History

In the early 1980s, Cambridge-based educator Ginny Kahn envisioned a school where children are nurtured, valued, and challenged–nurtured as individual, creative learners, valued as thoughtful, constructive members of a warm and loving community, and challenged to achieve their fullest potential as they grow and change. She made this vision a reality by establishing Atrium School. 

Together with Atrium families, teachers, and friends, Ginny and founding director Bruce Droste developed the school in Watertown, Massachusetts, where it has become a model for independent, progressive education.  

The school grew from modest beginnings in a shared space to a fully repurposed, redesigned, and award-winning building in close proximity to multiple communities and community resources. Our Grove Street facility embodies our values of respect and sustainability, and in 2014 was expanded to enable extension of our program into the middle school grades.