Windward School: Breadth With Real Guardrails

Grades 7 and 8

The middle-school program mixes foundation with choice

A typical seventh grader takes U.S. government, English, math, Principles of Science 1, and the first half of French, Mandarin, or Spanish. Students also choose arts or robotics, a trimester athletics option, and enrichment or silent study hall.

Math begins with Advanced Pre-Algebra or Honors Algebra 1. Placement in math, science and technology, performing arts, and world language is determined by departments and may differ from the sample path.

The middle-school pitch is not early specialization. Students can test visual and performing arts, athletics, debate, technology, leadership, service, and enrichment while they build reading, writing, research, and quantitative habits.

That range can help a curious twelve-year-old find a lane. It can also create a busy day.

The prior-cycle profile reports an average class size of 16, but the school does not show the distribution by subject or level.

A daily bell schedule, nightly homework ranges, and the frequency of true study periods are also missing from the open materials. Ask how the sample course list becomes an actual seventh-grade week.

Grades 9–12

Seven courses create both breadth and pressure

Windward now organizes the student journey into Middle School for Grades 7–8, Prep for Grades 9–10, and Collegiate for Grades 11–12. A Grade 9 entrant joins the start of a named division, but most classmates will already have two years of Windward routines and relationships.

A standard Upper School load is seven courses, with at least six taken at Windward. Graduation requires four years of English and three each of history, math, science, and world language, plus two years of arts and physical education.

Students also complete 20 service hours and a Senior Capstone. The sample Grade 9 schedule includes history, English, math, physics, world language, arts, athletics, and an enrichment or study-hall choice.

Advanced work is structured rather than fully open. Departments set placement in several subjects.

Some courses require a grade threshold, summer work, a placement test, or department approval.

Windward discontinued AP history and social-science courses for 2025–26 and moved those fields toward honors seminars. The current guide still offers AP and honors work in English, math, science, languages, and the arts.

The prior-cycle profile says Upper School students took both AP English courses. It also says enrollment in remaining AP courses required department permission and AP exams were optional.

Confirm those rules for your child’s graduating class.

The same profile says 76% of teachers held master’s degrees and 14% held doctorates. Credentials are useful context, but they do not reveal teacher turnover, access, feedback speed, or skill with a particular learner.

Workload and course access

Breadth is constrained by a seven-course load

Windward’s mission includes becoming a well-balanced young adult. The curriculum also contains demanding paths.

The current guide warns that advanced calculus carries a significant homework load and that AP Art and Design can require at least five hours each week.

All students attend weekly Seminar. The program addresses health, human development, identity, racial awareness, relationships, accountability, and decision-making.

Collegiate Seminar also carries part of the college process.

Enrichment and study-hall options create some breathing room, but the public guide does not show a real two-week calendar. It also does not publish assessment bunching rules, weekend homework expectations, or late-work policy.

Learning and emotional support

There is a support structure, but its service level is not public

Windward publicly names division directors, counselors, a Center for Teaching and Learning, teachers, advisors, deans, and college counselors. The current staff directory includes separate counseling leadership for Middle School and Upper School.

Mental health and well-being are named goals in the school’s 2023–27 strategic plan, and weekly Seminar covers health, human development, relationships, identity, and decision-making. Those structures are promising; neither source tells a family how much individual clinical support a student can receive.

The school says it provides academic and student-support resources inside its college-preparatory structure. It also says some accommodation requests will not align with the curriculum, schedule, or available resources.

That wording is responsible, but it is not a service menu. The school does not publish learning-specialist or counselor caseloads, meeting frequency, remediation, executive-function coaching, general nursing services, outside-provider rules, crisis coverage, or added charges.

A family with a psychoeducational evaluation should ask Windward to walk through each recommendation. Separate what is routinely available, what depends on teacher discretion, what needs formal approval, and what the school cannot provide.

The same conversation belongs in emotional support. Ask how a student reaches a counselor, how urgent concerns are triaged, how families are informed, and when Windward refers a student to outside care.

Community and belonging

The school has visible structures; daily experience still needs checking

Windward links belonging to learning and student agency. Its public roster includes affinity groups for AAPI, Black, Jewish, Latino, LGBTQIA+, MENA, multiracial, neurodivergent, and South Asian students.

Core Groups bring students in Grades 7–12 together across divisions. Faculty guide the groups, while juniors and seniors lead much of the conversation and mentoring.

The prior-cycle profile says 42% of students self-identified in categories other than White or as multiracial. That is a school-reported demographic snapshot, not evidence that every student feels included.

Windward’s nondiscrimination statement covers disability, gender identity and expression, religion, and sexual orientation, among other protected identities. The open site does not publish complaint outcomes, climate-survey results, or retention by group.

During a visit, notice who speaks, who gets interrupted, and whether adults can describe a recent moment when student feedback changed practice. Belonging is easier to trust when a school can explain how it handles friction.

Arts, activities, athletics, and service

The range is a genuine strength, but access is not uniform

The published club list stretches from astronomy, cooking, and journalism to mock trial, mental-health advocacy, investment, sports media, and Women in STEAM. Leadership, service, honors, and affinity groups sit alongside interest clubs.

Arts include theatre, dance, vocal and instrumental music, animation, film, design, photography, and studio art. Beginner options exist, while advanced ensembles may require an audition, invitation, or prior courses.

The Los Angeles reality

For Grades 7–9, the bus is part of the school model

Windward operates in a residential neighborhood under a City conditional-use permit. The school says LADOT checks its traffic compliance annually and that noncompliance can bring penalties or enrollment limits.

All students in Grades 7, 8, and 9 must ride the bus to school unless Windward approves an exception. The rule applies even if a family would prefer to drive.

Current route areas include Pacific Palisades; Bel-Air and the San Fernando Valley; Rancho Park and Larchmont; Brentwood and Santa Monica; South Bay, Marina, and Playa; plus a National and Sawtelle shuttle.

The unified traffic fee supports buses, a shuttle, security, traffic monitoring, and parking management. Windward does not publish stop locations, pickup times, ride lengths, late buses, capacity, or exception criteria on its open pages.

A route label is not a commute plan. Ask for the actual 2027–28 morning stop and the return options after your child’s likely team, rehearsal, or club.

Then test the trip at the time it will happen.

Complete family budget

The published first-year floor is $62,901 before variable costs

For 2026–27, base tuition is $58,101. Windward separately lists a $3,000 new-student fee and a $1,800 traffic-mitigation fee.

Together, those published charges create a $62,901 first-year floor.

A continuing student’s listed floor is $59,901. Seniors also pay $1,250.

These are prior-year benchmarks because Windward has not yet published 2027–28 tuition or fees.

Base tuition now includes retreats, Parent Guild membership, student activities, an issued iPad for new students, device support, and a Yondr bag. Repairs from misuse and enhanced Wi-Fi can cost extra.

Textbooks, OneCard spending, and some program trips remain separate. The public page does not price meals, uniforms or team gear, calculators, travel, tickets, yearbooks, or other optional spending.

The traffic fee supports the daily bus and shuttle system, and Windward lists no separate route charge. It does not say whether late activity transportation or other optional transport can create an added bill.

Before enrollment, the application costs $150. ERB sets the ISEE price, which Windward does not list.

Aid applicants also pay Clarity $60; Windward does not say whether that fee can be waived.

Windward offers one-, two-, and twelve-payment plans. The page does not disclose plan fees, tuition-refund insurance, deposit size, withdrawal liability, or refund terms.

Need-based help

Aid reaches beyond tuition, but the distribution is unknown

Financial aid is need-based and confidential. Windward says admission and aid decisions are separate, and it does not offer merit or athletic scholarships.

The school dedicated more than $4.6 million to aid in 2025–26. It says supported families can receive help with textbooks, supplies, prom, trips, and foreign-language exchanges.

That is meaningful, but the recipient count, share of students, average award, income bands, and unmet need are not public. A total aid budget cannot tell one family what its award may be.

New families indicate aid interest in the admission application, complete Clarity, and upload tax documents. The Clarity fee is $60, and the new-student deadline is February 1, 2027.

For the Fall 2027 aid application, Windward’s page still names 2023 tax returns and W-2s. Those instructions appear stale.

Ask the aid office which tax years and business documents it actually requires before uploading.

Families applying for aid can request the $150 application-fee waiver and an ISEE fee waiver. Ask whether transportation, all required trips, device damage, and enrollment deposits can also be supported.

Where seats actually open

Grade 7 is the front door; Grade 9 is part of a smaller pool

Windward accepts applications for Grades 7–11 and does not list a Grade 12 route. For Fall 2027, the school says it aims to admit 100 students to Grade 7 and 28 students to Upper School.

The phrase “28 students to Upper School” is not a Grade 9 target. There is also a terminology gap: the application page groups Grades 8–11 as “upper grades,” while the academic model places Grade 8 in Middle School.

The public pages do not say whether Grade 8 is included in the 28, break the goal out by grade, or separate planned growth from attrition.

The school received 605 applications across Grades 7–11 for the 2026–27 year. That is a prior-cycle, all-grade denominator.

It cannot be divided into the Fall 2027 admission goals to produce an acceptance rate.

Fall 2027 · Grade 7

The early deadline buys certainty about the interview

The portal opened July 15, 2026. Grade 7 families who submit the application and student autobiography by November 12 are guaranteed an opportunity for a one-on-one interview.

The final application deadline is December 15 at midnight.

Open Houses and student-only Shadow Days are optional but encouraged. Event capacity is limited.

Windward also offers a virtual parent program for families who cannot attend in person.

The additional forms include an administrator recommendation, math recommendation, English recommendation, and transcript release. The main application page says these forms are due January 8, 2027.

The FAQ gives January 9 for transcripts and recommendations and says they should be submitted after November 1. Because those public pages differ by one day, use January 8 unless the portal gives written instructions otherwise.

The $150 application fee appears on the tuition and aid page. Windward offers application and ISEE fee waivers by request for families seeking financial assistance.

Admission and aid decisions are scheduled for March 12, 2027. Windward does not publish the reply, contract, deposit, or wait-list dates on its open admissions pages.

Fall 2027 · Grades 8–11

Grade 9 and transfer applicants are screened before interview

Grades 8–11 use the same December 15 application deadline. These applicants should not expect an automatic interview.

Windward first screens the files grade by grade and then chooses candidates for a personal interview.

Selected families receive an interview date by phone. The student and a parent or guardian both participate.

If Windward does not offer an interview, the school says it will notify the family by mail in January.

That makes the written file especially important for Grade 9. The public pages do not say which records drive the first screen, how the autobiography is weighted, or whether arts and athletics recommendations affect that decision.

A Grade 9 applicant also enters an established course sequence. The current sample schedule begins with Geometry or Honors Geometry, Physics or Honors Physics, and a second-level world language.

Ask how prior courses map before treating admission as an academic fit.

Grades 10 and 11 face the same limited-seat process, plus credit and placement questions. Windward does not publish minimum grades, transfer-credit rules, required prior language levels, or the number of seats by grade.

ISEE and interview

Know what is required—and what the school has not explained

Every Fall 2027 applicant must take the ISEE. Grade 7 testing must be complete by January 19, 2027.

For Grades 8–11, Windward prefers testing by December 19, 2026, but gives the same January 19 final deadline.

For Grade 7, the interview begins with a student-led campus tour and includes the applicant and a parent or guardian. The school does not publish the length, sequence, prompts, or whether family members meet together or separately.

The safest preparation is honest specificity. A student should be ready to discuss how they learn, what genuinely absorbs them, a challenge they are working through, and how they take part in a community.

Parents should be equally direct about support, schedule, transportation, and cost. Windward explicitly invites an early conversation when a child needs accommodations.

Hiding a material need helps neither the student nor the school.

How to read the process

The application is asking whether a student will use the whole school

Windward says it looks for academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, varied interests, and a willingness to contribute. That is broader than a test score, but it is still the school describing its own selection priorities.

A useful application connects interests to action. “I like science” says little.

Designing a small machine, caring for an aquarium, joining an environmental project, or asking stubborn questions in class shows how curiosity already works.

Windward gives preference to siblings and to children of alumni or legacy families with a sustained supportive relationship when other factors are equal. It says that preference does not guarantee admission.

Sibling and legacy applications are due September 22, 2026. Families outside those groups should not turn that policy into a prediction.

Windward does not publish the share of applicants or offers connected to a preference.