Open Fields School

This school is *remarkable*. We when we moved to the upper valley, we shopped around the the local towns to consider different schools. Thetford has been awesome. The teachers are amazing--they do a lot of project based learning, and there are mixed aged classrooms, so the kids really get an opportunity to learn from each other and experience leadership roles. They have an great gardening program and make ample use of the state forest and wetlands which are right next to the school (using the trips for science curriculum). The principal is new-ish, and he is great--very approachable for the kids and they adore him. The school culture is *incredibly* warm and supportive--they have all school assemblies every month that are really festive and sweet, and each assembly is "hosted" by a different class. It is a large enough school to be a wonderful community of learners, but small enough to still feel like everyone is known and valued. The PTO is super active--they host all this fun, cool stuff (for example, mud season madness is after school activities like skateboarding and cooking classes during March) over the course of the year. I am really thankful that our kids ended up here.