An independent school in Middletown, DE for students in Preschool through Grade 8

Our History & Community

History

St. Anne's Episcopal School opened its doors in the fall of 2002 to 197 students.  St. Anne’s was conceived in the late 1990s through initiatives of educational visionaries at St. Andrew's School, a highly regarded boarding school founded in 1929 that is just across Silver Lake from St. Anne's.  In describing his reason for founding St. Andrew’s, Alexis Felix duPont wrote in the late 1920s that his vision was to support the creation of “schools of definitely Christian character in Delaware.”

In 1999, strategic planning for St. Andrew's noted that recruitment and retention of a strong faculty and administrative staff for St. Andrew's would be greatly enhanced by access to a fine, independent elementary and middle school. 

Thus the seeds of St. Anne's Episcopal School were planted for the benefit of the families associated with St. Andrew's, as well as the growing population in the greater Middletown, Delaware area. St. Andrew’s offered access to the 125-acre property and made a generous contribution to help establish an endowment. The endowment, valued now at over $9 million, enabled the building project to begin in 2001 and continues to provide a foundation for the School. Harvey Zendt served for six years as the founding Head of School from 2002 until July 2008 and  was succeeded by Peter Thayer, who served from 2008-2019.

The current Head of School is Barry Davis.

Through our Red Doors

At the front of our school is a plaque commemorating the vision of our founders and the fruits of their work in 2002. The plaque concludes with the blessing: “May all who enter these doors grow in wisdom and love.”

St. Anne’s Episcopal School is more than an institution of exceptional intellectual development and academic success. St. Anne’s is a broader community of people from age 3 to 93 who are growing as people, becoming more compassionate, more respectful, more responsible for themselves and for others.

It is our mission to help children become their best selves in all dimensions of their lives: intellectually, artistically, physically, morally, and spiritually. We believe that every member of our community is a beloved child of God, walking a sacred path that includes setbacks and triumphs, challenges and joys.  We walk this path together.

We are working to make the world better one child at a time -- by focusing our resources, our energies, and our love on each one, accepting and valuing them for who they are now, furthering their growth, developing their talents, and inspiring them to build lives of meaning, purpose, and service to the world.