Community
More than a community. A coalition.
Last winter, a group of students made a poster, on their own, asking Fayerweather to donate to help children. No one had assigned the project. They had seen something in the world and decided it belonged on the school's walls. And they felt empowered to do so.
That poster says more about us than any mission statement could.
Community at Fayerweather is something we build deliberately. Children grow up inside a coalition — teachers, families, neighbors, graduates, the wider city — and they learn what it asks of the people inside it: real relationships across difference, and action when the world calls for it. This is the foundation of a serious education.
Learn more about how we build, foster, and practice community at Fayerweather.
Affinity groups.
Children at Fayerweather find their people through affinity groups across the school: Kids of Color, Rainbow Lunch for younger LGBTQIA+ students and kids from queer families, a Pride affinity group for older students, groups for male-identified students, affinity groups for students who menstruate, and more. Each is a room where some part of who a child is can be shared without explanation. Kids come back to the wider school more sure-footed for the time spent inside them.
Special Friends
Every student from PreK through 2nd grade is partnered with a "Special Friend" from an older grade, which provides a sense of mentorship and glimpse of their own academic future. At the same time, the older Special Friends get opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of skills for younger students.
Parents & Caregivers Association
Their parents and caregivers have the PCA. Mornings here often start with a parent carrying coffee into a classroom. Every Fayerweather adult is a PCA member; two ambassadors per classroom keep information moving between families and the school, and the Chairs sit regularly with the Head of School and the leadership team.
Volunteers
Parents and caregivers serve on our Board, lead the PCA, plan our annual Big Night Out, sit with prospective families to talk about what daily life here is actually like, and bring their talents into classrooms and after-school programs. Alums come back as Class Agents, reunion organizers, and mentors to younger graduates. The list of ways to be part of Fayerweather is long, and we'd be glad to have you on it.
Alums
Our alums remain a part of the fabric of our community. Younger ones drop in to say hello to former teachers; older ones return for the annual reunion, or sit on panels for prospective and graduating families to tell the truth about how Fayerweather prepared them for what came next. Alum parents share their experiences with new families. We are continually building a more active alum network, and would love to hear from anyone who wants to be part of it.
Community across Generations
Families and family networks tie our community together, and the Fayerweather community spans all ages, from students and grandparents to alums and alum parents. Each year, students invite their grandparents and other close adult friends into the building for Grandparents & Special Friends Day. The visitors spend a half day here, then everyone goes home together for the afternoon. It is one of the most loved days on our calendar.
Building Community outside of Fayerweather.
We see learning as meaningful when it improves the lives and conditions of everyone, including the communities we live and learn in. Community service isn't something we do simply to fulfill a class requirement; it's built into our reasons for learning, and the Fayerweather community embraces this understanding.
Twice a year (for our Community Service Day in May and the MLK, Jr. Day of Service in January), every class spends a day on a community service project: stocking food pantries, raising money for women's shelters, visiting with elders. We hold the time; the work is decided by our students.
The same impulse shows up the rest of the year, often without anyone asking. Students notice what's happening in the world and bring it back into the school. They regularly look for ways to use their schooling to benefit the larger community, from developing advocacy campaigns to protect local waterways as part of the 3rd/4th grade watersheds project to Unit students highlighting system abuses in the cocoa industry after visiting cocoa plantations in Puerto Rico.
We also live in Cambridge, and we behave like it. We march in the Somerville HONK! parade and in Boston Pride. Each year we host a public Clothing Exchange where neighbors donate what their families have outgrown and shop for what they need; in winter, a smaller internal version outfits our youngest students in coats and boots their older schoolmates have grown out of. We treat all of this as part of the curriculum, because it is.
We are a school that people keep choosing, year after year, generation after generation.