The Friends School of Atlanta

Bringing forward more than 329 years of excellence in Quaker Education

Sep 01 2022

Accepting applications!

private school decatur

The Friends School of Atlanta is still accepting applications for the 22-23 school year.  We cannot, however, extend the deadline of February 7 for financial aid applications. If you have an interest in applying for this school year or next, please find more information on the Admissions pages of this website or email Alexis Garrett, Director of Enrollment, with your questions. Also, our social media platforms offer great information on the life and values of the school. If you haven’t already done so, please follow us on Facebook  and Instagram. Instagram, especially, has a “day in the life” campaign going that will give you a good idea of our classroom experiences.

To apply, please follow the steps detailed on our Admissions page. Thank you for your interest in The Friends School of Atlanta!

Written by Nancy Bent · Categorized: News, Uncategorized

Feb 20 2020

Uncovering the Tools for Success

Laura James, Head of Middle School, revels in the thick of it. During her 30-plus years in education she’s felt most at home working directly with students, always asking, “What do children need to succeed?”  That simple question pretty much sums up her life’s work as an educator and an administrator.

In 2014 Waman French, Head of School at The Friends School of Atlanta (FSA), asked if she could step in to support the school’s growing middle school. In retrospect, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Before FSA Laura had spent years at The Children’s School in midtown Atlanta teaching various grades, from kindergarten through middle school. She then earned her master’s degree in curriculum design for learning differences. “I then realized something that has proven to be truer than anything else I know: Everybody learns differently. It’s not just that children with dyslexia learn differently. Everyone does.”

She moved up to become principal of the Children’s School middle school program, then retired from that several years later and moved into educational consulting. The career move that made sense at the time, since her mind was set on retiring from school life. But then she got the call from Waman.

“I had zero intention of returning to the world of school,” she recalled. “I had celebrated leaving it, in fact. But the honest truth is, I was mesmerized and captivated by the faculty at FSA. The kids are wonderful here, and the philosophy and mission are aligned with everything I know. But I watched how the teachers taught here, and I knew I wanted to be part of this.” Seeing FSA in action reminded her why she had wanted to teach in the first place: to help children be the best they can be—and not just academically, but socially and emotionally, too.

Laura helps teachers design curriculums that match the needs of the kids they have. That’s not unique, especially among progressive independent schools. “But this is more,” she said. “Here, it’s more about, ‘What can I do to help you do your job? What can I do to get things out of your way, so you can just focus on the kids? What do you need? Once we know, let’s get it. And it’s a moving target. It changes. But let’s do the best we can today, and then let’s do it again tomorrow.’”

This has brought Laura’s lifelong specialty—what’s known in educational circles as “differentiated instruction”—to another level. Again, everyone learns differently, and teachers aim to give students the unique help they need. This can include assistive technology like voice-to-text, but it also be about pushing students as far as they can go, be it in math or science or a second language. If a student proves he or she is ready for, say, high school calculus, FSA gives that person the tools to go forth and learn, derivatives and all.

It’s not just what students learn, but how. “For instance, we teach various ways a student can study and how to prepare for a test,” Laura said. “Some study with a person, some study alone, some are in groups. And we find that, by the time kids reach 12 or 13, they’re picking the best ways that work for them.

“In other words, they’ve learned what they need to be successful.”

For the middle schooler— and, for that matter, all of us—this may well be the most valuable lesson of all.

Written by Nancy Bent · Categorized: School Culture, School People

Dec 02 2019

Open House April 18

We are holding an Open House on Saturday, April 18, from 10:00 am to noon. Come and bring the family. Talk to teachers, parents and staff. Tour the campus. We would love to show you wonderful school! Reservations for the Open House can be made at Ravenna. Or just drop by. For more information, contact Alvanita Hope-Negrón, Director of Enrollment.

Written by Nancy Bent · Categorized: Uncategorized

Sep 18 2019

Children are Not Numbers

John demonstrates a favorite fourth grade project: the stomp rocket.

FSA fourth grade teacher John Grijak recalled sitting in his adviser’s office during his last year at college. John had excelled as an accounting major, and sure, the subject was interesting enough. After all, excelling at something tends to build confidence. But something didn’t feel quite right. Would he be happy?

“I remember my adviser saying, ‘Once you get into the real world, things are going to change. There’s a lot of drilling here in school, but you have so many different opportunities you could pursue. Besides, just look at your grades! They say you should be an accountant.’”

Life as an adult commenced. He landed a good accounting job, met his wife, moved to Atlanta, and had a son, after which he became a stay-at-home dad. The move made financial sense for his family, but in retrospect, it also opened his eyes to a new world of opportunity. He volunteered at his son’s preschool, coached T-ball and essentially did everything he could to spend more time with his son—but the experience turned out to be so much more.  

