Educa­tion in Quaker Schools

Core beliefs

These values flow from one simple core belief: that reli­gion should start from personal exper­i­ence, not from dogma or cere­mony. As all indi­vidu­als have “that of God” within them, every­one has strong poten­tial for good and is worthy of dignity and respect. From this in turn comes much of what is now valued in our Schools: an expect­a­tion of the highest stand­ards of indi­vidual excel­lence; the quest for truth (many Quakers have become distin­guished in scientific and academic life as well as in busi­ness); the toler­a­tion that refuses to see the truth as confined to one creed or dogma; an open­ness to inspir­a­tion from whatever source it comes; an insist­ence on the equal rights of all people.

Daily life

How do these values come out in the every­day life of a Quaker School? This ques­tion is all the more inter­est­ing because of the relat­ively small numbers (below 15%) of Quakers in the Schools, though many of our parents and staff espouse Quaker values. Essen­tially, Quaker­ism is a prac­tical form of Chris­tian­ity placing most emphasis on the manner in which people lead their lives and treat each other. Because of the sense of genu­ine enquiry, and the free­dom from dogma, young people of all reli­gious beliefs or none can feel comfort­able and united during the silence of a Quaker Meet­ing. This meet­ing is an oppor­tun­ity for all to reflect quietly and gain a fresh perspect­ive on daily life.

Friendly Open­ness

When you visit a Quaker School you will he struck by an atmo­sphere of friendly welcome and a natural open­ness and inform­al­ity amongst the pupils. Discip­line is firm, but not based on regi­ment­a­tion or the fear of punish­ment. It comes rather from trust and the expect­a­tion of hard work and sens­ible beha­viour that leads to self-discipline.
Such expect­a­tions in turn can only be real­istic in a community which emphas­ises mutual respect, encour­age­ment and parti­cip­a­tion. A child who is busily occu­pied is likely to be a happy child. A happy child has little cause to misbehave.

A busy day

Such parti­cip­a­tion can only be achieved when there is a wide range of activ­it­ies to interest every­one. In all of our Schools there is an academic rigour that stretches the very able and keeps those of more modest abil­ity to the peak of their poten­tial. Beyond the curriculum, however, for day pupils as well as boarders, there are programmes of out-of-class pursuits which must rank amongst the most richly varied of any group of inde­pend­ent schools. This is part of our object­ive to provide a broad based educa­tion that goes beyond the merely schol­astic and devel­ops the whole person.

Join­ing together

Art, drama, music and sport all have firm places in our schools, and every­one takes part for enjoy­ment as well as for the compet­i­tion. Member­ship of the group of Quaker schools has great prac­tical bene­fits, too, as it allows our choirs and musi­cians to join together regu­larly to perform import­ant choral works which cannot be tackled alone. Other joint activ­it­ies such as athlet­ics meet­ings, exped­i­tions, confer­ences for pupils as well as staff, an annual trip to Brus­sels to visit the EC insti­tu­tions - these are typical of the cooper­a­tion that gives our young people even more oppor­tun­ity of broad­en­ing their experience.

Wider hori­zons

Our pupils are also encour­aged to be outward look­ing and adven­tur­ous. The strong Quaker concerns of inter­na­tion­al­ism, of active parti­cip­a­tion in global as well as local issues, lead within the Schools to involve­ment with the community outside, envir­on­mental projects, Duke of Edin­burgh Award Scheme, trips and exped­i­tions abroad and money- rais­ing for char­ity. Parti­cip­a­tion on this scale stim­u­lates initi­at­ive as well as a healthy concern for the needs of others.

A School is only as good as its staff, and the level of commit­ment deman­ded of a teacher in a Quaker School ensures that “nine-to-fivers” do not apply! Turnover of staff is gener­ally low, although the demands on their time for activ­it­ies, tutorial care, careers guid­ance, indi­vidual help, are unusu­ally high. Without their dedic­a­tion and energy the schools would be immeas­ur­ably less enrich­ing places in which to grow.

A way of living

In summary we can say that the Quaker emphasis in educa­tion lies in parti­cip­a­tion and caring, which are natural offshoots of the Quaker concern for peace­ful cooper­a­tion. We work to prevent any bully­ing in our schools and to develop young people who will reject conflict in favour of cooper­a­tion. We do not try to impose the aims of the school on our pupils, but to lead them to accept these prin­ciples for them­selves, encour­aging them to share in the respons­ib­il­ity of running the school and the pleas­ure of its success.

Click here to see a list of the Quaker Schools around the World

Close