The Derryfield School was founded by 39 local families in 1964 to provide a robust college preparatory experience while enabling students to grow up at home. The Derryfield School strives to deliver its mission to inspire bright, motivated young people to be their best and provides them with the skills and experiences needed to be valued, dynamic, confident, and purposeful members of any community. Derryfield’s reputation of academic excellence has attracted a regional student body of approximately 400 students from nearly fifty communities within a fifty-mile radius in grades six through twelve. The School is nestled on over 70 bucolic acres within the city of Manchester, NH.

In addition to Derryfield’s focus on academics, the School boasts a thriving arts program with a popular summer repertory theater, a turf field that serves as home to several state championship teams, a new state-of-the-art science and innovation center, and recently constructed athletic and wellness center. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (“NEASC”) has commended the School’s academic program for providing students with individual pathways and flexibility of curricular paths that enable every student to achieve success. The NEASC report observed, “One of the true strengths of the School is the way faculty and staff support, cultivate, challenge, and develop every student. Students are known and loved here and are celebrated for their unique gifts and talents.”

Each student is encouraged to participate in a community service experience and international opportunity. Often these two tenets go hand in hand. Before they graduate, a number of Derryfield students participate as teachers, tutors, and mentors in the Breakthrough program, hosted by The Derryfield School. Breakthrough Manchester is a tuition-free academic program whose mission is to help promising students from Manchester public schools – particularly those with limited opportunities – build skills and confidence to succeed academically and support them on the path to college.

Recognizing that academic achievement without compassion and concern for others is meaningless, students, faculty, and parents embrace the following core values: Aim High, Balance, Character, Community, Families, and Individuality.