Sandy Spring Friends School is a coeducational, college preparatory Quaker school serving students from pre-K through 12th grade, with an optional boarding program in the Upper School. Founded in 1961, SSFS offers a deep and rigorous academic curriculum, character education rooted in universal Quaker principles, and a diverse and international student body that reflects today's global community. SSFS sits on a pastoral 140-acre campus in the heart of Montgomery County, Maryland, midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. SSFS is under the care of the Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting and the Baltimore Yearly Meeting.HistoryThe establishment of a Quaker school in the Sandy Spring community was first suggested by S. Brook Moore at a meeting for business of the Sandy Spring Friends Monthly Meeting in 1958. Although some were initially skeptical of the idea, the next day Brook received a $100 check and a group of concerned Friends formed a school committee shortly thereafter. Esther Scott followed by donating several acres of her family farm for the school and an adjacent Friends Center. Sam Legg, who had participated in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment while serving in the Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II, was appointed the school’s first headmaster in 1959. SSFS opened its doors in September 1961 with 77 students in Grades 10 and 11. Twelfth Grade was added a year later.The school’s first buildings were the Headmaster’s home, named “Scott House” after Esther Scott, and a dormitory, named “Moore Hall” after Brook Moore, with room for 46 students. The dormitory building also held two faculty apartments and classrooms, plus the school’s kitchen and dining room, library, laboratory and lockers on the lower level. The school quickly outgrew the original buildings, and over the next decade additional classrooms, an arts center, faculty housing, an infirmary and a second dormitory with expanded kitchen and dining facilities were constructed.
"Sandy Spring Friends School SSFS is a progressive, coed, college preparatory Quaker school for students from preschool age 3 through 12th grade, with an optional boarding program in the Upper School. Our pastoral 140-acre campus is in the heart of Montgomery County, Maryland, midway between Washington, DC, and Baltimore.Our motto, "Let Your Lives Speak," expresses our philosophy of educating all aspects of a person so that their life—in all of its facets—can reveal the unique strengths within."
