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|  | About CFS Mission & Philosophy MissionCambridge Friends School is a co-educational elementary school (pre-K - grade 8) established in 1961 under the care of Friends Meeting at Cambridge, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
It is the mission of Cambridge Friends School to provide an outstanding education. Guided by Quaker principles, we engage students in meaningful academic learning within a caring community strongly committed to social justice. We expect all students to develop their intellectual, physical, creative, and spiritual potential and, through the example of their lives, to challenge oppression and to contribute to justice and understanding in the world.
As part of our commitment to social justice, we are engaged in building an antiracist, antihomophobic community, and we actively seek students and staff from a diverse range of family structures and racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds. Our community tries to go beyond mere tolerance to more deeply address issues of bias and privilege.
The Quaker belief that there is that of God in every person -- the Light or Spirit within -- is the foundation of our faith both in the worth of each student and in his or her potential for growth. We honor each student's strengths and abilities. The school will challenge and support each child to achieve excellence in all areas of the curriculum. We believe this happens best in a diverse community of children and adults working together in mutual trust and respect.
Our curriculum is designed to develop broad literacy and to stimulate intellectual integrity and love of learning in all students. Daily work focuses on developing competence and confidence in analytical, critical, verbal, creative, mathematical, aesthetic, physical, and spiritual areas. In accordance with Quaker commitment to the search for truth, we believe that learning is not only acquiring a body of information but a process and a mode of inquiry. Our goal is that students will be learners and seekers throughout their lives.
We strive to create a safe environment where children are encouraged both to stand up for their convictions in the face of opposition and to listen to others with a willingness to change.
Teachers help children of all ages to develop a commitment to truthfulness and personal integrity and to be responsible and effective members of a group and the larger community. As children acquire an inner discipline and sense of themselves, they learn that their knowledge and understanding are created through their own work, not received as unexamined truth from others. Our expectation is that students will grow as active participants, not bystanders, in their own affairs and in those of the world around them.
Silence is an integral part of the life of the school, and its use arises from Quaker practice. Silence can lead to an awareness of that inner stillness where we can have moments of clarity. Periods of silence are valued in a variety of settings, including a weekly Quaker Meeting held throughout the school.
We live in a world where racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, and other forms of oppression exist, not only among individuals but in our society and institutions. As an educational community of faith, we are challenged to empower students to make positive change in this world, and to do the same, ourselves, as an institution.
In keeping with the Quaker Peace Testimony, we are committed to peaceful conflict resolution. Disagreement and conflict are inevitable in any group; we work to achieve understanding through respectful dialogue, negotiation, and an ongoing redefinition of perspectives. We trust in the power of the Spirit within to help us achieve the just and caring community we envision.
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| Philosophy Firmly rooted in the enduring values of the Quakers, Cambridge Friends School is a vibrant, 21st Century learning community that chooses simplicity over material possession; peaceful resolution of conflict over aggression; integrity over expedience; equality over elitism; and stewardship of the earth as a collective and personal responsibility. CFS students are lovingly educated; they go many places and do many things, each propelled by possibility, motivated by optimism, unrestricted by convention, reinforced by achievement, and guided by principle. |
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Different by Design: How We Teach and Learn The Cambridge Friends School experience stimulates imaginations, engages intellects, strengthens bodies, and enriches spirits. Cambridge Friends School provides students with the time and the place in which to build the foundation for a happy, prosperous, and meaningful life. Cambridge Friends School is an independent school in which girls and boys and women and men share in silence and dialogue, reflection and debate, with a self-respect and mutual regard that inspires each individual to grow ever stronger.
With the central goal of promoting academic excellence in our students, Cambridge Friends School is guided by the principles of progressive education, which recognize that children learn best as active participants, collaborators, and problem-solvers.
Rich projects and materials enable children to acquire the skills and conceptual understandings that lie at the heart of the formal disciplines. Children learn deeply when all of their senses are involved in active exploration of a stimulating environment.
At CFS, we respect a variety of learning styles as children engage in experimenting, drawing, writing, modeling, dramatizing, discussing, reading, building, and inventing.
We teach the inquiry process, encouraging students' thoughtful questioning and guiding the in-depth study of themes and topics. Students gather information from a variety of sources (interviews, books, films, field trips, experiments, media, digital resources) to seek answers to their questions. Then they synthesize what they discover into new learning and share it through conversations, projects, and presentations.
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