Now enrolling for Fall 2027 · Open houses on fall Saturdays
Independent day school · JK to Grade 12 · Est. 1927
612 students from junior kindergarten to Grade 12, a four-acre ravine for a classroom, and a habit of telling families the truth: about admissions, about tuition, and about your child.
Open houses on fall Saturdays at 10 a.m. Children welcome. Morning tours every Tuesday and Thursday.
One campus, three schools
The Portfolio a JK student starts becomes the Senior Thesis a Grade 12 student defends. Each division is built for its age, and each page below walks you through a real day.
JK to Grade 5 · ages 4 to 11
Where school starts with wonder, not worksheets.
A day in the life →
Grades 6 to 8 · ages 11 to 14
The awkward years, taken seriously.
A day in the life →
Grades 9 to 12 · ages 14 to 18
Rigour with a spine of purpose.
A day in the life →
Signature programs
JK to Grade 12
Every student keeps a running portfolio of work they choose and annotate themselves. They present it to parents in Grade 5 and to peers in Grade 8, and fold it into the Senior Thesis in Grade 12. Fourteen years of watching yourself learn.
JK to Grade 8
Four acres of ravine, creek, and woodland behind the campus, used every week in all four seasons for creek chemistry, winter tracking, field journals, and the Grade 8 Ridge Hike that caps the program.
Grade 12
The graduation requirement since 1974: one year, one mentored question, one public defence at Thesis Night in May. Recent theses include a restored 1962 outboard engine, a study of Elmbridge creek pollution, and an original one-act play.
What we believe
Wonder isn't a personality trait some children have. It's a habit every child can practise. We build the school day around questions worth chasing.
Kindness, honesty, and grit show up when they've been practised a thousand small times. Advisory, service, and the way we run a hallway all count.
Every student at Marlowe is known by name by adults who aren't their teachers. That's not a slogan. It's a scheduling decision we make every year.
We publish tuition, explain aid plainly, and tell you what we actually look for in admissions. If we're not the right school for your child, we'll say so.
“Our tagline is a claim about mechanism, not magic. A child taught to chase a real question learns to tolerate frustration, argue honestly, revise, and care about something beyond themselves. That is what we mean by character.”
Family reviews
4.8 / 5
from 146 family reviews · sample data for this demo site
“We toured four schools. Marlowe was the only one where the admissions director told us what the school is bad at. That's when we trusted the rest of what she said.”
“His advisor called us before we'd noticed anything was wrong. Eight kids in an advisory group sounds like a small thing. It isn't.”
“We assumed we couldn't afford it and almost didn't apply. The indexed-tuition letter came with the acceptance, and the number was one we could plan around.”
Come see it
Tuesdays & Thursdays · 8:45 a.m. · up to 6 families · 90 minutes
A small-group walking tour with an admissions team member: classrooms in session (or summer programs in July and August), the ravine trailhead, and time for questions.
Book a morning tourSaturdays each fall · 10:00 a.m. · 2 hours
The whole campus open, faculty in their rooms, students leading tours, and the head of school taking unscripted questions. Children very welcome.
Book an open houseWeekdays · 9:00, 10:30, or 1:30 · 60 minutes
Just your family, an admissions team member, and the right division head, shaped around your child's grade and your questions. Best for specific situations: mid-year moves, learning profiles, shy kids.
Book a private family visitReady when you are: book any tour in about two minutes, with no login and no phone tag.
From the green
June 18, 2026
The lab takes over the workshop next door this summer: more benches, a second laser cutter, and a proper spray booth. The wall of documented failures is, of course, coming along.
July 6, 2026
September 26, October 17, and November 7, all Saturdays at 10 a.m. No registration wall and no scripted route: the school as it actually is, with students leading the tours.
Tours run year-round, including summer. Tuition is published, aid is explained in plain English, and the admissions page tells you what we actually look for.
Questions first? Read the family FAQ.
