At the center of life at Princeton Friends is Settling In, modeled after Quaker Meeting for Worship. Once a week the entire school community gathers in the eighteenth–century Meetinghouse, listening in silence for the observations, insights, and questions that arise naturally out of thoughtful meditation. The respectful honoring of individual voices that characterizes Settling In permeates the culture of the school.

Princeton Friends School’s educational philosophy derives from the practice of Settling In as students and teachers together seek knowledge and understanding through engagement with one another and with specific subject matter. Through close relationships with their teachers, students are guided toward independence and a sense of responsibility as they participate in shaping their own learning experiences. Across the subject areas, the school fosters an atmosphere of high expectation for intellectual growth combined with low competitive pressure. Students are not grouped exclusively by age or skill level, nor are they assigned grades or exposed to standardized tests. As students come to understand that mistakes are part of the natural learning process, they are encouraged to take intellectual risks: to ask questions, to engage their imaginations, and to construct knowledge actively on their own terms.

Classes at Princeton Friends School are small, typically numbering between eight and fifteen students. This low student/teacher ratio allows for individualized instruction. Teachers are addressed by their first names, fostering an atmosphere of respectful informality among students and teachers and close relationships among members of the community. The small size of the school also allows children of different ages to develop genuine friendships as they mix regularly with one another, in classes and in clubs, at all–school gatherings and events, and informally throughout each day.

The faculty at Princeton Friends is a remarkable group of men and women. Experienced, inspired, and committed teachers who know and love deeply the subjects they share with students, they enrich and shape the curriculum with their own diverse interests and backgrounds. Art classes are taught by a practicing artist, music classes by a teacher who spends her weekends singing in a semi-professional a cappella quartet, and science classes by a robotics expert who has recently engaged his students in the construction of an electric car. Other teachers have shared with their classes stories of childhoods in China, India, and Europe, and all are committed to making themselves as available as possible to the students and parents who make up the Princeton Friends School community.