Olney Friends School

09/11/2026

What makes Olney feel like Olney?

It's steam rising over the stove as students cook side by side, learning as much from each other as from the recipe. It's a living room glowing with holiday lights, everyone gathered close for one more story before bed. It's a hallway portrait full of inside jokes, and a bench full of alumnae who came back because this place never really lets go.

Olney isn't one place, person or tradition. It's every small moment, shared, that adds up to something that feels like home.

09/10/2026

The classroom doesn't always have four walls.🌿

At Olney, learning happens across our 350-acre campus—on the farm, along the trails, around Livezey Lake and wherever curiosity leads.

These experiences invite students to observe closely, ask thoughtful questions and connect what they’re learning to the world around them. Because some lessons are best learned by stepping outside the classroom.

09/08/2026

Anne Marie Taber has lived three different chapters at Olney:

✅ Student in the 1970s
✅ Parent in the 2000s
✅ Now, Dean of Learning

She graduated in 1979, during the Vietnam War era, when Olney supported students writing conscientious objector papers rooted in Quaker pacifism. Decades later, she watched her own two sons walk very different paths through the school. Today she oversees curriculum, teaches health, and still works as Olney's librarian.

Her story traces what's changed at Olney (its move to independent governance in the late 90s) and what hasn't (a small community where students are genuinely known).

"I felt more accepted for who I was than I ever felt at the public schools in town," she says of her own boarding school experience.

▶️ Read her full story:

One woman's boarding school experience spans three roles at Olney: student in the '70s, parent in the 2000s, and educator today.

09/07/2026

On this beautiful Labor Day, we thank the hands that have shaped our 350 acres for generations. The students who've tended our fields, mucked our barns, and learned that real work builds real character. The faculty and staff who show up every day for this community. The farmers, teachers, and caretakers everywhere whose labor often goes unseen but never unfelt.

At Olney, work has never been separate from learning. It's how we practice stewardship, one of our core Quaker values, made real in the soil under our fingernails and the meals we share because of it.

Wishing you a day of rest, gratitude, and maybe a little dirt under your nails too.

09/04/2026

Looking for a new career? Love farm-to-table meals? Connect with us if you're interested in cooking healthy, delicious meals in a school setting.

Olney Friends School is seeking to hire line cooks for:

Morning and Lunch Shift
Afternoon and Dinner Shift
Weekend Shift

Olney is a unique educational institution that leaves a deep and lasting impression on students, alumni, and other stakeholders. Our 350-acre farm provides much of the organic food served at meals. Throughout its 150-year history in Barnesville, farming and farm-to-table concepts have been an integral part of Olney's curriculum. The school is looking for individuals who share a passion and love for cooking food from scratch.

The school's kitchen serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Duties include prepping food items and cooking them under the supervision of the kitchen manager, helping with menu items for service, and storing food orders, as well as stepping in and up when the kitchen manager is away from campus.

This full-time position offers benefits including:
401(k) matching
Life insurance
Paid time off
Professional development assistance
Tuition reimbursement

At least one year of kitchen experience is preferred, along with flexible availability.

To apply, email your resume and three references to [email protected].

09/04/2026

A look at the first few days of the brand new school year. 📚🌿

New classes, familiar faces, fresh routines and plenty of excitement for what’s ahead. It didn’t take long for our campus to feel like Olney again.

Here’s to a year filled with curiosity, connection and meaningful moments. Welcome back, Olney!

09/04/2026

A question a lot of prospective families ask us directly: do you have to be Quaker to attend a Quaker school?

Anne Marie Taber, our Dean of Learning and a 1979 Olney graduate, hears this constantly from new students too. They arrive expecting religious instruction.

What they find instead is silence, reflection, and room to figure out what they actually believe, without anyone telling them the answer.

Students from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, pagan, and nonreligious backgrounds all sit in the same Meeting for Worship. Nobody's asked to adopt a belief system, and as Anne Marie puts it, Quakerism here isn't about indoctrination. It's a set of practices for listening to yourself.

▶️ Read more about how religious freedom actually works at Olney:

Curious if your family needs to be Quaker for a Quaker school? Olney's Dean of Learning explains how religious freedom actually works here.

09/03/2026

Back to school. Back to worship. Back together.

At Olney, each weekday begins with about 10 minutes of Collection. Our students and faculty gather in silence, with space for anyone to speak when moved to do so. Most mornings, the silence remains—and that’s meaningful, too.

This daily Quaker practice gives our boarding and day students in grades 9–12 time to pause, reflect and center themselves before classes begin. Longer Collections are held on Wednesdays and Sundays, while each weekday closes with a 10-minute evening Collection.

It’s a simple rhythm rooted in more than 350 years of Quaker tradition—and a grounding way to begin a new school year.

08/31/2026

A new school year begins at Olney Friends School. New classes, new friendships, new questions and plenty of room to grow.

Here’s to a year of learning with purpose, building community and discovering what comes next. Welcome back, Olney! 🌿

08/28/2026

To the students arriving tomorrow: the farm has kept growing, the community has kept meeting, and your place here has been waiting.

To new students joining us for the first time: you're stepping into something almost 189 years in the making, and you're about to help shape what it becomes next.

Welcome back. Welcome home.