Friends' Central School Overview
Friends' Central School is an independent, coeducational Quaker day school founded in 1845 and serving approximately 880 students in Nursery through grade 12. Located in the Philadelphia suburbs, the School has two campuses. The Middle & Upper Schools are located just outside of West Philadelphia in Wynnewood, and the Lower School is on our Old Gulph Road campus in the heart of Wynnewood. The Lower School, which is grades Nursery through Fifth Grade, has approximately 285 students.
The exceptional faculty at Friends' Central offers a curriculum that cultivates the intellectual, spiritual, and ethical growth of our students. Our pedagogy is grounded in continuing revelation, reflection, and integrity. From Nursery to Grade 12, our students participate in a process designed to foster creative, critical, and flexible thinking, along with compassion. As they transform from playful children to skilled, self-possessed teenagers, they are intellectually curious and engaged thinkers. Friends' Central prepares graduates to succeed in college and in life.
The Nature Nursery is a magical place where important lessons about sharing, friendship, math, art, science, and reading happen in the context of the woods, gardens, pond, stream, fields, and classrooms of our beautiful 18-acre campus. Highly qualified teachers guide our youngest students, beginning at age 2 years and 7 months, through their first steps in the Friends' Central School community. Nursery students play on their own playground and take 'field trips' to explore and learn from different facets of our campus. Learning thematically with an integrated approach to language arts, math, and social studies takes place both in the classroom and outdoors, where an exploration of the natural world – including seed germination, plant growth, and animal habitats – is a core part of our curriculum.
