Wildwood School

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Wildwood School is an independent K-12 school located in Los Angeles. Wildwood was founded as an elementary school in 1971, by a group of parents led by a young lawyer named Belle Mason. Wildwood School is dedicated to focusing on teaching independent learning to students and crafting them into lifelong learners. The elementary campus is located in Culver City and the secondary campus is located in West Los Angeles. The typical student teacher ratio at Wildwood is 7-1 for the secondary. There are approximately 350 students in grades K-5 the elementary and 420 in grades 6-12 the secondary. Besides its alternative learning style, Wildwood is best known for the high number of celebrity families involved at the school.

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[edit] Brief history

In the 1970s and 1980s, Wildwood School was one building on Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica, where the current campus for New Roads School is located. The first graduating elementary class had only ten students. In 1991 Hope Boyd, formerly the headmistress of Westlake School for Girls, became the head of Wildwood, and the following year the elementary campus relocated to its current Culver City location. Hope Boyd began to stabilize Wildwood's academic course and solidified its reputation, and under her watch the school doubled its size. In 1999, the Board of Trustees decided to create a secondary school. The school was to be based on the principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools and teach project-based equitable learning. The secondary school opened in 2000 on Olympic Boulevard in West Los Angeles with only 100 students. George Wood, a respected national educator and principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio, was the founding director of the secondary school. The full remodel of the secondary school finished in 2002. The school is currently seeking an additional location for a separate middle school in order to accommodate more students.

[edit] Philosophy

At the elementary school, Wildwood incorporates multi-age primary classes. They are known as the "Pods". There are six pods, and each pod contains children from grades K-2 mixed together in small class size. The reasoning behind this is that the older children can influence and lead the younger children, starting at a very young age. The elementary school also encourages parent participation and every week during "all school meetings", parents are invited to be updated on school news and events.

At the secondary school no traditional grades are given (although a cumulative GPA is calculated at the end of each high school year to help facilitate the college process) and instead teachers grade the students through The Seven Habits of Heart and Mind. The Seven Habits of Heart and Mind come from a national organization known as the Coalition of Essential Schools and focuses more on the student as a person. Instead of report cards the students receive narrative assessments. Narrative assessments are comprehensive reports written by the teacher specific to each of The Seven Habits of Heart and Mind. Rather than daily assignments, lectures, and "busy work", the students at Wildwood School receive long term projects with flexible guidelines. This creates an environment of self directed learning with teacher guidance available when necessary. The secondary school encourages a system known as Advisory in which specific age groups are mixed and kept in the same advisory group and teacher for two years. Advisory is group of 12-14 students with one Advisory teacher. In Advisory, the students learn to bond with each other, participate in seminars and discussions, and have a therapeutic place to vent or discuss. The advisor is responsible for the students in his or her advisory and frequently checks in with them on their progress academically and socially. The different age groups mixed in advisories are 7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, and 11th and 12th. These groups are called Divisions, with Division Two representing 7th and 8th grade, Division Three with 9th and 10th grade, and juniors and seniors in the Senior Institute. Class sizes remain small and students are encouraged to learn independently, to collaborate with other human beings, and to always seek evidence when presenting arguments.

Wildwood discourages a competitive learning environment and does not give out exams or offer an Advanced Placement program. Rather, Wildwood students demonstrate their cumulative learning through 50 minute presentations known as gateways at the end of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade. In all grades, parent teacher conferences are held three times a year with the student's advisor. The conferences seek to address the student's academic and social needs, and constitutes planning and goals for the future.

[edit] Community involvement and internship

Wildwood strongly encourages its students and faculty to reach out to the community around them. As a result, part of the curriculum of Wildwood includes going out and helping impovishered local communities. This ranges from participating in senior citizen centers, homeless service centers, inner city elementary schools, and various other community service sites. Students are required to participate in these activities during school hours for 3 hours a week.

In addition, juniors and seniors must participate in the internship program for five hours a week. Students are matched with a mentor of a specific job field the student is interested in. As a result, students receive real world job training during school hours.

For the first time in 2005, Wildwood students accompanied administration to Vietnam to participate in community involvement. In 2006 students visited Uruguay, and plans are in the works for students to work in Africa.

[edit] Outreach Center

In 2001, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted Wildwood the funds to create an Outreach Center. The mission of the Outreach Center is to support the creation, development, and enhancement of small, personalized, learner-centered schools in Southern California and throughout the nation. The Center was given a huge boost in 2004, when the Los Angeles Unified School District gave its public schools two years to break down into smaller schools. As a result, Wildwood's Outreach Center has held numerous professional development workshops educating public school teachers and administrators on the elements of successful small schools including, Advisory Programs, Project-Based Learning, Habits of Mind and Heart and Portfolios and Exhibitions. In addition, Wildwood School was named a Coalition of Essential Schools mentor school in 2004 - a recognition of Wildwood's work with other schools. In 2005, Wildwood received a National Association of Independent Schools Leading Edge award for the outreach work it has done with public and charter schools nationwide.

[edit] Wildwood Athletics

The Wildwood Wolves have middle school and high school varsity teams including: Cross Country, Girls Volleyball, Boys/Girls Basketball, Boys/Girls Soccer, Baseball, and Track and Field. The school offers other sports such as Boys/Girls Tennis and an Equestrian and Surf Teams, as well as a Middle School flag football team. A number of Wildwood Varsity High School teams have gone on to CIF playoffs and league championships including Boys Baseball, Boys Basketball, Girls Volleyball, and Boys Soccer. Middle school sports teams have a "no cut" policy and all students are allowed to play. High school sports are still a new program, but are rapidly increasing their competitive ability in championships.

[edit] Wildwood Arts

Wildwood is well known for their arts program (formerly known as VAPA, or Visual And Performing Arts), especially in the Secondary Campus.

[edit] Performing Arts

Wildwood has performed a number of plays/musicals since it opened. Their most recent musical was Bye Bye Birdie. They are often known for being unique in the plays they choose to perform, often choosing more mature and/or relatively obscure plays, although this is not always the case. Every other year, they have a repertoire of student-directed plays, in which students apply to direct a play of their choice. The performing arts teachers pick three to four of the applicants to create the repertoire. Some examples of the most recent plays put on at the Secondary Campus are:

In addition, they have created plays, such as:

  • Cast; A play written by two students from Wildwood about being in Wildwood plays. The characters are based on fellow students, and it follows a school play (supposedly in Wildwood), and the events that occur while they are making it. It is loosely based on actual events (Performed in 2006).

[edit] Music

Wildwood is also a great supporter of music. Every year, there is a Wildwood Cabaret, in which students perform music or comedy.

[edit] Visual Arts

Wildwood is abundant with paintings and sculptures, most made by students. As well, there is a small area called the Gallery Space, in which students display their artwork for anyone who walks in to see.

[edit] Other facts

The current head of Wildwood School is Landis Green, who replaced long-time head Hope Boyd in July 2007. The director of the elementary school is Katie Rios and the director of the secondary school is Melinda Tsapatsaris. The tuition is over $20,000 a year for the elementary and $27,000 a year for the secondary and financial aid is available. The school mascot is the Wolf. The first senior graduating class of Wildwood School, with 21 students, were accepted into 46 colleges and received merit scholarships totaling over $640,000. The first full class of 60 graduated in 2007. 99% of graduating Wildwood seniors have entered a four-year university or college.

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