Friends Community School

It's not that good
Mar 11th, 2024

Great
Feb 3rd, 2024

Sep 22nd, 2023

Putting my child in Friends Community School was the worst decision of my life. The school provides a substandard education and will do anything to keep a full tuition student except provide the child the giftedness education the child deserves. The school does not voluntarily comply with Maryland giftedness standards but uses foggy language in its marketing materials to mislead. The details of my experience with the school are almost too heinous to be believable. The bottom line is the school is run as kind of as a mix between a cult and a mob organization. Run for your life. Your child's enrollment there literally could endanger it.
Aug 2nd, 2020

Our experience has been excellent. We have one student who attended FCS from 1st through 8th grade and is now in an honors program at a local high school. Our second child has attended since Kindergarten and is now in 8th grade. Neither of our children have a learning difference. Whether gifted or not, our children have enjoyed a warm, challenging, diverse, value driven, quality education. We are grateful and fortunate to be a part of the community.The school makes a big effort to limit the amount of assigned homework based on the philosophy that more homework does not necessarily equal quality learning. Teachers make an effort to incorporate learning within interesting and fun projects both in independent assignments and in teams. If one student is ahead of the others, teachers may assign more challenging work that is also fun. This may take the form of developing a game that explains part of the coursework. As we adults know, in order to explain something, one must have a strong understanding of the fundamentals. These types of assignments are engaging and rewarding to the students and unite the class rather than segregating "gifted" from "other".FCS teachers are motivated beyond just their vocation, they are energized by the school's Quaker philosophy and values and its community. Teachers are supported both by the community of FCS families and by the school. They have access to training on a regular basis and are encouraged to explore their interests, which may later be incorporated into their educational program, enriching everyone. FCS teachers are devoted to their students, they give extra time to all the students generously. There is no distinction between special needs, learning differences or gifted students. All students are treated the same, consistent with the Quaker value of equality and respect for everyone.Quaker "SPICES" - Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Stewardship, are woven into the entire curriculum beginning in Kindergarten. These values are what drew us to the school and we have been delighted to see that they are consistently reinforced from Kindergarten through 8th grade.When the pandemic hit in March, FCS' teaching program did not miss a beat. Within 3 days teachers had been trained on distance learning and jumped into the breach. Our experience has been far above what I have observed in other area schools, both public and private. This can be attributed to the leadership and energy of School Head Angela Garcia.FCS is very successful in teaching its students that learning differences do not make anyone better or worse than others. FCS also does not test Kindergartners. While FCS does not have the capacity to serve students with significant learning differences because of its size, it does not exclude students simply because of such differences. The student body could best be described as normal, with all types of learning ability represented. This has been a draw, not a disadvantage to the community.Students are taught from Kindergarten to 8th grade about bullying, to be "upstanders" and not simply allow peers to engage in poor behaviour. The emphasis on respect for others and peaceful conflict resolution, which is also taught in every grade, empowers the students to address issues amongst themselves, often producing better results than adult interventions.I am sorry to hear of the incidents described below, but I am confident that the school takes such matters seriously and will address them if they have not yet been addressed.  Regarding social service projects, I would say it has been very difficult to organize social service activities for kids for the last two years.  The pandemic has severely limited the activities our family has traditionally engaged in.  We are hopeful that this will pass and we will be able to return to a better normal.
Nov 21st, 2021