Dear Friends,

On any given day at Friends School of Portland if you come for a visit, you will overhear good questions being asked and notice everyone’s willingness to get a little dirty.

If you visit on a certain day in the spring, you might see seventh and eighth-graders running down the stone stairs to get to their afternoon performance of their play, with scarves and fairy accessories blowing in the breeze, looking like such little kids and big kids at the same time. 

In winter, you might get sledding advice from third and fourth-grade students or sit down with Kindergarteners circled up outside their outdoor classroom, drinking hot cocoa in steel mugs around a fire. You might sit in stump-land with first and second graders enjoying lunch and hearing about the poetry they’ve been writing.

If you time it just right, you might see preschoolers at the edge of their tarp lean-to, waiting for one of their teachers to theatrically dump rainwater off the edge after many dramatic false countdowns. You might see fifth and sixth-grade students racing propeller cars they’ve built during science class down the hallway.

Depending on when you visit, you might hear loud screams and peels of laughter, like during the I-Kid-erod Assembly, when students pulled each other in sleds through a grove of trees. Or you might hear silence, if you visit during a Read-a-thon assembly, the school spread out in the grass and under trees, reading peacefully. If you come for a Meeting for Worship, silence might be broken by a student standing up to share a message with their community.

One of my favorite views from my first year was the whole school circled up for field day. Someone else on the hill with me wasn’t sure if it was a circle shape or actually more of a heart.

At Friends School of Portland, we approach learning with a focus both on deep community connection and on seeing individuals for who they are and who they are becoming. At the core of our work, as both students and adults, is curiosity, love, revision, a commitment to take care of the earth and each other, and the call to stand up for what’s kind and just.

We look forward to welcoming you to Friends School of Portland!