Our school’s culture—rooted in the idea that collaboration engenders achievement—can be traced to our Quaker heritage and abiding belief in Quaker values. Our teachers strive to identify and cultivate each child’s intellectual, extracurricular, and social passions. We call it recognizing “the Light within.” In doing so, we help shape students whose actions speak volumes and whose lives become exemplars—not only among their peers and families today but also in their personal, educational, and professional communities in college and beyond.
We asked students, faculty, alumni, and families about distinguishing characteristics they thought made SSFS stand out. Here are six of the characteristics that rose to the top, each one shining a light on our culture, our people, and our educational philosophy.
Quaker Values
At Sandy Spring Friends School, we have a profound sense of hope in the individual's ability to create positive change within the world, and we foster the values that create change: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship. These values are sometimes referred to by their acronym, the Quaker SPICES.
Inquiry-based Approach
We take an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning, challenging students to strive for academic excellence and to realize their highest potential.
Experiential Learning
We believe that learning is significantly enriched by experience-based projects and programs. They help develop capable, responsible, and globally-aware students who can apply their learning in useful, practical, and meaningful ways.
Teachers as Mentors
Because our teachers see each student as a unique individual, they strive to cultivate each student’s inner Light and talents. The resulting dynamic of frequent communication and trust facilitates confidence and growth, as well as an optimistic outlook, a lifelong love of learning, and the desire to accomplish positive change in the world.
Campus as a Classroom
Our 140-acre campus near urban centers features an old-growth forest and stream, making it a natural environment for study and contemplation and enabling access to a wealth of resources, including six miles of cross-country trails, a pond/swimming hole used seasonally by students and our summer camp, and an aerial adventure park.
Diverse, Caring Community
We believe in a diverse, collaborative, nonhierarchical community, strengthened by all-school and all-division meetings, an active Parents Association, an engaged alumni body, and an emphasis on affirming and empowering the individual and examining all points of view.
