The Phelps School is a private, nonsectarian boarding and day school for boys in grades 6–12, with an optional postgraduate year. The school inhabits a beautiful, 70-acre wooded campus in Pennsylvania's historic Chester County, 25 miles outside of downtown Philadelphia. With approximately 100 students and an average class size of seven, The Phelps School offers the ideal setting for boys who thrive in a small, nurturing, and structured environment. The learning experience is personalized for each student, with offerings ranging from Advanced Placement and college-level dual-enrollment courses for academically gifted students to a comprehensive Academic Support Program for students with learning differences. Beyond rigorous academics, students will find a robust athletics program, numerous extracurricular activities, and a strong support system comprising deeply caring faculty and peers. The Phelps School empowers each student to reach his highest potential.
Our mission is to bring out the best in each boy, to help him earn new confidence and respect, to teach him about leadership, humility, and service to others. Boys succeed at Phelps in small classes, with teachers who will not let them give up. They learn how to learn. Their full potential is maximized as they grow and transform physically, socially, and morally. They build supportive relationships and develop a real sense of family with young men who are all quite different, and, in many ways, so much alike. Our mission is to help each Phelps boy become a better man.
Our educational philosophy and key to our transformation of the individual boy and maximization of his individual potential is The Phelps Method. This is an educational paradigm focused on developing the whole person (mind, body, and spirit) while sustaining a young man's need for independence, structure, individual achievement, and team-oriented success. The paradigm is grounded on a foundation of individual attention and relational teaching, which research has shown is key to how boys learn best. Through the Method, our students achieve academic and physical excellence, while developing character, personal motivation, accountability, and responsibility.
The Method is supported by our Phelps Profiles, developed through a range of assessments (from academic performance through learning style and personality profiles), we are able to gain a 360-degree snapshot of each young man, allowing us to advance his academic, social, and emotional achievement.