique needs of each student while cultivating a strong community.

The Bement School curriculum has remained responsive and fluid, and faculty continue to demonstrate unflagging devotion to their students. Bement currently maintains an enrollment of approximately 225 students, including 45 boarders, who come from many different states and countries.

 

Our History

1925

Grace “Menty” Allan Power Bement founds the Bement School. Menty was a tutor and drama coach deeply interested in education and women’s suffrage.

1930

The school acquires Barton House to establish a boarding department.

1947

Grace Bement retired, and Katharine "Kay" Bartlett and Mary "Gug" Drexler bought the school and incorporated it a few years later.


1947-1967

The school acquires two buildings for dormitories: Wright House and Stebbins House.

1971

Charles Hamilton becomes the next head of school.

1974

John Butler takes the helm as head of school.

1985

Peter Drake becomes the sixth head of school.

1991

The Drake Building opens for grades 2-5.

1992

A fine arts wing expands the Barn for theatre and physical education, along with adding art and music rooms.

1999

Shelley Borror Jackson becomes the seventh head of school.

2004

The Kittredge Building is built to house the upper school.

2004

The Polk Building is renovated to include the first all-school library, named for the Clagett and McLennan families.

2010

The boys dorms are built and named Jiayi House and Blydenburgh House.

2010

The school purchases head of school residence at 3 Old Ferry Road, and later names it in honor of longtime Bement teacher, Mary Hawks.

2012

New girls dormitories are built and in 2015 are named Jackson House after Shelley and Rob Jackson.

2015

Frank C. Henry serves as Interim Head of School.

2016

Christopher H. Wilson becomes Bement’s ninth head of school.

2017

Pine Hill at Bement, a new outdoor learning center, opens expanding the campus to 30 acres.

2020/2021

Mike Schloat P'24 '26 serves as Interim Head of School in 2020 and becomes Head of School in 2021.