Home - Portsmouth Abbey School

What it means to be a Raven

As you browse our website, or visit our campus, you will note our beautiful location and our rich offerings. I hope you will also get a sense of our community life and the value we place upon it as an equal part of our 3 Rs: Reverence, Respect, and Responsibility

Mr. Daniel McDonough
Headmaster

Daniel McDonough

Headmaster

"As my family and I begin our 32nd year at Portsmouth, it's easy to look back and realize how quickly the School became not just a job, but a home. It's the same feeling a great number of our students have, as the School becomes their home away from home, sometimes to their surprise. As someone who left Portsmouth after three years, and then returned "for one more year" 28 years ago, I can say with assurance that Portsmouth has a way of growing on you."

Communities don’t just happen; rather, they require individuals to engage honestly and fully in the experience, and our students understand that. I don’t think any school does community quite like the Abbey.

Mrs. Corie McDermott-Fazzino
Director of College Counseling

Mrs. Corie McDermott-Fazzino

Director of College Counseling

“Communities don't just happen; rather, they require individuals to engage honestly and fully in the experience, and our students understand that. As a houseparent, I often observed genuine care and kindness between roommates. As a varsity coach, I am always impressed by how my squash players strike a balance between competitiveness during ladder play and supportiveness as teammates. As an English teacher, I am impressed with how my students embrace seminar discussion and work together to understand the literature. Maybe I'm biased, but I don't think any school does community quite like the Abbey.”

The most significant influence I gained from the Abbey is work ethic. To this day, I think of Mr. Hobbins preaching about the importance of doing your job and working hard at everything you do (especially without whining).

2nd Lieutenant Trevor Kenahan
Class of 2012

2nd Lieutenant Trevor Kenahan

Class of 2012

"Portsmouth Abbey shaped me in three major ways: communication, critical thinking, and work ethic. As a Marine Corps Officer, a large part of what we do is planning missions and briefing our Marines. This process requires a great deal of critical analysis during the planning phase as well as confidence when briefing our plan to a platoon of Marines. Doing recitations over the years helped me build my confidence in this regard (I still have some of the poems committed to memory to this day). Secondly, the Abbey’s focus on exegesis has greatly helped me during the planning process in the Marine Corps as I am able to better analyze mission situations. The structure and discipline required at the Abbey instilled habits in me that made me the person I am today."

The thing that makes teaching at Portsmouth Abbey so special is the students, as every student has a place here and is surrounded by all of the other students that care.

Mrs. Susan McCarthy
Mathematics

Mrs. Susan McCarthy

Mathematics

"As they arrive to the classroom, my Algebra 2 students want to be the first one to claim a homework problem to present on the board. The students are willing to take academic risks and put themselves out there while solving the problems, and this makes all of the students in the classroom learn so much faster. In my AP Statistics classes, they really get into the real-life applications, and the quality of their work is amazing."

525 Acres on Campus

360 Total Students

1.2 Miles of Coastline

25Varsity Teams

7:1 Student:Teacher Ratio

80%Faculty With Advanced Degrees

6Annual Study Abroad Trips

3Plays Performed Each Year

6Visual Arts Courses

78Courses Offered

The Aim of Portsmouth Abbey

Helping young men and women grow in knowledge and grace.

Grounded in the Catholic faith and 1,500-year-old Benedictine intellectual tradition, we foster:

Reverence for God and the human person
Respect for learning and order
Responsibility for the shared experience of community life

About Portsmouth Abbey

For 90 years, our liberal arts curriculum has been preparing students for lives of significance and purpose.

Part of our mission is to live in a community that values each of its members. This enables students to better understand themselves and the world around them. We celebrate our achievements and we offer help to those in need in an effort to make this a more gracious community.

Securing our Academic Future

Science in the 21st Century at Portsmouth Abbey

Our newest capital campaign features an astounding state-of-the-art science education facility. The new building will feature seven laboratories & seven classrooms, a multi-purpose seminar room, a multi-story commons, and more.