About Us

Equity and Inclusion

OUR DIVERSITY MISSION STATEMENT

Shady Hill is a diverse, inclusive school that offers a rich multicultural curriculum. It is our diversity — in ethnicity, family structure, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background — that makes us a wiser and stronger community. We teach children to explore human similarities and differences, to challenge stereotypes, and to understand how our perceptions affect our ideas about truth. A Shady Hill education validates children's individual lives and prepares them to succeed in a multicultural society.

We are committed to building a community that understands and values our diverse world and we actively seek students, faculty, and staff from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. We promote social justice and seek to eliminate bias in school life, including admissions, hiring, and financial aid. Our board maintains and affirms this commitment by formally reviewing the diversity of our community and our admissions, hiring and retention results on an annual basis.

CHANGEMAKING IN ACTION

As one of the very first independent schools in New England to enroll Black students, Shady Hill has a long history of working towards racial equity and social justice. Racism and white supremacy are deeply rooted in our society and at our School, demanding an ongoing, thoughtful, and systematic response. View the timeline of our history of racial and social justice work.

We examine our mistakes and take responsibility for the times we did not live up to our racial equity mission. Through this transparent assessment, we are repairing relationships, building new systems, shifting ideologies, and creating a more equitable school culture.

KEY INITIATIVES AND NEXT STEPS

List of 3 items.

+ Proudly committed to providing a sense of belonging for all students
- Embedding DEI learning into every part of our curriculum, from B-VIII
- Adapting the Pollyanna Racial Literacy Curriculum to support and extend our DEI learning from B-VIII
- Offering gender inclusive interscholastic athletic opportunities for all students
- Providing Affinity Groups for our students to connect around shared identities.
- Implementing Social Justice Spotlight programming about solidarity and action for all Middle School students
+ Encouraging student action through annual events
- Social Justice Day: A day for all Middle School Students to experience conference style Social Justice workshops and action projects
- Lower School Week of Action: A week developmentally appropriate Social Justice programming that empowers children to advocate for change
+ Offering opportunities for adults to learn and engage in equity and justice work
- Family affinity groups
- Diversity At Shady Hill (DASH): a group of parents and faculty that work with Parents Council (PC) to help foster diversity in the Shady