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.