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- McDonogh School
McDonogh School
McDonogh is a nondenominational, coeducational, college preparatory school educating students from prekindergarten through twelfth grade. As our Mission Statement says, we are “a community that finds joy in work, in play, in discovery, and in the realization of personal potential.” McDonogh’s strong academic, arts, and athletic programs offer life-altering opportunities for students.
At McDonogh, teachers and students are partners in learning. Our academic program, LifeReady, is founded on the belief that all children want to learn. It seeks to develop each child’s potential through authentic learning experiences that engage intellectual and emotional ownership. The program’s mission is to ensure that each student develops imaginative, curious, and analytical habits of mind in a rigorous academic setting, preparing them to take risks in order to enter – and to better – the complex world in which they live.
Students and adults are guided in all endeavors, by the virtues of McDonogh’s Character Compass: respect, responsibility, honesty, kindness, and service.
At McDonogh, teachers and students are partners in learning. Our academic program, LifeReady, is founded on the belief that all children want to learn. It seeks to develop each child’s potential through authentic learning experiences that engage intellectual and emotional ownership. The program’s mission is to ensure that each student develops imaginative, curious, and analytical habits of mind in a rigorous academic setting, preparing them to take risks in order to enter – and to better – the complex world in which they live.
Students and adults are guided in all endeavors, by the virtues of McDonogh’s Character Compass: respect, responsibility, honesty, kindness, and service.
Purpose
A coeducational day and boarding college preparatory school, McDonogh currently enrolls 1,384 students from prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Approximately 115 upper school students live on campus during the week as part of the school's five-day boarding program.
Vision
McDonogh School is a joyful community built on close relationships and trust. Children educated at McDonogh will emerge as people of character who are exceptional communicators and who honor diversity in all its forms. They will learn to pose their own questions and grapple with complex problems with creativity on their own and with others. We believe that preparing each child to be “life ready” is the ultimate object of each student’s experience at McDonogh.
Mission
McDonogh School is a community that finds joy in work, in play, in discovery, and in the realization of personal potential. Strong, mutually respectful relationships inspire a passion for teaching and learning, a dedication to personal integrity, and a commitment to excellence. Embracing diversity of background, culture, and thought, the school builds upon its founder’s original mission to provide life-altering opportunities and to develop in students the will “to do the greatest possible amount of good.”
Additional Culture Details
Since its founding in 1873, McDonogh School has followed its founder’s “Rules for Living” in its decision making, in its vision for the future, and in its daily work. Over its 140-year history, McDonogh School has produced students of character and intellect, committed to service, who have gone on to have an impact locally and globally. And while photos of the school from the early 20th century look, on the surface, different from those in recent years, every community member—students, teachers, parents, and alumni—shares bedrock values that have guided McDonogh in fundamental ways since the School welcomed its very first student. In every era of its history, McDonogh has succeeded because of its ability to retain its essential character while constantly evolving in thoughtful ways to serve its students fully in an ever-changing world. At this moment, McDonogh serves a diverse population of extraordinary students with world-class teachers in state-of-the-art facilities. Its curricular and extracurricular programs allow students to deepen passions and to discover new ones. When alumni return “home” for a visit, each invariably speaks of their readiness and of the relationships that shaped their lives in profound ways.
Values
- Innovation
- McDonogh is committed to preparing young people for a future that is continually evolving. Faculty are supported and encouraged to be innovative.