Welcome FCS parents! This is your "go to" page page for easy access to information that parents find useful.  The Home and School Association (HSA) is the School's volunteer parent/guardian organization.  The HSA is responsible for maintaining this page.  We hope you will make it a "Favorite" or a "Bookmark."

This is an open meeting and all FCS parents are invited. We will identify and discuss common microaggressions across some identities.  We will also spend time creating and sharing language in order to give us tools to counter microaggressions in the moment. Please listen to or read this article before the session.

Please click here to RSVP.

All PSOC members are invited to a night of Black History trivia.  See JTF for registration details. 

Black Lives Matter At School

A Week of Action. A Year of Purpose. A Lifetime of Practice.

Black Lives Matter at School is a national coalition organizing for racial justice in education. The annual week of action has swept the country since 2016, when it began in Seattle. In 2017, it began in Philadelphia starting with a day and grew to become a week. The Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action encourages students and families to participate and reflect all year. Join me for read-alouds with younger students as a means to discuss guiding principles such as restorative justice and empathy. Gather with Middle School and Upper School students to watch and listen to poetry, music, and monologues in order to reflect and discuss principles such as globalism, diversity, and the intersections of Black identity.

Whether you are a member of the Black community, an ally, accomplice, and/or co-conspirator, you are welcome to join us in action towards a more anti-bias and anti-racist school.

Each evening, I will have programming for Lower School students, followed by Middle and Upper School students, to learn about the 13 guiding principles of Black Lives Matter at School.

Students can join me every night during that week using this Zoom link.

• Lower School students can join for a read-aloud connected to the principles of the day from 7-7:30 pm.
• Middle School and Upper School students can join me for a conversation around the principles of the day from 7:35-8:05 pm.

Erica Snowden
Director of Equity and Multicultural Education

The Parents of Students of Color, more commonly known as P.S.O.C., welcomes you!P.S.O.C. is a group of parents that work collaboratively with the Home & School Association to support families of color by fostering open communication between parents and the School. Our focus is to ensure that families of color feel empowered and included as equal members of the Friends’ Central community. 

Some of P.S.O.C.’s work entails organizing social events, and helping with workshops particularly those focusing on issues surrounding race, diversity, equity,  and inclusion. Our Co-clerks meet with various FCS community stakeholders regularly in an effort to ensure that the unique needs and voices of families of color are understood and valued. P.S.O.C. also hosts meetings for parents throughout the school year that provide us an opportunity to share our collective experiences as families of color at Friends’ Central School. 

Please be on the lookout for forthcoming invitations to future P.S.O.C. hosted events throughout the year. 

Thank you,

Lisa Solomon, Lavonia Waddington, Joyce Stovall, & Kinshasa Rodgers 

Parents of Students of Color Co-clerks

The Parents of Students of Color (P.S.O.C.) have come together in the School’s belief that “each human life is uniquely valuable and interrelated one with another”.  Our purpose is to foster more open communication within the school community between administration, faculty, staff, parents and children.  We support efforts to develop greater understanding and an awareness of the needs and values of children of color and the empowering of children of color within the Friends Central School community as part of a unified whole.

PSOC Events - Save the Dates

• JTF - Just the FaCtS (our weekly newsletter)

• PPU - Parent Pick-up at the end of the day

• MFW - Meeting for Worship

• HSA - Home & School Association, FCS Parent Group

• School Mascot - The Phoenix

• School Colors - Blue and Gray

Welcome!

The Home & School Association is a vibrant and vital part of the Friends’ Central School community. The HSA links home and school by engaging our diverse and accomplished parent/guardian community in support of HSA events.

Parents and guardians become a part of the HSA upon enrollment and may serve in a variety of ways; as a Co-Clerk, Division Co-Chair or Parent Representative of the Executive Committee, or as a volunteer for a Service, grade specific or all-school event. There should be an opportunity to fit every schedule!

Events sponsored or supported by the Home & School Association include; Parent Gatherings, the Middle and Upper School Book Fairs, the Lower School Pumpkin Fair, Principal Coffees, Curriculum Nights, MLK Day of Service, Movie Nights, Spirit Night and Faculty Appreciation celebrations...just to name a few.

As Co-clerks of the Home & School Association, we believe that Friends’ Central parents and guardians are essential for the development and success of our students. With the support of family and Friends’ our children and our community are made stronger. We know your time is valuable and we value any time you have to give!

Thank you,

Christine Giordano and Meg Wuisinch
Co-Clerks of the Home & School Association

Lower School Meeting for Sharing - Wednesday, February 24 at 7 pm
The HSA invites all Lower School Parents to a Meeting for Sharing, in the manner of Friends, to share your experiences about parenting during a pandemic on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 7 pm. Meeting for Sharing is a space, "to explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation." The evening will begin with a brief overview of the Meeting for Sharing process. Click here for guidelines. We will then go to breakout rooms to share your experiences by speaking to specific queries. We will be joined by Quaker Coordinator Robyn Richmond and Director of Support Services Frederick Pratt who will help guide us through the process. Please RSVP here.

On Monday, we honored Black History Month with a celebration of local Philly heroes. You can check out the slideshow here! We also welcomed the Year of the Ox with a presentation on the Lunar New Year. On Wednesday, we gathered online for Meeting for Worship and extended the Valentine’s Day spirit, reflecting on the profound nature of love. The meeting was led by a faculty read aloud. While students spent Thursday and Friday at home, we were so pleased to see them on screen, continuing to do the wonderful things that our Middle School students always do. We are so lucky to have this group.

Fast 15! The Importance of Native Plants With Miriam Schaefer - Tuesday, Feb. 23
Sponsored by your HSA Grade 10 Parent Reps
You are invited to join Miriam Schaefer, member of the FCS Sustainability Committee and our Director of Finance and Operations, on Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7 pm for a presentation she has titled, “Native Plants - the power to restore our local ecosystems is in our hands." She will discuss Doug Tallamy’s 2009 Bringing Nature Home; a book that took the horticultural world by storm. This book opened her eyes to the destruction of ecosystem that our suburban gardening habits have wrought and how it is not too late to restore them. Learn how the School and many of your neighbors are changing their gardens in small but important ways, and delight in what Doug Tallamy describes as "a different kind of beauty" that you will find right outside your door. Click here to RSVP.

Save the Date: Wednesday, Mar. 3 - Fast 15! with FCS Board Clerk and Archeology Professor Jim Wright
During the next installment of Fast 15! Jim Wright, FCS Board Clerk, will be discussing Archaeology: What’s It All About Today? on Wednesday, Mar. 3, at 7 pm. 

Registration Open Now for SpeakUp! - Tuesday, March 9 at 7 pm
We are excited to host SpeakUp! on Tuesday, Mar. 9, at 7 pm. A forum for youth, educators, and families, SpeakUp! enables students and their parents/guardians to come together to have open, honest, and non-judgmental discussions on topics chosen by FCS students. Not sure what SpeakUp! is all about? Check out this video, or visit SpeakUp!'s website. SpeakUp! is open to the entire FCS Upper School community. We hope that you take advantage of this chance to experience the magic of the SpeakUp! model. Please join us for this outstanding, important opportunity for students, parents, and educators. Click here to register!