About Us
Friends' Central School is an independent, all-gender Quaker day school founded in 1845 and serving approximately 850 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.
Our Mission:
We cultivate the intellectual, spiritual, and ethical promise of our students.
Our Vision:
To awaken courage and intellect - and peacefully transform the world
The exceptional faculty at Friends' Central offers a curriculum that is both challenging and thoughtful, cultivating the intellectual, spiritual, and ethical growth of our students. Our pedagogy is grounded in continuing revelation, reflection, integrity, and a willingness to accept responsibility. 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 always intellectually curious and engaged thinkers. Friends' Central prepares graduates to succeed in college and in life.
A Quaker History of Inclusivity and Diversity
When Friends’ Central School was founded in 1845, it was a time of great division among Quakers. Our school was founded to include and serve all Quakers and was, by design, co-educational and open to non-Friends’ from the day it opened. This interest in inclusivity continues today as Friends’ Central strives for racial, religious and socio-economic diversity in its student body and among its faculty.
We are committed to building and maintaining an inclusive and diverse community. All constituencies - faculty, staff, students, administrators, parents, trustees, and alumni/ae - are responsible for an awareness of and ongoing dialogue around equity issues of race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, privilege, religion, physical ability, and family structure, as well as for enhancing the Philosophy of Inclusivity and Awareness articulated in our Diversity Statement.