Newtown Friends School

I honestly cannot believe what our experience has been like with Newtown Friends School. It was recommended to us by an acquaintance whose children attend there and love it. Small classes, progressive values such as inclusivity and diversity, values that so much seemed to reflect our own.  It just so happens that our fourth grader was the victim of a crime over the summer before attending this new school. His behavior was affected by this event and, initially, NFS staff, using their language of partnership and collaboration, provided support that had an immediate positive impact.As they expressed a willingness to collaborate with us so did they decide NOT to actually collaborate.   The simple recommendation was to keep the support in place and unchanged for a number of months.For whatever their reason, they chose not to do so. This immediately set our child up for failure as they made changes to the support that was working perfectly.  Despite our efforts to collaborate, they simply changed it with no regard to what would work for our son.  As a result, he was basically set up for failure.Our bright and motivated 9-year-old boy was never in so much trouble as he was at NFS. He was clearly under their critical microscope and their lack of understanding, empathy and unwillingness to work with him was both shocking and  obvious.We decided that this school was definitely not a match for him or for our family.  The values that they tout are good on paper but our experience is that none of them were genuine and there was no caring about our child, family or experience. "Teaching the whole child", and all of their "partnership", was chewed up and spit out along with us.  But they made a point of keeping our.overpayment.Please know that NFS collects tuition fully in advance of the school year being complete.  So if you invest in this place for your child's education and well-being, be prepared to lose your money if your child is deemed not good enough by those on high in administration.A sad reflection of Quaker values equating to a complete and total lack of empathy, enormous hypocrisy and obvious greed.
Dec 15th, 2022

We absolutely love our school! My daughter started in preK and is finishing kindergarten this year. Every teacher has been warm, patient, kind and loving to our family. Communication with the school and faculty is always easy and welcoming. I researched for 3 years when deciding how and where we would educate our daughter, NFS has never let me down!
Jul 5th, 2016

A great school that makes feel that I want be a kid again just to be there. My daughter is in love with this school that she does not want to miss a day. All staff are nice and friendly, the education process is excellent, I really recommend NFS for all those who are looking for a great school for their kids.
Jun 12th, 2016

My two young children have attended NFS for the past 3 years and I couldn't be more satisfied with the level of care and concern given to them. I feel confident each day that they are receiving individualized attention. I also appreciate the Quaker values that are reinforced at all levels within the school community. The personal communications I have with the staff, faculty, and administration at NFS are responded to very quickly and thoughtfully. I value the effort that NFS is making to diversify the student body as well. I highly recommend Newtown Friends School for a personal, thoughtful, and rigorous educational experience.
Jun 10th, 2016

We love this school! Our kids started in fourth and kindergarden, and we plan to stay till they are both through eighth grade. The faculty and administration create a warm, supportive environment, where everyone knows every child's name. There are about twelve kids in each class, so everyone gets special attention. Our son is in fifth grade and doing such advanced work that we feel like the whole class is an honors program. Newtown Friends School is school the way it should be: yes, there are some tests, but the emphasis is on instilling a LOVE OF LEARNING and there are many different ways for teachers to measure and monitor students' progress--unlike what the public schools have become. We both went to public schools, and intended to send our children to Council Rock, until we discovered the stressful, relentless environment of constant testing starting in third grade. Newtown Friends School is a breath of fresh air! The kids in K-5 have each of these specials TWICE A WEEK, ALL YEAR: Gym, Spanish, Music, Art, Science. Yes, it is expensive, but you should apply for financial aid, you may be surprised. The school website says: "With a commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive community, Newtown Friends School strives to make an independent school education affordable for students of varying financial resources. More than one-third of students at the school receive some amount of tuition assistance. There are no income limitations for financial aid consideration, but instead, a number of factors are evaluated including home equity, business-related expenses, consumer debt and the number of children attending a tuition-charging institution."
May 9th, 2015