Messages from Our Head of School

While much has changed since The Quaker School opened our doors four decades ago (beyond the shoulder-padded fashions and the transition from blackboard to smart devices!), one thing has remained constant: 

For 40 years, TQS has started each school year by welcoming new students and faculty into our halls. Each year, these new additions make our community, and our mission, stronger. This year is no exception. 

I know that the transition from the school year to the summer can be a little ruff, so I’m coming to you today with the second installment of our good-vibes newsletter, Shining Example. 

Today’s spotlight? A doggone amazing TQS project: The Quaker Value Dog Treats business. 

With so many wonderful moments happening within our school walls each day, it can be difficult to share them all. Yet all of these stories, projects, and tiny triumphs are meaningful to our students, our faculty, and our families, and they deserve a spotlight. 

That’s why I’m starting a new email series, Shining Example: A TQS Spotlight, to share more of these special moments with you – and our first story comes from grade 10’s Business Literacy 200 class. 

These students recently came up with a new business concept: a TQS school store.

Spending time doing what we love makes us feel relaxed, connected, and whole. However, this type of pure joy is too often relegated to the breaks in “real life” – the holidays, the vacations, the summer recess. What if instead, we looked for ways to bring more of this joy into our everyday lives? 

That’s what we often think about during admissions season here at The Quaker School at Horsham.

Happy Spring! At last! On this last day before our Spring Break, I write to share an update about how our TQS community will operate for the balance of the school year in terms of COVID-19 mitigation protocols.

You may call me overly optimistic for referring to March as “early spring,” but tell that to the bright red buds forming on the tree outside my window. Even coated in layers of ice from last week’s storm, they grow vibrant and strong — the same way our community is growing, changing, and awakening into a new season. 

This year’s theme, Reunited & Reimagined, has never been more true than during this time. As we move into a phase of promise and renewal, we have many new things blossoming at TQS …

As parents, we know that part of our job is to have big conversations with our kids about life’s important topics. Yet when these topics are complex, charged, or nuanced, it can be difficult to know where to start.

That’s why, when it comes to having life’s big conversations with my own children or our TQS students, I find peace in our school’s Quaker roots. 

Even in the depths of January, when the sky looks like wet newspaper and the air is so cold it punches you in the gut, I find it amazing that most people still look up with optimism.  That’s what I love about our TQS community.