Hello and welcome to Virginia Beach Friends School!
We are thrilled you have decided to explore Friends School as an option for your child's future. Regardless of a child's age, what you will quickly learn about a Friends education is that it's like no other.
There is no other school in the Hampton Roads community where your child will truly be known. At Friends, because of our Quaker educational philosophy (student-centered and globally-minded) and our size (small by design), every student has a personalized educational experience that is relevant to success. Students at Friends are embraced for who they are and what gifts they bring. Every teacher strives to know each child's name on campus. And, it's not uncommon for every student (oldest to youngest) to know them too. This sense of connectivity is what makes our community special. VBFS is a place where you will see older students reading to their younger counterparts, middle schoolers playing with their younger elementary classmates, and kids from different cross-sections of the Virginia Beach community coming together to have a one-of-a-kind educational experience.
What does it mean to go to a Quaker school? Quaker education is globally recognized for academic excellence. The VBFS curriculum (like all Quaker schools) is guided by the Quaker testimonies of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship (S.P.I.C.E.S). These testimonies are the foundation blocks for creating life-long learners in the 21st Century. The Quaker pedagogy translates to classrooms where learning comes to life. S.P.I.C.E.S, combined with a rigorous curriculum that in scope and sequence far exceeds the Common Core, allows graduates of Virginia Beach Friends School to be academically prepared for higher education, but more importantly, Friends students are taught from little on up what it means to be kind people.
Why a small school? It can be argued, beyond the gift of unconditional love a child receives from their parents, the gift of fostering a love of learning is most important. This is what small schools do well, they foster a love of learning. And, this is what VBFS does better than anyone in Hampton Roads. No students fall through the cracks at Friends. Our school’s size won't allow it. At Friends, I like to say, "We teach students to march to the beat of their own drum, and we help them find their beat." Upon graduating from VBFS, all students know who they are. It's this understanding and how to manage one's areas of both strengths and struggles that allow ongoing self-advocacy and leadership in the post-graduate years. Finally, our size allows everyone to have unique experiences that are sometimes lost in large schools. Every student at VBFS can play on a sports team, have a role in the school play, or start the student club he or she has always dreamt about. In short, they are "big fish in a small pond." It's these small school experiences that carry on to success at the college level and in life.
As you consider enrolling your child at Virginia Beach Friends School, know your child will be known and cared for in a way that will help them reach every bit of their true potential.
All the Best,
Michael Barclay
Head of School
Virginia Beach Friends School
