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Dedham Country Day School

Ready for learning, ready for life. Dedham Country Day is a pre-K to grade 8 independent school outside Boston, more than a century old, where appropriate challenge builds confidence and a close community builds acceptance, so every child gets to say, "I've got this."

Dedham Country Day School website homepage on a desktop browser showing the Ready for Learning, Ready for Life headline

Dedham Country Day School website on a mobile device showing the Ready for Learning, Ready for Life headline and a smiling student

Project New Website Build
Contribution Lead Full-Stack Development
Agency 829 Studios
Platform WordPress

Overview

u003cpu003eDedham Country Day is a pre-K to grade 8 independent school outside Boston that has been around for more than a century. This was an 829 Studios project, where I work, and it was the first of these where I wasn’t flying solo: I was the primary full-stack developer and also managed the team of developers who built alongside me.u003c/pu003enu003cpu003eThe interesting part is how much of the site is fed by outside systems instead of hand-entered content. A Blackbaud API integration pulls the school’s academic calendar, athletic calendar, and game details straight onto the site, and the same Blackbaud ecosystem powers the online giving forms, so the advancement and athletics offices manage everything from their own system of record. On top of that, the site runs on several custom content types, including news, events, faculty, testimonials, and galleries, with filtering on the news archive and the calendar so families can quickly find what applies to them.u003c/pu003e

Lead Developer u0026 Team Manager

I was the primary full-stack developer and also managed the team of developers working alongside me, owning both the build and how the work got divided and delivered.
Built On WordPress

A fully custom WordPress theme for an independent pre-K to 8 school, built to carry the school's warm, child-centered brand across a deep, multi-section site.
Blackbaud Integration

A deep Blackbaud integration pulls the academic calendar, the athletic calendar, and game info directly onto the site and powers the online giving forms, keeping it all in the school's system of record.
Custom Content Types

The site runs on several custom post types, including news, events, faculty, testimonials, and galleries, each with its own templates so staff can manage every kind of content cleanly.
Filterable News u0026 Calendar

A news archive filterable by type, division, and category, plus an events calendar filterable by audience and event type, so families land on what's relevant without digging.