Serving our Community for Decades
Groton Community School, Inc. can trace its history back to the 1920s and has been housed in various sites in Groton throughout the years. Our roots go back to a small studio building on Peabody Street, a little brick schoolhouse on Long Hill Road, and a residence on Main Street, with an official beginning in 1945 as Groton Community Kindergarten in the First Parish Church. Subsequent sites were at Grotonwood and the Prescott School building.
Today, we continue to provide a warm, safe, and creative environment for young children and families through our dedicated staff, rich curriculum, and openness to family and community involvement.
Groton Community School is a nonprofit, non-discriminatory organization, which serves children ages 2.0 through Kindergarten. Many of the students are from Groton, while others travel from nearby towns. The school is licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In October 1984, the school moved into a current location at 110 Boston Road, in a space specifically designed for early childhood education, providing young children with the best of both indoor and outdoor environments. All classrooms featured child-size sinks, making a variety of creative art experiences possible, and kitchenette units that allowed special cooking/baking activities. Each classroom offered direct access to its own patio and a spacious well-equipped fenced-in playground. The playground was redesigned in 2002 to create an outdoor “playscape”, with opportunities for sensory and nature explorations, dramatic play, and large motor development, as well as “outdoor classrooms” separate from the main play area. A large multi-purpose room indoors played host to a variety of children’s events, including musical and other children’s performers, class plays and performances, and other special guests. The entire facility, was air-conditioned, and reflected a bright and happy ambiance that has become so much a part of Groton Community School’s reputation.
From the fall of 2019 through December of 2020, the school was completely renovated and expanded in Phase One of our Forward Motion Project, including not only the above elements, but numerous enhancements to create a state-of-the-art learning environment. These include: enlarged classrooms; staff spaces for curriculum planning and collaboration; a dedicated Children’s Library, Technology and Resource Center; a redesigned Program Center with space for families to network and for teachers to hold parent teacher conferences; focused efforts to ensure sustainability, protect the future of the school, health of our community, and instill environmental stewardship in our children. A temporary site on the Lawrence Academy grounds served us very well, in the interim during construction.
Groton Community School benefited greatly from our affiliation with the Learning Express educational toy store in Acton, MA. Founded by a former Board of Directors President with board member collaboration as a fundraising idea, the concept of the Learning Express toy stores has grown in popularity, with numerous franchises nationwide. We are proud that this first Learning Express store – initially owned and operated by Groton Community School – inspired so many others to participate in what became the Learning Express Corporation.
