Falmouth Academy is a non-profit,

coed Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

, independent, private

college-preparatory A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily design ...

day school serving students from grades 7–12. It is located in Falmouth,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

History

Falmouth Academy was founded in 1977 as a small and rigorously academic day school. Its first classes were held in the basement of a retirement home; two years later, it moved to another rental property on the

Massachusetts Military Reservation The Joint Base Cape Cod is a state-designated joint base created by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States War Department in 1935. Governor James Curley signed the state bill to allocate and purchase land for a military facility ...

in Bourne,

. In 1985, Josiah K. Lilly III gave Falmouth Academy next to prime conservation land, nearer to the town center and between Falmouth centers for medicine and the arts. Four years later, the school moved into the new 16-classroom building in time for the opening of the 1989–1990 school year. Since then, the school's building has undergone five significant renovations. A gymnasium was added to accommodate its sports teams and physical education classes in 1997. Then, a three-story, addition in 2006 that included science labs, art rooms, offices, a student resource room, and a library, which was named in honor of its longest-serving headmaster Bruce Buxton. In 2014-2015, a 3,600-square-foot meeting hall, named Morse Hall, was added for school meetings and community events. In July 2017, the school celebrated the grand opening of the Simon Center for the Arts, a 7,200 square foot space comprising a state-of-the-art theater, the Gordon T. Heald Music Room, a Green Room, a Set Design Shop, a Technical Control Room, and a Gallery. In July 2022, a school archives room and IT room were added. The current head of school at Falmouth Academy is David Perry, who was appointed in 2024.

Academics

Falmouth Academy defines itself as a "reading and writing school", but its diverse curriculum also includes mathematics, science, and the arts. Its core curriculum requires each student to take English, history, and science classes, and take foreign language and mathematics classes for at least five years (assuming the student has attended for all eligible years). Seniors who have already completed the required number of mathematics can opt to take a rhetoric and public speaking class, though it is not required. There is also a strong focus on the skills of writing, close reading, research, and effective management of time. Cooperative learning and independent research are also central to the curriculum. Students may take four to five elective courses each year, including physical education for middle schoolers and a science fair class for those below 10th grade, in addition to their core academic courses. The average class size is thirteen students, and most of its graduates go to highly competitive colleges. Currently, the college acceptance rate at Falmouth Academy is 100%. Falmouth Academy is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools and the Association of Independent Schools in New England. It has been accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Athletics

Falmouth Academy offers six sports: Soccer and cross country in the fall, Basketball in the winter, and Lacrosse, tennis, and sailing in the spring. After 25 years in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council small divisions, Falmouth Academy jointed the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Cape & Islands League in 2014. The girls basketball and girls lacrosse teams won the league championships in 2014, 2015 2016, 2017, and 2018. The boys lacrosse team were the 2021 league champions.

Arts

Falmouth Academy offers a variety of arts, including visual arts, music, and drama. Visual arts and music are offered as electives, with multiple levels of studio and ceramic arts, and several musical ensembles, including an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

ensemble, a

choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

group, and an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

There are public community concerts held at the end of the fall, winter, and spring trimesters. Falmouth Academy has three scholastic

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

productions per year, and hosts other productions in the Simon Center theater.

Student body

Students come from a broad area of southeastern Massachusetts that is roughly bordered by

Martha’s Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

Mattapoisett Mattapoisett is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,508 at the 2020 census. Mattapoisett Center is located in the town. Mattapoisett is a part of the South Coast region of Massachusetts which encompasse ...

, Middleboro,

Duxbury Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 ...

, and

Brewster Brewster may refer to: People *Brewster (surname) *Brewster Kahle (born 1960), American computer technologist * Brewster H. Shaw (born 1945), American astronaut * Grace Brewster Hopper (born 1906), American computer scientist, mathematician, and ...

. The school has also hosted more than 60 international students from about 24 countries.

References

External links

Falmouth Academy
{{authority control 1977 establishments in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1977 Falmouth, Massachusetts Private high schools in Massachusetts Private middle schools in Massachusetts Private preparatory schools in Massachusetts Schools in Barnstable County, Massachusetts