Oxford Academy, located in Westbrook, Connecticut

Westbrook, Connecticut

Westbrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 6,292 at the 2000 census. The town center is also classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place .-Geography:...

, is a private boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 offering individualized instruction to boys who have academic weaknesses or wish to accelerate their high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 programs.

History

The school was founded in 1906 in Pleasantville, New Jersey

Pleasantville, New Jersey

-Local government:Pleasantville operates under the City form of New Jersey municipal government, led by a Mayor and a seven-member City Council. The City Council consists of two members elected from wards to three-year terms, and five members elected at-large to four-year terms in office, all of...

, by Dr. Joseph M. Weidberg. Dr. Weidberg was concerned that many students were falling through the cracks of traditional education systems and therefore were not living up to their potential. In founding the Academy, Dr. Weidberg looked to the great educators of the past: the lessons of John Dewey

John Dewey

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...

 and Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...

 were central to the creation of the Oxford Method.

The Oxford Method was also based heavily on the tutorial

Tutorial

A tutorial is one method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture; a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete a certain task....

 system of Oxford University

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

: Weidberg believed that a unique curriculum personally designed for each student would allow even the most problematic student to achieve academic and social success. By utilizing the Socratic method

Socratic method

The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...

 of question-and-answer education, these students were observed to display remarkable improvement. In 1947 Dr. Edward R. Knight was selected to succeed Dr. Weidberg as Headmaster.

In 1971, the school's main building was destroyed by fire, so the Academy moved from its original location in New Jersey to its current location in Westbrook, Connecticut where it has been since 1973.

Over the last ten years the school has overseen a massive fundraising effort to improve the school's facilities. Knight Hall, the main academic building, both of the two dormitories, Lind and Davis Hall, and other buildings were extensively upgraded. In recent years, the Oxford Academy has acquired a very strong reputation for teaching English as a foreign language, attracting students from as far away as Korea, China, and Kuwait.

Athletics

Oxford's athletic program offers interscholastic competition in soccer, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, and tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, as well as several intramural sports

Intramural sports

Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a set geographic area. The term derives from the Latin words intra muros meaning "within walls", and was used to indicate sports matches and contests that took place among teams from "within the walls" of an ancient city...

.

Faculty

The Academy is currently administered by Philip B. Cocchiola, who is only the sixth head of school after the retirement of Philip H. Davis, who had been Headmaster since 1983.

As of 2008-2009, the faculty of Oxford consisted of 19 full-time and 3 part-time members; 55% of the faculty held master's degree

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

s. Most members of the faculty live on campus.