Four images are combined to showcase teachers, students, and dinosaurs at a typical day at The New School. Clockwise from the upper left, a teacher and student laugh, a student in a dinosaur costume, a teacher and student show off a hand puppet, and several students dance in theater class.

Welcome to The New School!

Founded in 2000, The New School is a progressive, independent high school providing a unique, student-driven, democratic learning experience for youth from Southern Maine and New Hampshire. Our campus is within walking distance of downtown Kennebunk and is a short drive from the coast, which often serves as a classroom.

The New School works with our students by:

  • Offering rich, integrated learning experiences within and outside the classroom that ignite students’ talents and passions
  • Giving students a strong voice in the design of the curriculum and the governance of the school
  • Providing a safe, supportive learning environment where differences are honored and bullying is not tolerated
  • Coupling a challenging academic program with authentic assessment methods that honor students’ strengths and nurture their growth, and
  • Integrating social and environmental responsibility into the curriculum and everyday life at the school

At The New School, students learn how to take charge of their education. Interests and passions are ignited by a wide range of choice in the curriculum and the experience of designing their own courses of study. Depending on their interests, learning might take place in our main building or an art studio in New York City, in our greenhouse or an organic farm in the Midwest, and even in a remote village in Central America or in the bustling metropolis of Rome. Seminar-style classes, field studies, apprenticeships, interdisciplinary courses, and our three-week intensives (where we focus on and have an immersive study in a topic) bring a depth of understanding that relatively few young people acquire, while building confident, accomplished, self-directed learners.

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