Friends Together – Student Giving Day
Posted on June 26, 2024
On Wednesday 26 June 2024 all students from Kindergarten to Year 12 supported the School’s annual giving program, Friends Together. This year the Friends’ community is raising funds for the School’s needs based scholarship The Friends’ Fellowship.
Since 2018 The Friends’ Fellowship has enabled six students, who could least afford to attend the School, to access a Friends education. Money raised this year will enable a new student to start in 2025.
“When I first found out I was coming to Friends’, I was so thrilled, I was very excited. I had been keeping my expectations low, so I was very excited to be coming to The Friends’ School. I knew it was very dependent on financial assistance.”
Sarah Chick (Jack), Class of 2020
Students participated in a number of activities and discussions across Primary, Middle and Senior School campuses including reflecting on the meaning of the word philanthropy, the impact we can have collectively and its connection to our Quaker values. Students also thought about the importance of diversity in the student population, gratitude for their own education and what we can do to make all new students feel welcome at Friends’.
“We think that people can have a bad background or past and coming to Friends can give them an opportunity to put that behind them and give them a chance to meet new people and have a better environment to work in.” Year 7 students
“In Year 1 we shared beautiful ideas like ‘friendship’, ‘love’, ‘understanding’, ‘positive words’, ‘smiles’, ’empathy’, and being an ‘ally’, and now our classroom is filled with heartfelt reminders of these wonderful concepts of giving.” Year 1 students
“The Fellowship creates much needed inclusion, because when we isolate students by class, we fail to see the full picture of any idea we promote: it’s not diversity, or equality if one demographic is excluded from our community. To add to that, if we lack perspectives in our community, it damages the integrity of our academics and arts: by excluding people, we lack diversity in our experiences, and we miss the depth and breadth of true understanding.” Senior School student
“If we all work together we could achieve a great opportunity for a student to have an amazing education.” Year 7 students
Together, Friends’ students raised over $1000 for The Friends’ Fellowship. We thank all our students for their generosity and taking the time to engage so authentically on these values of community, equality, inclusion and service.
The Friends’ Fellowship is open now for applications. If you know a young person who would benefit from this opportunity please share it with them. More information is available on the School’s website.
Please enjoy some photos of our students, from Prep to Year 12, showing what the Student Giving Day meant to them.
