About Walker's

Preparing young women to make a difference in the world

We have created a school where girls are bold, joyful, and full-voiced in being themselves.

Walker’s girls have the integrity to pursue excellence, the courage to learn from failure, and the creativity and conviction to pursue their goals. They value community and know how to take action that impacts their world. This is what it means to be a leader.

We have an extraordinary faculty, beautiful campus facilities, and the vision to offer an education that is truly transformational. I know from my experience as a college professor at Brown University that graduates of all-girls’ schools are more likely than peers from co-ed schools to speak up and pursue their passions with confidence. That is because everything we do is designed to teach girls to take advantage of every opportunity — in their education and in life.

The work we do at Walker’s is a calling. Come visit our campus and meet our students; sit in on a class and explore the arts, athletics, and community initiatives at work in our Centennial Center. I hope that you, too, will be called to join us.”

Dr. Meera Viswanathan
Head of School

Meet Our Head of School

About Walkerʼs

For more than 100 years, The Ethel Walker School has been preparing young women to make a difference in the world. At Walker’s, we seek to foster and cherish the joyful development of girls into young women so that they may reach their full potential as astute thinkers and doers in the world. Our grounding values of integrity, respect, confidence, courage, conviction, and love of learning provide a solid framework for personal, ethical, and social growth.

Our grades 6–12 plus postgraduate education serves not only as preparation for college, but for life itself in this century of constant change. Walker’s graduates, whatever field they pursue, are societal engineers, reworking and rewiring the very mechanisms of our world. Our ethos of warm receptivity to new ideas and people, as well as enduring and deep friendships over time, emerges out of Ethel Walker’s philosophy of education and her desire to provide girls with a foundation for lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity.

At Walker’s, girls can be themselves, discover their true passions and purpose, and achieve their best performance in every aspect of life.

See for yourself!

Location

Located in Simsbury, CT
175-acre campus
Two hours from New York City and Boston

Student Body

228 total enrollment
116 boarding, 112 day
46 students in the Middle School
30% students of color
19% international students

Faculty

38 teaching faculty
83% of faculty & administration hold advanced degrees
55% of faculty & administration live on campus

Classes, Clubs, and More

Advanced Courses

Walker’s advanced courses spark genuine excitement about learning, create real-world connections and allow for exploration. Our master faculty design a curriculum that is meaningful, rigorous, and inspiring. A robust offering of advanced courses stretches students to become reflective, analytical thinkers who are motivated to direct their own learning. By designing our own advanced curriculum, we can offer a wider variety of subject areas without the confines of a culminating standardized test. Students, accordingly, are prepared to take AP exams if they so choose.

Athletics

Student-athletes at Walkerʼs compete in the Founders League, a league comprised of highly selective college preparatory schools, and nationally recognized as one of the most competitive and respected leagues in the country. Walkerʼs interscholastic sports offerings include basketball, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, skiing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, tennis, and volleyball.

Riding

Riding has been part of life at Walker’s since its founding in 1911. The social, emotional, and character-based lessons that come from a passion for equestrian sports are consistent with our School’s history and mission, and our exceptional equestrian program sets Walker’s apart from its private school peers.

The Arts

Our highly qualified and trained arts faculty are active in their respective disciplines, keeping our programs fresh and relevant. Arts offerings include ceramics, drawing, graphic publication, painting, photography, sculpture, a cappella, African drumming, bell choir, choir, gospel choir, orchestra, rock band, dance workshop, dance ensemble, winter play, and spring musical.

Clubs and Organizations

Walkerʼs offers a large number of student-organized clubs and organizations, including affinity groups, performing clubs, academic clubs, and more. Students who have particular areas of interest can create their own clubs and set up regular meetings and activities.

Middle School

Walker’s Middle School is a private day and boarding school for students in grades six through eight. As the only private all-girls middle school in central Connecticut, we seek to establish four main ideas including a sense of wonder, possibility, and preparedness within a warm, supportive community.

Explore Our Middle School

In Their Words

Here I found my inner voice, I built my confidence, I learned to listen to others, and acknowledge and accept the differences of opinions. I feel like every day I am getting more prepared for adult life.

—Mikayla N. '25

In Their Words

Quinn made wonderful lifelong friendships and had terrific faculty mentors. Through all of these endeavors and relationships, Walkerʼs became her world. Quinn is forever connected to Walkerʼs.

—Colleen Magnus Pʼ20

Where Our Grads Go

Our graduates have been accepted to selective and highly-selective schools. Wherever they end up, Walker’s women stand out in their communities for their ability to be collaborative among diverse groups of people. This makes our alumnae not only admired leaders, but essential citizens in a globalized world.

College Matriculations of the Classes of 2020–2024

American International College
American University
Amherst College
Augusta University
Babson College
Bard College
Bates College
Bentley University
Bern University of Applied Sciences
Boston College
Boston University
Brandeis University
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
California Polytechnic State University
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
Clark University
Coastal Carolina University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of Charleston
Columbia University
Connecticut State Community College
Dartmouth College
Delaware State University
Dominican University New York
Drexel University
Eckerd College
Elon University
Emerson College
Emmanuel College
Emory University
Endicott College
Fairfield University
Florida Institute of Technology
Framingham State University
Franklin & Marshall College
Franklin Pierce University
Furman University
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Gettysburg College
Goldsmiths, University of London
Grinnell College
Harvard University
High Point University
Howard University

Iona University
James Madison University
Johns Hopkins University
Johnson & Wales University
Kenyon College
Lake Forest College
Lehigh University
Lewis University
Liberty University
Loyola University Maryland
Marist College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mercer University
Merrimack College
Miami University Oxford
Middlebury College
Montana State University
Montclair State University
Morgan State University
Mount Holyoke College
New England Institute of Technology
New York University
Northeastern University
Oberlin College
Occidental College
Olin College of Engineering
Pace University
Penn State University
Pratt Institute
Princeton University
Purdue University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Roger Williams University
Rollins College
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
Saint Anselm College
Saint Louis University
Saint Michael’s College
Salve Regina University
Savannah College of Art and Design
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Scripps College
Simmons University
Skidmore College
Smith College
Spelman College
St. Lawrence University

Stanford University
Stetson University
Stonehill College
Suffolk University
Swarthmore College
Syracuse University
Texas Christian University
The New School
The University of Alabama
The University of Findlay
Trinity College
Tufts University
Tulane University of Louisiana
Universidad Europea
University of California Berkeley
University of California Davis
University of California Irvine
University of California Los Angeles
University of California San Diego
University of California Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Guelph
University of Hartford
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Mississippi
University of New Haven
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Rhode Island
University of Richmond
University of Saint Joseph
University of St Andrews
University of Sussex
University of the Arts London
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Villanova University
Washington College
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Wheaton College
Williams College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University