The Rivers School is an independent, coeducationalpreparatory school in Weston, Massachusetts. Rivers' Middle School program includes grades 6-8, while its Upper School program includes grades 9-12. As of 2014, 489 students are enrolled from 70 Massachusetts towns. The Rivers School's endowment was $22.3 million for the 2014-15 academic year.
History
The school was founded in 1915 as a school for boys at its first location in Brookline, Massachusetts. The founder and first headmaster was Robert W. Rivers. The Country Day School for Boys of Boston merged with Rivers in 1940. The school moved to its present location in Weston in 1960. It became co-educational in 1989.
Rivers competes in the Independent School League. The Rivers School campus has more than of playing fields that includes Waterman Field, a multi-sport synthetic turf field, as well as six outdoor tennis courts. Robert I. Pipe, Jr. has served as Director of Athletics since July 2017. Indoor athletic facilities include the Haffenreffer Gymnasium with a full size basketball court and the 78,000- square foot MacDowell Athletic Center which contains:
MacDowell Ice Arena hockey rink, which during the fall, spring and summer transforms into a 70 x 40 yard indoor synthetic field
Benson Gymnasium
Benson Fitness Center
Sports medicine office
Team rooms
Locker rooms
Rivers has boys and girls varsity teams in the following sports:
Football
Field Hockey
Soccer
Cross Country
Basketball
Ice Hockey
Alpine Skiing
Nordic Skiing
Lacrosse
Baseball
Softball
Tennis
Track
Volleyball
The Rivers School Conservatory
The Rivers School Conservatory was founded in 1975 by Ethel Bernard, one of the pioneers of the music school movement. She approached the Rivers School with the idea of using the then unoccupied former headmaster's house on the campus of the then all-boys college preparatory school. It was first called the Music School at Rivers, then Rivers School Conservatory. In 1978, the Annual Seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young was established. It was the subject of a WGBH-TV documentary that was broadcast internationally by PBS. Seminar guests have included John Cage. All pieces performed are composed in the 25-year period prior to each seminar. Many were premières and several dozen were commissioned pieces. Recent examples include Matineé: The Fantom of the Fair by Libby Larsen. The Conservatory presently has over 750 students, including a student orchestra program, jazz and chamber ensembles, music theory and composition, its critically acclaimed Marimba Magic program, choruses, master classes, workshops, and private lessons on every orchestral and jazz instrument, piano, and voice. Notable alumni include Matthew Aucoin, whose teacher was Sharon Schoffmann. The Boston Globe has reviewed some of its concerts.
Clubs and cocurriculars
The robotics team Architechs competes in the FIRST Tech Challenge, having the team number 4176.
The Debate and Model UN clubs attend national conferences every year, including the University of Connecticut's Model UN Conference and the New England Region of Junior Statesmen of America debates.
The Current, the school's art and literary magazine, was awarded First Place in the 2013 American Scholastic Press Association's national competition.
