Connecticut Friends School seeks to create an environment that challenges and enables students, teachers and others in the community to realize their intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual potential. CFS works to prepare its students to live effective and fulfilling lives, guided by the Quaker principles of integrity, equality, peace, community, simplicity and stewardship.

In an ever-changing world, Connecticut Friends School teaches that true peace of mind springs from a sense of competence, confidence, and living in alignment with the soul's purpose.

Connecticut Friends School is located on Route 106 in Wilton, Connecticut, and serves children ages 5-14; grades K-8.

The school day runs from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm Mondays through Thursdays and 8:30 am to 12:30 pm on Fridays. Middle school students have an extended day on Fridays to accommodate their Outdoor Education and Leadership Program; their day runs to 3:00 pm on Fridays.

Connecticut Friends School teaches children academic and life skills while simultaneously encouraging a permanent and joyful love of learning.

While we hold students to high standards of scholarship and classical skill building (spelling, math, grammar), we perceive learning not as a set of principles to be memorized but as a continual process of inquiry.

By fostering cooperation rather than competition among students, CFS creates an atmosphere that celebrates individual differences. Working together, the children learn the joys and challenges of building a community while, at the same time, gaining a sense of their individual uniqueness.

Current research in brain-based learning supports our belief that such an environment is optimal for learning. When social and emotional functioning is stressed, cognitive learning is blocked. In a school culture that prioritizes social and emotional security, students are able to build a sense of trust that it is safe to be their authentic selves. Then they can engage in learning to their full potential.

We have chosen our particular academic model not because we feel it is most fun for kids, but because we believe it is a powerful pedagogy, capable of affecting children in a profound way as they navigate their way through life.

Year-long thematic studies are chosen for their breadth; they present the world to the children as integrated and whole.

Students might study a topic such as water or time, for example, from the point of view of a scientist, a writer, an artist, and a historian. This integrated approach gives students the opportunity to explore a subject thoroughly and intensely and to appreciate the interrelated nature of learning.

Children learn best when they are able to interact with what they are learning. At CFS, we not only take students on field trips, we use the classroom to make the learning experience interactive and three-dimensional. When a class studies water cycles, they create a closed terrarium in order to observe first-hand the cycle of evaporation and precipitation. When studying Van Gogh, CFS students create their own paintings in the style of the Impressionists.

Students are taught across the learning styles—visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners are given an equal chance at understanding and assimilating knowledge.

CFS classrooms are organized by developmental age rather than by grade, with two or three age groups together in one classroom.

In the multi-age classroom, children have the rare opportunity to learn from regular interactions with students who are older and/or younger than they are. Multi-age classrooms allow students not only to remain with the same teacher for more than one year, but also diminish the competition and performance anxiety that traditional grade levels may promote. Parents, as well as students, benefit from spending more than a single year with a teacher who is familiar with each student’s strengths and areas for growth.

We have found that an intimate, flexible, multi-age learning environment best serves CFS students and their families, and kindles the creative potential of our teachers.

As a Friends school, we acknowledge that there are invisible aspects of life beyond the touchable, seeable reality. Students are encouraged to consider ethical questions and to develop a vocabulary that enables moral searching.

Each class at Connecticut Friends School begins the day with a Morning Meeting, which includes a greeting, news from home, plans for the day ahead, and a few minutes of silent reflection. During this period of quiet we invite students to relax and perhaps acknowledge the invisibles in life, taking time to drop all of the “doing” and “achieving” of the school day in order to just “be” for a moment, to meditate, settle in, feel more centered, pray in their own faith tradition, or simply rest. The weekly All-School Meeting gathering is similar to Morning Meeting, but we come together as a full community to sing familiar songs, play a cooperative game, acknowledge birthdays, and share a period of silence. Our activities are a fun way to build trust, and sharing the silence respects a diversity of faith. Once we have transitioned from the silence with a handshake, we invite students to share “after thoughts.”

We regard the inevitable conflicts that arise in a school setting as opportunities to achieve a deeper understanding of one another and ourselves. To support this process, students and adults alike practice skills in communication, non-violent conflict resolution and creative problem solving. This process is used as a springboard for moral growth and as a base for developing mutually fostering relationships.

Stemming from the deeply held belief that there is that of Divine Light in every human being, Connecticut Friends School faculty work to build a culture of trust and caring within the school community where each member is truly valued—with no exceptions. The ethos of the school supports CFS families to live in a way consistent with their ideals. Students learn that the school community is a microcosm of the complex human family and that we must live harmoniously within the context of the natural world. The school works hard to make its community welcoming to all, whether it be for a square dance, a storytelling evening, a talent night, the annual middle school theatrical production our bi-annual end-of-semester celebrations.

Our children make connections with neighboring communities through such outreach efforts as regular visits to an assisted care facility, where they develop lasting friendships with elderly residents. We also engage students in global service projects such as working with the organization Free the Children to raise money for a school in Sierra Leone.

Connecticut Friends School seeks students who can contribute to a community that values intellectual curiosity, mutual respect and cooperation. We offer a collaborative learning environment for students with the necessary academic and personal standards to contribute to the vitality of the school.

We believe that it enriches everyone's experience to have a diverse student body; we seek students of diverse races, family structures, ethnic origins, and religions. Though a small number of CFS students are part of the Quaker community, the school is open to anyone who shares the same educational vision. We are respectful of the faith traditions of all of our families.