Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Learning

A first grader chooses a bird

In a December 2025 account, a Fieldston Lower first-grade teacher describes a year that opens with a question: what makes a bird a bird? Children's own questions about flight and speed fill the first weeks.

Along the way they compare nests with their own homes. In spring each child chooses a bird to research, and cares about classmates' birds too.

The year ends with a question aimed outward: what can we do for birds?

That is progressive teaching in miniature: questions first, a choice made after real learning, and a final question that points outside the room.

Learning

Trying things, then choosing

Sixth graders at Fieldston Middle rotate through new courses to find their interests. In fall 2025 one was Project Arts, where students choreographed short pieces alone, then in small groups, while classmates offered observations and next steps.

Teachers watch for strengths, and that shapes the eighth-grade courses on offer: a class with many strong writers might get a screenwriting elective.

At Fieldston Upper, choice is central to the program. In City Semester, a selective eleventh-grade option, New York City, with a Bronx focus, is the classroom: students spend at least two days a week in the field, interviewing residents and working with community organizations.

Ethics

Ethics as a subject

Ethics is a required subject that starts in the lower grades, with fairness and empathy in PreK. By fifth grade, students might write dystopian fiction to work through questions of equity, resources and community.

It continues through Middle, and in the upper grades it extends into community service learning with partner organizations, all within the school's ethical humanist tradition.

Support

Learning support and advisory

Fieldston Middle's Learning Center works with students who learn differently through classroom support, small-group instruction and one-on-one guidance. It also coordinates with school psychologists and outside tutors, and passes evaluation results and accommodations to teachers.

Sixth graders also take a Health and Wellness rotation taught by two counselors, covering topics like stress and changing friendships and introducing the counseling team.

Fieldston Upper students meet in daily advisory groups, and on Friday mornings eleventh graders lead conversations in ninth-grade advisories. In a June 2026 school account, the student founders say early sessions felt awkward until showing up every week made them routine.

Choosing

Choosing a lower campus

The school says the main difference between Ethical Culture and Fieldston Lower is location, and teachers use it: Fieldston Lower uses the woodlands and campus gardens; Ethical Culture uses Central Park. Average classes are smaller in Manhattan (16 in PreK–K, 18 in grades 1–5) than in the Bronx (18 and 22).

Either way, children in good academic standing move on to Middle and Upper without applying again.

Buses serve both campuses from parts of Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester and New Jersey. After-school programs run at both lower divisions and at Middle, and they change by semester.

Admissions

Applying at PreK, K or first grade

Children must turn four, five or six by September 1, 2027 for PreK, kindergarten or first grade. Playgroups are held at the Bronx campus whichever division you apply to, and no standardized testing is required or accepted.

First-grade applicants to Ethical Culture alone skip the playgroup, since that entry is attrition-based; applicants to both divisions still attend a playgroup. Fieldston Lower applicants also complete a required online parent interview.

Sibling, alumni and faculty or staff families had an October 1, 2026 deadline, now passed. A connection earns special consideration, not a guarantee; if you missed the date, ask the office.

Admissions

Applying at sixth or ninth grade

Sixth and ninth grade are the main entry points; seventh, eighth, tenth and eleventh depend on openings, and twelfth isn't accepting applicants. Both entries ask for two parent statements about your child and the environment you want.

Ninth grade also needs a student essay; sixth grade doesn't.

Both require an ISEE or SSAT score from a test taken before December 31, 2026, plus a 40-minute online interview with the family. Decisions arrive by email:

• Sixth grade: after 4 p.m. on February 5, 2027; reply by noon on February 25.
• Ninth grade: after 4 p.m. on February 17, 2027; reply by noon on March 10.

Cost and aid

Cost and aid

Aid is need-based, a grant rather than a loan, and families reapply each year. Admission decisions come first and funds are limited, so apply during the admission process; later awards are typically available only after a significant change.

PreK aid is limited.

Separated parents and any stepparents each file their own Clarity application, and income is imputed for a non-working parent unless the family has a child under five. Let the Clarity checklist tell you what to upload; the application is due December 1, 2026.

Lunch and books are included in tuition. Budget for transportation and other extras, plus supplies and course costs at Middle and Upper.

Safety

One report to know about

On February 28, 2025, the Bronx Times reported a former student's lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a volleyball coach from 2004 to 2006.

The school denied the allegations and said it acted quickly once a concern was raised; the report says it received the allegations in July 2024, then hired an outside firm and fired the coach. These are allegations, not a judgment.

We could not verify a current court outcome. Ask how concerns are reported and handled today.

Fieldston on individual support, health policy and buses

These questions pin down what support would look like for your child, the current medication policy, and the bus route to the Bronx campus.