Grounded in research on the benefits of nature-based education, our approach to outdoor education embraces our sprawling campus for exploration, creativity, and discovery across all disciplines—in every kind of weather.

Exploring nature’s classroom,

no matter the weather

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Outdoor Ed & Recess
Whatever the activity—from art to science, recess to reflection—learning at Princeton Friends is active, brave, and multisensory.  Schedule Your Campus Tour
Opening doors opens minds, and nature nurtures them at PFS. Students spend a lot of time outside, making the beautiful surrounding area their extended classroom. One minute they may wade into their work examining water quality in the nearby stream. The next they let their bodies and their imaginations run wild in a self-constructed village in the woods. Our youngest students learn all about food from what they grow themselves in our impressive garden. Research shows that educating outdoors is minds-on as well as hands-on, and children gain wisdom from their wonder. By boldly exploring their smallish world, they come to care for the bigger one.

 

 

PFS helped me see that I could connect deeply with others and the world around me—and that changes how you move through life.

Izzy Sistek, Student & Activist, PFS alum

 

 

Inside Outdoor Education

Our commitment to outdoor learning is rooted in both educational philosophy and scientific research: time in nature improves academic performance, strengthens social-emotional well-being, and fuels curiosity, creativity, and resilience.

From daily outdoor recess in all weather to impromptu nature journaling by Stony Brook, forest bathing, and puddle-stomping, students engage with the natural world across all subjects and grade levels.

Students transform our woods into an imaginative mixed-age learning lab as they build villages while building essential social-emotional learning skills in communication, conflict resolution, and self-advocacy.

Curriculum that Responds to Our Landscape

Research consistently supports what we see every day at PFS: outdoor learning enhances attention span, reduces anxiety, improves critical thinking, and nurtures a deeper sense of stewardship. Our students benefit from this integrated model, where academic excellence and outdoor exploration go hand in hand. With access to acres of woods, trails, and the historic Institute Woods next door, we invite our students not only to study the world—but to belong to it. And we encourage our students to spend time playing outdoors, because until we play with the Earth and see it as our own, we cannot develop the level of care that helps us become lifelong stewards of the natural world. 

We all walked away with a love of the environment because we were playing with the planet every day at PFS.

Laura Shinn, PFS alum

 

 

Supporting wellbeing so students can reach their full potential

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Wellness & SEL

 

Up next: SEL and Wellness

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