“I remember people asking me, ‘Why aren’t you in education?’ After a while, I started asking myself, ‘Yeah, why aren’t I in education?’’

During this time John and his wife were considering schooling options for their son. They could tell he was bright, and the last thing they wanted was for him to fall through the cracks. They wanted small class sizes and instruction tailored not for answers on a standardized test but for actual student needs, both academically and socially. They found all this and more at The Friends School of Atlanta.

Meanwhile, John pursued a graduate degree in education at Mercer University and student-taught at various public schools. The public schools weren’t bad, but besides their large class sizes, they took a prescriptive approach to teaching. The approach certainly worked for some, but it just didn’t feel right for him. Children are human beings, he thought, not numbers on a balance sheet or scores on a standardized test.

No wonder The Friends School of Atlanta felt right. When he substituted at the school, he met middle schoolers who weren’t anything like the stereotypical tween and young teenager. They engaged in class, spoke their minds and knew how to present a convincing argument. When he landed a full-time job at Friends as an elementary school teacher, he began to see why the school’s approach worked as well as it did. 

Teachers continually adapt their lessons to meet the needs of the children in their classrooms. Every class is unique, as is every student. Wouldn’t a cookie-cutter approach leave some students behind?

Besides, a cookie-cutter approach doesn’t reflect the world beyond the classroom. John certainly hasn’t lived a cookie-cutter life, and his students won’t either. Life isn’t a standardized test or a prescribed teaching plan set in stone. People change paths and adapt to do what’s best for them, their families, and their communities; Friends graduates learn to think about all three.

Written by Nancy Bent · Categorized: School Culture, School People

Jan 15 2019

No Such Thing as a “Math Person”

Kenny Rochester, when he began teaching math about a decade ago, thought like many people do that some people were just “math people” and others weren’t. He considered himself a math person. Growing up in New York and Connecticut, he sat in math class after math class, and it all seemed to come relatively easily. When he was accepted to Atlanta’s Morehouse College and was asked to choose a major, he chose a subject that came easily to him. The choice was obvious. After all, he was a math person.

After eight years teaching middle school math at The Friends School of Atlanta, and after being trained on a teaching approach called “growth mindset,” Kenny has changed his view—and his students have benefited.

“There’s really no such thing as a ‘math person,’’’ Kenny says. “It’s really all about your experiences. In fact, those experiences can have a real impact in how successful you are. It’s about one’s willingness to make and learn from mistakes. Honestly, the growth mindset approach has really opened my eyes. I now know that all kids can learn math at a high level.”

Many like math because of its lack of ambiguity. Sure, undergrad and grad students discover the many subtleties of higher math, but when it comes to the foundational material—arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus—primary and middle school students have rules to follow. A math problem like x + y = 10 can have many right and wrong answers; but whether they’re right or wrong isn’t up for debate. An answer is eitherright or wrong, period; x equals 9, but only when y equals 1.

The students who grasp the concept quickly like its straightforward nature; they feel good when they find the right answer. Students who don’t get the right answer, though, can grow insecure in a hurry. They then think they’re just not a math person and, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they stop applying themselves in a positive manner.

Kenny has seen this happen many times, and to turn things around, he takes a multipronged approach. First, he knows that a teacher’s impatience is the enemy. He never praises students who get a problem right and, then immediately after, turn around and express disappointment with those who don’t. That just reinforces the “math person versus non-math person” stereotype.

He instead praises mistakes. When students make errors, it’s not a failure; they’re instead one step closer to getting it right. Kenny also doesn’t shower excessive praise on students who grasp math quickly. He asks them to explain what they did, find other ways to solve the problem and sometimes asks them to help their classmates.

Kenny also gives the class what he calls “low floor, high ceiling” problems—like, say, x + y = 10. The low floor allows all students to gain a solid footing; the high ceiling pushes those who are ready for the next level.

For instance, most middle schoolers grasp the basic concept and insert various answers to x and y that add up to 10; that’s the low floor. But Kenny doesn’t stop at integers. Introducing the high ceiling, he talks about the concept of infinity, that it’s not just about the fact that numbers go on forever, but that there are infinite numbers between two points on a number line. The x variable could be 5, but it also could be 5.879832, which would make y 4.120168. How do you express this? Kenny draws crosshairs on the board, a y vertical axis and an x horizontal axis, with zero in the middle, and graphs the answer.

The ceiling rises from there, and all of Kenny’s students continue to climb, reach higher, and embrace the mathematical concepts that have built our modern world.

Written by Nancy Bent · Categorized: News, School Culture, School People

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