The Friends’ School

 Building a Culture of Peace Statement

The Quaker testimony for peace rejects war as a legitimate mechanism for solving disputes. Quakers not only refuse to participate in war but seek to live in ways that would eliminate the causes of war throughout the world.

As a Quaker school, The Friends’ School (Friends’) seeks to nurture a culture of peace at all levels, from inner-peace, interpersonal relationships, and building a culture of cooperation and mutual benefit. This includes a rejection of the use of violence or domination as a way of solving conflict.

Friends’ believes that education must empower students to engage with the world critically, compassionately, and courageously. As part of this commitment Friends’ has a duty of care to ensure that its students are not exposed to advertising through sponsorship by military organisations, the defence industry or weapon manufacturers.

When considering broader societal influences on peace, Friends’ must also support students in recognising and critically evaluating the biases and underlying intentions of various sources including organisations, clubs, public figures, social media influencers, and mainstream media. These entities often shape the narrative around conflict and the pursuit of peace, sometimes portraying militarism through ideals such as patriotism, heroic sacrifice, or martyrdom, which can obscure more peaceful or nonviolent perspectives. It is essential that students are equipped to question and understand these narratives in order to become thoughtful contributors to a more peaceful world.

To support building a culture of peace, Friends’ encourages students to engage with peace-building at every level of life:

• On a personal level, by cultivating self-awareness, empathy, and the skills to communicate and resolve conflict peacefully;
• Within our school culture, by fostering a community that values cooperation, inclusivity, and respectful dialogue over competition and control, and
• At the structural level, by examining and challenging the systems and ideologies — including militarism — that contribute to violence, injustice, and war.

So that its students are not exposed to the promotion of military, defence and weapon manufacturers during their time at school, Friends’ will take all reasonable steps to ensure it does not participate in any program that:

• Carries any weapons company branding, such as name or logo;
• Accepts any money or in-kind contributions from weapons companies;

• Promotes or normalises the global trade in arms;
• Falls under an umbrella program that meets the above criteria, and
• Engages in the promotion or acceptance of

Through this approach, Friends’ affirms its belief that education should build the capacity for peace, justice, and active hope in the world.

Former Friends’ Headmaster, Bill Oats, wrote so thoughtfully in his book, ‘The Nurture of the Human Spirit’:

Peace is the state of health of the body politic, but more fundamentally, peace is a matter of the spiritual, mental and emotional health of individual bodies. Peace is concerned not only with the harmonious working together of the component groups of society, not just with questions of law, order and justice. It is also concerned with the nature of the human beings who will determine the future of that society and it is with this nature that we must concern ourselves if we are to educate for peace. 

We look forward to exploring, across our community, how building a culture of peace within ourselves, our community and beyond can continue to be central to a Friends’ education.

    Date Effective:           3 July 2025

Review Date:             3 July 2027

Stakeholders:          All staff, parents and/or guardians, students, volunteers, contractors, School and general community

Principal Authorised By: Board of Governors

The Australian Friend Editor’s Note:

The current principal of Friends’, Esther Hill, shared this comment in an email that gives further context to the Peace Statement above.

The Medical Association for Prevention of War recently published a report, ‘Minors and Missiles’ which outlines the growing intrusion of the weapons industry into Australian education programs. As a Quaker school and in line with our commitment to peace and living our values, Friends’ feels a duty of care to ensure that its students are not exposed to advertising through sponsorship by military organisations, the defence industry or weapon manufacturers. We have therefore taken the step of withdrawing our participation in those programs where sponsorship or organisations have been directly linked or funded by military, defence and/or weapon manufacturers.