About SCH
our mission
We are an inclusive community on a mission to inspire unbounded curiosity and independent thought in every one of our students. In a unique educational environment that extends well beyond campus, we nurture students’ knowledge of themselves and the world, expanding their full academic and personal potential while preparing them to lead lives characterized by thoughtfulness, integrity, and a quest to effect positive change.
Integrity | Courage | Diversity | Thoughtfulness | Resilience
Diversity at SCH
Diversity is a condition of excellence. Embracing a diverse, inclusive community is fundamental to providing the most rigorous, globally competitive education. At SCH, we aim to engage, understand, and celebrate the broad range of human experiences and perspectives. Through our curriculum, professional development, community-centered events, and daily interactions, we are committed to cultivating empathy and inclusion, and to nurturing the authentic expression of every individual.
As a school, we have an enormous opportunity to build our skills as neighbors and citizens. For me, this means melding our school’s vision with a relentless pursuit of a nobler version of ourselves as individuals and as a school.
Our history
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy was formed by the 2010 merger between all-girls Springside School and all-boys Chestnut Hill Academy (CHA), private Pre-K–12 schools on adjacent campuses.
Founded in 1861, Chestnut Hill Academy was an all-male Pre-K-12 independent college preparatory school located in northwest Philadelphia. CHA was the oldest all-boys school in Greater Philadelphia.
Springside was founded in 1879 by Ms. Jane Bell and Ms. Walter Comegys as a French and English boarding school for young ladies and girls. The school was located on Norwood Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Springside was initially a boarding school and attracted students from across the northeast, particularly in New England, where most boarding schools were only for boys.
The school is situated on a 62-acre campus adjacent to the Wissahickon Creek watershed in Fairmount Park and includes the Wissahickon Inn, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2012, SCH Academy established the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) to complement its core curriculum and to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. Philadelphia magazine named SCH one of 19 area schools rethinking education in big and small ways for its CEL program in 2018. The Center is unique in the nation in that the entrepreneurial curriculum is offered from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12.
