The Rivers School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

coeducational 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 ...

preparatory school in Weston,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Rivers' Middle School program includes grades 6-8, while its Upper School program includes grades 9-12. As of 2014, 489 students are enrolled from 70

towns. The Rivers School's endowment was $22.3 million for the 2014-15

academic year An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...

History

The school was founded in 1915 as a school for boys at its first location in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

. The founder and first headmaster was Robert W. Rivers. The Country Day School for Boys of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

merged with Rivers in 1940. The school moved to its present location in Weston in 1960. It became co-educational in 1989.

Academics

Rivers offers the following

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

classes: * English literature and composition * United States History * United States Government & Politics * Modern European History * Latin * French Language & Culture * Spanish * Statistics * Calculus AB and BC * Microeconomics * Environmental Science * Chemistry * Biology * Physics * Computer Science * Music Theory * Chinese

Athletics

Rivers competes in the

Independent School League Independent School League or ISL may refer to: * Independent School League (Illinois), a group of nine Chicago-area preparatory schools * Independent School League (New England), a group of 16 New England preparatory schools * Independent School Le ...

. The Rivers School campus has more than of playing fields , includ Waterman Field, a 54,000-square-foot (5,000 m2) multi-sport synthetic turf field, and multi-sport synthetic turf field, as well as six outdoor tennis courts. Robert I. Pipe, Jr. has served as Director of Athletics since July 2017.

Indoor athletic facilities include the Haffenreffer Gymnasium with a full-size

basketball court In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor sur ...

and the 78,000- square foot MacDowell Athletic Center which contains: * MacDowell Ice Arena hockey rink, which during the fall, spring and summer transforms into a 70 x 40 yard indoor synthetic field * Benson Gymnasium * Benson Fitness Center * Sports medicine office * Team rooms * Locker rooms Rivers has boys and girls varsity teams in the following sports: * Football (boys only) * Field Hockey (girls only) * Soccer * Cross Country * Basketball * Ice Hockey * Alpine Skiing * Nordic Skiing * Lacrosse * Baseball (boys only) * Softball (girls only) * Tennis * Track * Volleyball (girls only)

The Rivers School Conservatory

The Rivers School Conservatory was founded in 1975 by Ethel Bernard, one of the pioneers of the music school movement. She approached the Rivers School with the idea of using the then-unoccupied former headmaster's house on the campus (now called Blackwell House after George H. Blackwell) of the then-all-boys college preparatory school. It was first called the Music School at Rivers, then Rivers School Conservatory. In 1978, the ''Annual Seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young'' was established. It was the subject of a WGBH-TV documentary that was broadcast internationally by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. Seminar guests have included

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

(1983). All pieces performed are composed in the 25-years prior to each seminar. Many were premières and several dozen were commissioned pieces. Recent examples include ''Matineé: The Fantom of the Fair'' by Libby Larsen. The Conservatory presently has over 750 students, including a student orchestra program, jazz and chamber ensembles, music theory and composition, its critically acclaimed Marimba Magic program, choruses, master classes, workshops, and private lessons on every orchestral and jazz instrument, piano, and voice. Notable alumni include

Matthew Aucoin Matthew Aucoin (born April 4, 1990) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and writer best known for his operas. Aucoin has received commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the American Repertory Thea ...

, whose teacher was Sharon Schoffmann. ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' has reviewed some of its concerts.

Clubs and cocurriculars

* The robotics team ''Architects'' competed in the

FIRST Tech Challenge FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST Vex Challenge, is a robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 to compete head to head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other te ...

, under the team number 4176. * The Debate and Model UN clubs attend national conferences every year, including the University of Connecticut's Model UN Conference and the New England Region of Junior Statesmen of America debates. * ''The Current'', the school's art and literary magazine, was awarded First Place in the 2013 American Scholastic Press Association's national competition.

Notable alumni

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...

’39, actor *

John T. Noonan, Jr. John Thomas Noonan Jr. (October 24, 1926 – April 17, 2017) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Personal and education Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Noonan attended the John D. Runkl ...

'44, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit senior judge * David Steinberg '46, Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

School of Foreign Service * Frederick Wiseman '47, documentary filmmaker * David Lamb '51, reporter for major newspapers including

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and

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Glen W. Bowersock Glen Warren Bowersock (born January 12, 1936 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a historian of ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East, and former Chairman of Harvard’s classics department. Early life Bowersock was born in Providence, Rhode Island a ...

’53, ancient history scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

in Princeton. * Richard G. Darman ’60, former director of the Office of Management and Budget (1989–1993) *

David Sutherland David Sutherland may refer to: * David Sutherland (baseball) (born 1985), Australian baseball player * David Sutherland (comics) (1933–2023), Scottish comic book artist * David Sutherland (cricketer) (1873–1971), Australian cricketer * David Su ...

'63, award-winning independent documentary filmmaker * Joseph I. Banner ’71, former CEO of the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

and longtime front office executive in the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

organization *

Philip Goldberg Philip Seth Goldberg (born August 1, 1956) is an American diplomat and government official who has served as United States ambassador to South Korea since 2022. He served previously as ambassador to the Philippines, Bolivia and Colombia and ch ...

'74, The US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research * Joshua Kraft '85, CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and President of the

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Charitable Foundation *

Jon Anik Jon Anik (born July 3, 1978) is an American mixed martial arts commentator who currently works for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He was an anchor with ESPN for more than 5 years before moving to the UFC as a play-by-play commentator i ...

'97, commentator and television host for the

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Stephen Belichick Stephen C. Belichick (born March 25, 1987) is an American football coach who is the current outside linebackers coach for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He formerly was the team's safeties coach and worked as a ...

, Outside Linebackers Coach for the New England Patriots *

Jillian Dempsey Jillian T. Dempsey (born January 19, 1991) is an American ice hockey player who currently captains the Boston Pride in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). She currently holds the all-time PHF records for games played, goals, assists, and points ...

’09, professional ice hockey player *

Charlie Rugg Charles Nosike Rugg (born October 2, 1990) is an American soccer player. Career Professional Los Angeles Galaxy selected Rugg in the first round (No. 19 overall) of the 2013 MLS SuperDraft. Rugg made his debut for Galaxy on April 27, 2013 ...

'09, Professional Soccer Player for the Los Angeles Galaxy *

Elliot Richardson Elliot Lee Richardson (July 20, 1920December 31, 1999) was an American lawyer and public servant who was a member of the cabinet of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. As U.S. Attorney General, he was a prominent figure in the Watergate ...

, lawyer and member of Nixon and Ford cabinets * Cade Webber ‘19, Drafted to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2019 NHL Entry Draft

Notes

External links

*
Rivers School on Instagram
Archived fro
the original
on ghostarchive.org * {{authority control Independent School League Schools in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Private middle schools in Massachusetts Private high schools in Massachusetts Weston, Massachusetts 1915 establishments in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1915