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01

Why SD

Exceptional Education and a Sense of Purpose

At SD, we believe that when students develop a deeper sense of purpose, their academic engagement increases along with their well-being, resilience, and leadership. We encourage our students to not just study, but also to reflect on their learning, find their purpose, and celebrate in community. We achieve this through our four core values: study, reflection, community, and service.

An exceptional education—where values and academics join together—creates more than just great students. It develops great people.

Cecily Stock, Head of School

Study

Our K-12 program teaches students to embrace learning as an intentional and active process, driven by what inspires and challenges them academically and personally. Our students graduate with a purpose-driven, scholarly mindset preparing them to pursue their goals with confidence, passion, and tenacity.

Academics

Reflection

We practice and encourage questioning—always probing to discover what is right and true for each person. This reflection can take many shapes—from blogging about a class, to a moment of silence after a recital, to a meditation in the garden.

Reflection encourages us to be more mindful and to think more critically. It fosters greater self-awareness, stronger communication skills, and an inner drive to never stop growing. Reflection develops learners with more flexibility and more integrity, because it invites us to more fully articulate our beliefs.

Shared Reflections

Community

Community is a key tenet of our school’s heritage. From our youngest students gathering each morning to share their hopes for the school day, to our high school athletes holding a team meeting in advance of a big game, to our entire campus gathering in celebration of our accomplishments, we understand that opening ourselves to others is a skill that must be constantly practiced and refined.

Meet our Community

Service

We challenge our students to engage with the realities of our world, because what truly matters in education is not just the knowledge you gain, but how you use it to make the world a better place.

Beginning in Lower and Middle School as group experiences—such as community improvement projects and exchanging gifts with pen pals—service-learning in Upper School develops into deeply personal projects. By the time our students graduate, they will have identified a critical issue of concern, drafted an action plan, and documented their engagement. The project culminates in a school-wide presentation to further inspire our entire community.

Portrait of a graduate

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Fast Facts

A one-of-a-kind place for the one-of-a-kind you.

Find your place at San Domenico.

As the oldest independent school in California and the only K-12 day and boarding school in the San Francisco Bay Area, we know a thing or two about being unique.

515

Acre Campus

172

Years of Exceptional, Purpose-Driven Education

8:1

Student to Faculty Ratio K-12

26

Countries Represented Among 142 Boarding Students

33%

Pay Below Top of Tuition Index

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Community

A Place to Call Home

The strength of our school community is hallmarked not just by social connections made between families, faculty, staff, and alumni, but the quality of those interactions which build mutual respect, trust, and reciprocity for all.

Today, I see my students intrinsically motivated academically; actively pursuing fundamental questions about who they are because of the way they are acknowledged, welcomed, feel valued and secure in their belonging at SD.

Tara Evans Boyce ’90
Izzy ’29 and Noah ’25

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On Campus