Community Life


As a Quaker school, community is the heart of everything we do.  Our school is intentionally small, so that teachers and students know each other well, not only within a classroom, but across classes and grade levels.  We gather as a whole community at least three times each week, for our Monday Meeting for Worship, our Wednesday All-School Community Meeting, and our Friday Assemblies.  Middle school electives, aftercare, and afterschool activities are opportunities for children to build relationships with students of all ages.

Meeting for Worship

In the tradition of Friends, students and faculty engage in a period of silent worship called Meeting for Worship every Monday afternoon. This gathering is simply a time to sit quietly and reflect upon yourself, your friends and family, and the world around you. Someone may set the tone for the meeting by reading a story, a poem, or by asking a question. It is our goal to encourage each student to seek the Inner Light, however that may manifest. In the context of silent worship and a focus on universally held values, students with a wide variety of backgrounds will feel honored and respected.

Assemblies

Our community gathers weekly to participate in community-building activities that invite us to know one another, connect with the Quaker values, and share in the joy of being together. Assemblies are planned by staff, faculty, and students in weekly committee meetings. A few annual assemblies include: Pinwheels for Peace, Creepy Crawl + Halloween Dance Party, Visiting Artists’ Week Share, Talent Show, Community Art Walk, and Graduation.

Community Meetings

All students and faculty come together every Wednesday morning for news and announcements (including birthdays). Classrooms take turns presenting a Thought for the Week related to Quaker values.

Buddies

Cross-grade level connections and community building in all age groups are a fundamental part of our program. Each year, older and younger students are paired up, and spend time together at work shares, assemblies, and planned classroom activities over the school year.  Buddies are an integral part of learning in community at FSP. 

Visiting Artists’ Week

During Visiting Artists’ Week, children get to dig into creative endeavors across ages in a substantial way. There’s joy in being able to share ideas in new, visible ways and to make plans and creations with peers and adults new to us. During the Spring 2025 Visiting Artists’ Week, projects ranged from creating t-shirt mandalas with Jolie Day, FSP’s former art teacher, who made the trip from Tennessee on her spring break, to Veeva Banga, who led an Afrobeats dance session that ended with a dance party that closed out our Friday assembly. 

Overnight Trips

Rich learning arises from the experience of encountering something new and integrating it into our understanding.  Teachers at Friends School of Portland regularly use pedagogical techniques both in and out of the classroom to introduce students to new perspectives, experiences, and understandings.  But longer school trips–venturing to an unfamiliar place with one’s peers for one or more nights away– have a unique power to open us to new experiences and to facilitate intrapersonal, interpersonal, and academic growth.  Beginning in third grade, each student participates in an overnight trip each year.

Graduation

Each year, the graduating class celebrates this milestone by planting a tree in our orchard. An afternoon all-school assembly includes parting gifts made by each class and a special tribute to each graduate by a teacher. An evening specially called meeting for graduation is held in the manner of friends.