About DCD

DCD at a Glance

Ready for Learning: Structured for Childhood

DCD is a child-centric place! While our program instills in students the capabilities they need to succeed in secondary school and the world beyond, we take this period from 4-year-old child to 14-year-old adolescent very seriously. Our pre-K to 8 model ensures that children have the time and space to master the tasks critical to each developmental stage and each grade level, laying the foundation for what lies ahead. We have built our core pillars of Academics, Arts, Athletics, and Service Learning to create a program that not only challenges students academically but fosters their ability to manage relationships, think innovatively, and fuel their own health and well-being while fueling meaning in their learning.

Pre-K to Grade 8
294 Students
82 Faculty and Staff
12 students in the average learning group
Coeducational

Ready for Thriving: Just the Right Size

We are small enough so every child is known and loved in an intimate learning environment but mighty enough with resources and space for students to become balanced and strong academically, socially, and emotionally. Our physical space and our faculty resources offer children the breadth and depth they need to thrive.

17-acre campus
14 sports teams
40 arts electives

Ready to Embrace: An Inclusive Community

DCD welcomes a vibrant and diverse group of students and their families from over 32 different towns and surrounding communities with the highest concentration coming from Dedham, Needham, Westwood, Milton, West Roxbury, Wellesley, Dover, Walpole, Jamaica Plain, Natick, and Dorchester.

116+ years committed to children and families
30 service learning projects per year
50+ innovation fund grants awarded to faculty members

Ready for What's Next: Secondary School Process

Whether a student chooses to pursue an independent secondary school education or attend the public school in their own town, DCD graduates are prepared for what comes next! By the time they reach their secondary school search in 8th grade, their teachers and coaches have helped them to grow their passions and interests, their advisors know and love them, and they understand themselves, so the process of finding a match for their next school is a comfortable one. DCD's Secondary School Counseling Program ensures that the next step in each student's educational journey is with a school that best matches their individual academic skills, needs, and extracurricular interests.

100% of 8th-grade students receive admission to one of their choice schools. Click here for a list of recent matriculations.
29% of DCD students receive financial aid
28% of our student body are students of color
100 of DCD's faculty engage in Professional Development

Over A Century of History

The Norfolk School, Westwood, founded by Frances Faulkner in 1903
The Norfolk School, 1907
The old school house at the corner of High and Bullard Streets
The Hewins School (renamed in 1922), 1925: Miss Bertha Hewins, Headmistress from 1918 to 1928, is standing on the porch to the left of the pillar in the imposing hat. Everett Ladd, who was to succeed her as Headmaster, is pictured in front of the middle window in the far back.
The Wind in the Willows was performed outdoors in 1936.
A play being performed outside on the Dedham Common in 1939.
Students display kayaks they made in woodshop in the 1940s.
Students show sailboats they made in woodshop.
Children join in the celebration of laying the foundation for the new building on the school’s current site.
Board President Nelson Bigelow lays the cornerstone of the new school building on Sandy Valley Road.

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A History of Balancing Tradition and Innovation.

In 1903 Miss Frances L. Faulkner founded The Norfolk School, a private school near the Dedham-Westwood line that was funded by a syndicate of parents for primary and kindergarten instruction. From the very beginning, the institution that was to become Dedham Country Day School balanced the “three Rs” with more progressive elements.

Miss Faulkner’s schedule and methods supported a sensible, systematic acquisition of fundamental skills, as well as sound habits of study and self-discipline. These took precedence, but were deliberately balanced with refreshing outlets such as Sloyd (woodworking) and Nature Study—all very familiar subjects to our students today!
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