School News
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Grade 3 Explores the World of Graphic Novels
In December, Grade 3 students launched a study of graphic novels, exploring the history of comics and the distinctive text features that shape the form—panels, speech bubbles, captions, splash pages, gutters, pointers, sound effects, two-page spreads, and more. Along the way, students learned that reading comics requires visual literacy: making meaning by reading both the words and the images, together.
Since returning from winter break, students have stepped into the role of comic artists. After developing a class story using characters from Graham Annable’s Peter and Ernesto series, students translated a comic script into original artwork—following a simplified three-step process inspired by professional comics creators: story, script, and panels (complete with inking and color). Each Grade 3 student created one page, and the final comic for each class reflects a true collaborative effort.
In a written reflection, students shared feedback on the project, considered their own creative process, and celebrated themselves and one another. Many noted their pride in their visual storytelling, attention to detail, and the varied ways classmates interpreted the two sloth characters.
“I’m proud of their newfound expertise in comics text features, their expansive creativity in both story and art, and their resilience to see this project through to completion,” said Megan Westman, Lower School Librarian. “This is one of my favorite units because it pairs a high-interest literature format with serious critical literacy.”
Students recently received printed copies of their comics—“floppies,” for those in the know—and read the other two class comics for the first time.
Elsewhere in the McCray Theatre
Behind the closed door of a long-abandoned house, a dare becomes a threshold—and a Middle School ensemble becomes the storyteller.
This year’s production, ‘Elsewhere’, (directed by Trent Williams) invites us into a boarding school in New Hampshire where the former headmaster’s home has sat empty for decades—sealed up after the disappearance of his son and whispered about ever since. When four students step inside, they don’t find ghosts or ghouls. They find a doorway.
On the other side is ‘Elsewhere’: a shimmering “utopia” that feels like an escape hatch from real life—until it doesn’t. The longer the friends stay, the more the dream world tightens its grip, bending wonder into unease and turning fantasy into a test of courage. To make it back, they must navigate their darkest nightmares—and discover what it means to hold on to one another when everything familiar starts to slip away. View more photos from the production here.
Values to Action: Ninth Graders Practice Community
The Friends Foundations course—co-led by CPEJ—begins with big questions, then asks students to practice answering them with care.
Designed as a ninth-grade touchstone, Friends Foundations invites students to explore the intersections of Quaker practice, citizenship, service, and identity, and to consider how values like equality, peace, and stewardship can move from belief into action. This year’s culminating projects reflected that charge: students researched urgent issues, listened for complexity, and then built tangible responses meant to inform, connect, and support their peers.
Across final presentations, students used art activism to challenge stigma around gender and sexuality and to elevate stories from the border—work rooted in empathy, narrative, and the power of witnessing. Other groups focused on climate action, turning learning into dialogue and awareness-building around renewable energy, litter, and marine pollution in New York City. In a different register of service, students addressed food insecurity and immigration through letter-writing initiatives, practicing civic engagement as a form of solidarity and care.
Taken together, the projects offered a portrait of ninth graders stepping into the work of community: asking better questions, holding multiple truths at once, and designing actions—large and small—that create room for others to learn, participate, and belong.
Upper School Students Attend NAIS Civic Leadership Summit
From January 27–30, a group of Friends Upper School student leaders traveled to Washington, D.C. for the NAIS Student Civic Leadership Summit—an immersive program that invites high school students from across the country to study how change happens, and to practice the skills needed to help shape a more just future.
Hosted in partnership with the Close Up Foundation and the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the summit centered on real-world civic learning: students deepened their understanding of current policy issues, examined how national (and global) challenges show up in local communities, and wrestled with the structures and barriers that can make progress difficult. Just as importantly, they worked collaboratively—listening closely, refining their thinking, and building strategies rooted in community engagement.
Across the week, students developed vision statements with tangible action steps, then brought those ideas forward in presentations to educators and experts at the concurrent NNSP Annual Conference. It was a meaningful exercise in agency: moving from “what’s happening” to “what can we do,” and grounding big questions in practical, values-led next steps.
A Conversation on Immigration, Culture, and Community at Friends
The Diversity, Equity & Belonging Committee hosted a powerful panel highlighting the immigration stories within our own community.
Upper School students and faculty gathered in the Meetinghouse for a thoughtful conversation moderated by Kirsti, Director of Diversity, Equity & Belonging, alongside DEB Representative Peyton '27. Panelists Sanika, Mariella, Warren, and Stefan—representing first-, second-, and third-generation experiences—shared personal and family immigration stories, reflected on how they sustain their cultures and identities, and explored what it means to truly belong at Friends.
Rooted in our Quaker values of deep listening and community, the panel invited us all to consider how our diverse journeys strengthen and enrich our shared school home.
Celebrating Student Storytellers
Grade 6 doesn’t just write stories—they produce books: imagined, revised, illustrated, and bound into something real.
Inspired by classic story structure and character archetypes, and guided by Yuxi, Leana, and Nina, students spent months shaping original short stories—drafting and revising with intention, practicing “showing versus telling,” stretching sentence variety, and discovering how small choices can shift an entire scene. The work asked for craft and courage: to return to a sentence, tighten a moment, deepen a character, and keep going until the story said what it meant.
The Publishing Parties brought it all into the light. Classrooms filled with families reading every page, asking thoughtful questions, and offering feedback that honored the work as work—serious, creative, and fully their own. As in years past, the range was spectacular: friendship rendered with tenderness, mysteries in the darker tones of true crime, tales that leaned into the uncanny, and even a suspenseful story fueled by the urgent need for morning coffee.
This project celebrates the artistry of storytelling—and the boundless imagination of 11 and 12-year-olds learning, in real time, that every student carries a distinct voice worth sharing.