Hamilton - Wenham Regional School District

Mission Statement and Core Values

The citizens of Hamilton and Wenham have established the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District to educate their children. The communities' expectations for this District are broadly defined by the following statement of its educational mission.

Mission:  To educate our children to become knowledgeable, healthy, responsible and productive adults.

Core Values: A clear vision of how we will accomplish this mission is summarized by our Core Values. These values represent the principles we hold central to our purpose and provide benchmarks for judging our policies, programs and performance. From time to time, changing knowledge and wisdom may lead to modifications, but the principles these Core Values express provide a firm, unchanging foundation for our mission and a framework to guide our judgment.

Our Core Values address each of the four major components of our mission:  school philosophy, curriculum, pedagogy and learning environment.

School Philosophy: "We Care for Ourselves, Other People, and Our Environment" describes the human qualities we want our children to possess and that will guide our policies, programs and behavior.

Curriculum:  "Educating the Whole Child" describes the need to prepare our children for a complex and changing world and the range of knowledge, skills and experiences we must provide to achieve this aim.

Pedagogy: "All Children Can and Will Learn" describes the expectation that our children will achieve to their potential and outlines the pedagogic principles we will apply to guide them in that endeavor.

Learning Environment: "Excellence in Teaching and Leading" describes the expectations we have for our educational community; teachers, administration, parents and community members to be role models for our young and to provide the learning environment necessary for the other three values to be achieved.

A public school system carries an extraordinary responsibility. It must educate our most precious resources in order for them to become knowledgeable, healthy, responsible and productive adults. No school can be successful in that mission without the consensus and support of the communities it serves.  Hence, these Core Values must describe what the citizens of Hamilton and Wenham expect of their schools, and resources must be made available for their accomplishment. With this consensus and support, the schools must then achieve what these Core Values express. Our children will directly reflect the results of our efforts.