GFS is proudly a multicultural school, enrolling families from many racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. We strive to be a welcoming and affirming community for students, parents, and faculty/staff of color and for people of all ethnicities and cultures. For those who desire it, our school community offers opportunities where our cultural and racial identities can be part of what we learn about and share at GFS.
Faculty Professional Development
Our faculty is encouraged to seek professional development around issues of diversity pertaining to race, culture, and ethnicity, and we focus all-faculty and group discussions around these issues.
- Each year a group of faculty attend the Annual National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference.
- All new faculty attend a diversity conference or workshop in their first three years at GFS.
- Various opportunities to attend conferences and trainings on topics focused around racial and cultural identity, cultural competence, and multicultural curriculum are publicized and made available to teachers.
- Faculty attend and lead annual “Teachers Teaching Teachers” workshops offered by the Multicultural Resource Center (MCRC).
- All faculty In-Service work often engages ethnic, cultural, and racial issues.
- Many of our faculty are actively engaged in exploring race, culture, and ethnicity and are leaders in diversity at GFS.
Faculty Initiatives
Many of our faculty are actively engaged in exploring race, culture, and ethnicity and are leaders in diversity at GFS. In 2011- 2012 fifteen faculty leaders will learn to be facilitators of diversity workshops and conversations for students and peers. Along with this new project in capacity-building among self-selected faculty members, the following faculty divesity committees are ongoing at GFS.
- Lower School Race, Ethnicity & Culture Taskforce: The REC
Taskforce addresses issues of race, culture, and ethnicity and the
impact of these in teaching, learning, and community interaction in the
Lower School. This group serves as a resource for LS faculty.
- School-wide Diversity Leadership Team: A K-12 group of faculty
and administrators who support diversity efforts and help to deepen the
diversity conversation across the divisions, this group supports faculty
in issues of teaching and learning pertaining to diversity and
multiculturalism, and helps to build positive community interactions in
our diverse school community.
- The School Environment Research Project: A research project is
being developed as a chance for teachers to raise and explore questions
about students’ experiences at GFS. The findings of this project will
stimulate informed discussion about issues including gender, race,
class, and sexual orientation.
Outreach & Recruitment
GFS is a member school of the Multicultural Resource Center, an initiative that coordinates events and professional development for independent school members We are also connected with the Independent School Consortium of the Delaware Valley, an organization that works to attract faculty and staff of color to independent schools.
- GFS is a member school of the Multicultural Resource Center, an
initiative that coordinates events and professional development for
independent school members.
- We are also connected with the Independent School Consortium of the Delaware Valley, an organization that works to attract faculty and staff of color to independent schools.