Abington Friends School

Abington Friends School
Location
Jenkintown, PA, USA
Coordinates	40°5′40.970″N 75°7′13.256″W
Information
Type	Private
Religious affiliation(s)	Quaker
Established	1697
Head of School	Rich Nourie
Average class size	around 70 students in each grade colors = Navy Blue and White
Athletics conference	Friends Schools League
Mascot	Roo
Website	Abington Friends School Website

Abington Friends School, founded in 1697, is a K-12 private Quaker secondary school in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania (a northwestern suburb of Philadelphia). It is the oldest primary and secondary educational institution in the United States to operate continuously at the same location under the same management. Based in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, it is bounded by both Meetinghouse Road and Washington Lane. The still-standing school had been in existence for about 79 years when George Washington marched his troops down Washington Lane. Abington Friends is founded on Quaker beliefs, emphasizing on peace, stewardship, and equality.

The campus

The cornerstone on the meetinghouse reads 1697, although only the northwest corner of the current building was constructed at that time.

There is an eighteenth-century farmhouse near the meetinghouse, and another nearer the rest of the school, which is now mostly on the other side of the campus. The administration building is Victorian. All classes, however, are held in postwar buildings, which were originally separate but with the school's vast growth in the last decades are now completely interconnected. Much of this area was once the other nine holes of Abington Golf Club, on lease from Abington Monthly Meeting.

There is a large cemetery behind the meetinghouse, with many eighteenth-century stones.

Students can enroll beginning in preschool, in the toddler room, and attend all the way up through 12th grade.

Traditions

Every year, first-grade students become "pages" to seniors, and spend cherished time with them as the year progresses, helping to plant trees with them on Arbor Day and joining them in the Grove for the Commencement ceremony. For the annual Halloween Parade, the older children lead the younger grades as they process in costume around the front of the school. On Field Day, a day of friendly competition that kicks off the fall semester, all of the students, from the Early Childhood Division through 12th grade, spend the afternoon out on the fields taking part in races, relays and the ever-popular Tug of Conflict.

Notable alumni

• Kathryn Walker, class of 1961?
• Joey Lawrence, class of 1994
• Amy Wynn Pastor, class of 1994
• Michael-Hakim Jordan, class of 1996

External links

• Abington Friends School Website