Friends Academy is a Quaker

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

, coeducational, independent, college preparatory school serving students from nursery school through the twelfth grade, located in Locust Valley

Locust Valley, New York

Locust Valley is a hamlet located in Nassau County, New York. Locust Valley is an unincorporated area of the Town of Oyster Bay...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, United States. The school was founded in 1876 by 78-year-old Gideon Frost for "The children of Friends and those similarly sentimented". The school was originally named Friends College. The campus covers 65 acres (26.3 ha). The school is organized around quad with buildings surrounding it. Recent additions to the school include the Helen A. Dolan Center (2000), the Kumar-Wang Library (2000), the renovation of the Upper School (2004), the renovation of the Lower School (2010), and the current construction of the gym and field house.

Students and Faculty & Staff

There are approximately 775 students from many different backgrounds and communities throughout Long Island. There are 210 students in the Lower School, 195 in the Middle School, and 370 in the Upper School. There are 150 faculty and staff members. The student-teacher ratio is 7:1.

Athletics

Friends Academy offers a moderately wide variety of sports that are participated by students in grades 7-12. Sports consist of boys and girls basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 boys and girls soccer boys and girls cross country

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 boys and girls track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 boys and girls lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

 boys baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 girls softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

 boys hockey

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

 girls field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

  boys and girls crew

Crew

A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard...

 girls tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 girls cheerleading

Cheerleading

Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

 and boys football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

. Friends Academy also offers a smaller variety of minor recreational activities such as yoga

Yoga

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...

 and dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

 that are accessible to high school students. Friends Academy participates in the Nassau County Public High School Athletic Association. Friends Academy is the only school to participate in the Nassau County Public High School Athletic Association as an independent school

Independent school

An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

.

Quaker Values

Friends Academy have been teaching students Quaker Values since 1876. Friends Academy believes that in teaching Quaker Values, students will mold their minds and personalities to match the very values that they teach. Quaker Values mainly reflect on truth, morality, and conscience as believed by the Quakers themselves. To uphold the tradition of Quaker Values, the students and faculty of Friends Academy attend the Matinecock Meeting House weekly to attend "Meeting for Worship", a traditional Quaker tradition where the students and faculty sit silently for one hour to reflect on their actions, and to pray for friends and family.

Uniform

Students at Friends Academy are required to abide by a dress code. For boys in the high school, this requires wearing a button down shirt that is tucked in, a tie, dress pants with a belt, and dress shoes. For girls in the high school, this requires wearing a collared shirt, pants or a skirt that do not extend above the knee, and appropriate footwear. It is prohibited for students to wear sweatpants, sweatshirts, jeans, and/or hats, unless given permission. Sport jackets are asked to be worn by boys during special occasions. The uniform is mainly consistent for students in the middle and lower school, however the option to wear a polo instead of a dress shirt is offered.

Activities

Friends Academy offers a wide variety of clubs, after school activities, and groups that are available to students at the school. Some of the following are listed.

• Academic Team
• Admissions Club
• Badminton Club
  Badminton Club
  The Badminton Club is a former London gentlemen's club.According to the 8th Duke of Beaufort in his book Driving , the club was founded in 1875 at 100 Piccadilly by a sporting doctor called Hurman. According to the Duke, “this was a thorough coaching establishment, having all the year round a...
  
  
• Book Club
  Book club
  A book discussion club is a group of people who meet to discuss a book or books that they have read and express their opinions, likes, dislikes, etc. It is more often called simply a book club, a term that is also used to describe a book sales club, which can cause confusion...
  
  
• Breast Cancer Awareness Club
• Cooking Club
• Environmental Club
• FA Today
• French Club
• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
  Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
  JDRF is the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes research. Driven by volunteers connected to children, adolescents, and adults with this disease, JDRF is the largest charitable supporter of T1D research...
  
  
• Mock Trial
  Mock trial
  A Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting of volunteers as role players to test theories or...
  
  
• Music Club
• Natural Helpers
• Science Olympiad Team
• Teachers and Students for Quaker Equality
• Yearbook
  Yearbook
  A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks...