Teaching & Learning

Joyful Learning. High Academic Standards.

At Westside, students are active participants in their education. They ask questions, investigate ideas, solve problems, work together, explain their thinking, and make connections across subjects and beyond the classroom.

Our approach pairs joyful learning with high academic standards. Students build strong foundations in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and humanities, then learn to use those skills in increasingly complex ways. Teachers set clear expectations and provide the instruction, guidance, feedback, and support students need to meet them. As students grow, they take greater ownership of their work and develop a deeper understanding of themselves as learners.

From Preschool Through Eighth Grade

I can imagine. I can investigate. I can make an impact.

A Westside education grows with the student. Early Learning begins with play, curiosity, relationships, and discovery. In Lower School, students build the academic skills to investigate bigger questions and explain their thinking. In Middle School, they take greater ownership, engage with complex ideas, develop their own perspectives, and learn to use what they know with purpose.

By the time they graduate from eighth grade, Westside students have strong academic foundations and understand themselves as learners. They can think critically, communicate clearly, collaborate with others, take on challenges, advocate for themselves, and engage thoughtfully with perspectives beyond their own. They are ready for the academic and personal demands of high school and for what comes after.

High Academic Standards at Westside

High academic standards aren't defined by how much content students can memorize or how quickly they can find the "right" answer. Students are expected to think deeply, ask thoughtful questions, make connections, explain their reasoning, and apply what they know.

Those expectations build over time. Students revisit and strengthen skills as they move through the grades, taking on increasingly complex texts, problems, questions, and ideas. They learn to research, use evidence, consider different perspectives, revise their thinking, and communicate their understanding clearly.

Learning is also collaborative. Students work through ideas together, share different approaches, ask questions of one another, give and receive feedback, and learn from different perspectives. Through that process, they strengthen both their understanding and their ability to communicate what they think and why.

Connected, Interdisciplinary Learning

Students regularly bring together skills and ideas from different disciplines to explore larger questions and topics.

In Early Learning, children’s interests and questions often become the starting point for exploration, bringing together play, stories, art, early literacy and math, science, movement, and time outdoors.

In Lower School, a study might unfold over several months and connect science, reading, writing, research, math, art, and field experiences. By Middle School, students tackle increasingly complex interdisciplinary work that asks them to draw from multiple sources, analyze information, use evidence, and develop and support their own ideas.

These experiences allow students to go beyond learning information in isolation. They build knowledge, see connections, and learn how to use what they know.

Learning Through Experience

Some learning happens at a desk. Some happens in a lab, on a stage, along a local watershed, in the wilderness, or out in the community.

Field trips, outdoor education, service learning, hands-on investigations, and real-world experiences are an important part of learning from Preschool through eighth grade. These experiences give students opportunities to apply classroom learning in new settings, encounter new perspectives, work through challenges together, and make connections between what they're studying and the world around them.

Experiential learning grows alongside our students, culminating in Middle School with extended field experiences and two week-long outdoor education trips each year.

Educating the Whole Child

A Westside education is intentionally broader than core academics. World languages, visual and performing arts, music, physical education, athletics, technology, outdoor education, and social-emotional learning give students different ways to think, create, communicate, move, collaborate, and discover their interests and strengths.

Social-emotional learning is woven into daily school life as students develop self-awareness, resilience, empathy, and the skills to navigate relationships and challenges. Students also learn to consider different perspectives, think about fairness and equity, and understand their responsibility to others and their communities.

Growing Independence & Ownership

From Preschool through eighth grade, students take increasing responsibility for their learning.

For our youngest students, that may mean making choices, solving a problem with a friend, or confidently sharing an idea. In Lower School, students begin organizing their work, using feedback, explaining their thinking, and understanding what helps them learn. By Middle School, they are setting goals, managing increasingly complex responsibilities, revising their work, making academic choices, and advocating for what they need.

Teachers remain an important part of that process. Students aren't expected to figure out independence on their own. It is intentionally built through clear expectations, strong relationships, guidance, reflection, and opportunities to practice.