By Rania Maayeh - Head of School

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful summer where you were able to relax and recharge for the new school year. 
We eagerly await the beginning of a new year fully aware of our noble obligations and mission of excellence in education. 
We launch this academic year with an affirmation of our Quaker identity and values that seek to instill the values of equality, justice, simplicity, and integrity in our community and to seek the Light in every person. 
All the indicators point towards another year full of positive achievements and energy. Our faculty and staff have been diligently working to prepare for the new year and receive our children with love and affection. 
We also begin this year by welcoming our new Upper School Principal, Dr. Paul Parker, wishing him the best of luck and extending our support for his work to lead this stage toward building distinguished human conscience. 

By Paul Parker - Upper School Principal

Every school year is a new beginning, a new world of opportunities, and this is true for students and their families as well as for teachers and the staff. And this is especially true for me as your new Upper School Principal! I come from a family of school teachers, a career as a university professor, and a life-long commitment to equality, freedom, service, simplicity, nonviolent action, and to what Martin Luther King called the “Beloved Community.” I am honored to be part of the Ramallah Friends School, committed to its mission, and excited to work, study and learn with you. 

Ramallah Friends School is one of Palestine’s great success stories. For 153 years, RFS has contributed to the people and culture of Palestine. Our alumni have become leaders in the Palestinian private sector, civil society, the arts, and government. Virtually all of our graduates continue their education into a college or university and then enter the workforce or a graduate program. This year’s Upper School students are now part of this historic legacy. Welcome! Welcome to a new school year, to a new beginning, to the doorway of your future, to a new opportunity to make the world more just. 

Education at RFS is holistic (mind, body and spirit), contextual (social, political, cultural), and globally and internationally mindful (the environment and other countries are important too). RFS is committed to providing the highest quality education anywhere in the world. This is self-evident in our accreditation as an International Baccalaureate World School with 99% of our students routinely passing their final IB exams. This kind of success is only possible because RFS has smart students with supportive families and talented and committed teachers.

RFS is not just about our students' minds. We provide opportunities for both boys and girls to be physically fit by participating in football, basketball, handball, and volleyball. The students’ Debkeh Troupe and Modern Dance Group contribute to the student's physical health and cultural identity. The Student Council and Model UN provide students with opportunities to learn about the importance of organizing, discussing, prioritizing, persuasion, conflict resolution, and local, national and international affairs.   

At Ramallah Friends School we all cherish our Quaker heritage. We are not all Quakers (members of the Society of Friends); indeed, very few of us are. But RFS’s educational excellence has always been rooted in Quaker values: an inclusive community; equality; peace; service; simplicity; and integrity. Moreover, these values are not uniquely Quaker values, but are the values of many individuals, religions and cultures around the world not the least of which is beautiful Palestine. 

Quaker values are crucial for students on campus, but also when they go to college and into their professional roles across the world. Quaker values may be even more crucial because we live in a dangerous and challenging political context with external pressures that limit individual and cultural development as well as national self-determination. Even nature suffers degradation under the current situation. For over 150 years, our experience has been that Friends’ values have enabled our graduates to live to the fullest–and we are confident that this will be your experience too. Welcome to the RFS family.

In August 2022, Ramallah Friends School opened new PreK grade level welcoming its youngest students at the Lower Campus.

Ramallah Friends School (RFS) student entrepreneur initiative PalOrganix was awarded “Best Product” in INJAZ Organization’s national Student Company Program Competition 2022.

The competition is the last phase of INJAZ’s entrepreneurship program for 11th-grade and university students as a form of practical training aimed at helping the students establish their own company with all of its administrative, financial, and marketing details under the direct supervision of consultants from the Palestinian private sector.  

Throughout the previous academic year 2021-2022, RFS juniors worked on establishing their project with their IB Business Administration teacher Laith Hirzallah and private sector advisor Mohamad Mushasha. 

“The most significant advantage of participating in this competition is that it gives our students, who have been studying business administration theoretically, the opportunity to apply what they learned- practically.” – Laith Hirzallah

According to INJAZ website; The participants in the program are expected to raise the company’s capital by selling shares to shareholders and by selecting a commodity or a service produced and marketed by the company. At the end of the program, the participants liquidate the company and distribute profits to the shareholders. A national competition is held between student companies in Palestine, and then a regional competition between Arab countries takes place. (https://injaz-pal.org/en)

INJAZ is an independent Palestinian organization and a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, which was founded in 1919 with over 10 million students from 126 countries participating annually in this program.

This year, RFS students wanted to create a company that would benefit the entire community surrounding them, and the environment. Environmental stewardship is a vital part of the School’s mission and vision, and one of its’ main Quaker testimonies. That is how PalOrganix came to be.
Student Salma Tubail, a member of the PalOrganix operations team, said: “When it comes to sustainability, people like to talk, but rarely act on it. With this product [PalOrganix], we took initiative to create something capable of a direct positive impact on the world’s environment… We believe our mission to build sustainable products has merely just begun, starting locally.”
According to Nour Kamal, a student participant in the program, PalOrganix is built upon the concept of vertical farming, which is a  practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, optimizing the space needed for planting and taking advantage of small areas for planting. 

The students creatively turned their idea into reality, becoming themselves managers and employees of their own company. And inventing a product that only requires water for planting and is easy to use by all.

Salem Tannous, founder and Head of Operations (COO) of PalOrganix, said: “Starting our own company with Injaz has been an astonishing experience so far, having the privilege of applying what we learn in business class in real-life situations has prepared me significantly for my career.”  

Please note that the dates on this calendar are tentative and subject to change throughout the year. For the updated calendar please visit this link.