From The Head Of The School

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year. I welcome all returning and new families to our school community. I hope you and your family are having a fun and relaxing summer. I anticipate that everyone is ready for new experiences, new friends, and are prepared for learning something new every day!

Choosing a Quaker school is a choice that you will come to truly appreciate and accept that a Friends school is one of the strongest foundations that you can provide for your child. Our goal is to support student growth in every aspect of life. We are led by a powerful academic program supported through the Quaker Testimonies that we come to embrace as S.P.I.C.E.S. (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Stewardship), also with a strong emphasis on preparing students for life not only academically but emotionally and spiritually. We hold a deep and caring commitment to the growth and success of every child. Our faculty has over 90 years of combined experience and expertise in early childhood education. We partner with parents to create a foundational love for learning in each student. Each child is welcomed, and every child is recognized for their gifts, and most importantly all are encouraged to let their light shine within. I look forward to meeting you and learning more about your child. The WFS community welcomes you!

Peace, Love, & Light,

– Christina Anderson

Head of School

Westbury Friends School is a small, uniquely diverse independent school in Long Island, New York. We are a Quaker school under the care of the Westbury Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. As a Friends school, we use what Friends refer to as testimonies, or guiding spiritual principles, to inform our daily practice as educators. These testimonies are: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. Friends schools embrace these principles as we weave them through the daily life of the school.

WFS values the diversity of race, religion and socioeconomic status its students and families represent. Families come together to share cultural traditions throughout the course of the school year. Joyful expressions of diversity deepen our connections to one another and strengthen our community.

Our Philosophy

Our Mission Statement:

Embracing the Quaker values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship, Westbury Friends School guides students through an academically challenging curriculum toward a lifelong love of learning; inspires students to recognize and appreciate their individual gifts and those of others; and, provides students with the tools to live peacefully in a diverse world in the manner of Friends.

Our History

Westbury Friends School is a culturally diverse Friends school in the heart of Nassau County. It was founded in 1957 by the members of the Westbury Monthly Meeting, under whose care the school still exists.

The school opened with 16 children, including four from Quaker families. In its earliest years, classes were held in the two buildings that are now known as the Orthodox Building and the Center. Children come to Westbury Friends School because of the strong educational program that the school provides, the deep sense of community that exists, and because of the Quaker values that are woven into the very fabric of the learning community.

Westbury Friends School is a not-for-profit educational corporation, chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. It is a provisional member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools. WFS is a member of Friends Council on Education, which provides professional development, publications and other resources, keeping Friends schools, and their missions, connected.

In 2011, a short documentary was created based on the story of two students, one descended from slaves, another a descendant of a Quaker family that freed the slaves, who came together as classmates at Westbury Friends School. The piece won a Telly Award and a Bridge Film Festival award.

Westbury Friends School classroom around the 1960’s

Circle of Friends

Grounds

The combination of history and nature brings a calm and peaceful quality to the campus of Westbury Friends School. Located on a 15 acre campus in Westbury, New York on Long Island, our school is in a prime location easily accessible from the Jericho Turnpike and Northern Boulevard.

The spacious campus includes sunlit classrooms, a library/media center and extensive outdoor space, including a playground. The grounds are an extension of the classrooms, providing space to play, but also places for quiet, to plant gardens and to observe nature. We have been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as an official School Habitat.

Westbury Monthly Meeting (Quakers), established in 1671, owns the property. The present Quaker Meetinghouse, the third on the same site, was built in 1902 and is registered as an Historic Landmark with the Nassau County Historical Society. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the grounds are home to many classic Quaker structures.

Visit Us

550 Post Ave
Westbury, NY 11590

Hours
Monday–Friday
8 am- 6 pm

Phone
(516) 333-3178

Westbury Friends School is located off of Jericho Turnpike in Westbury, NY. We are conveniently located right off of the Northern State Parkway and near the Westbury LIRR for parents commuting to NYC.