Literacy at WHPS is taught through a workshop approach that helps children become confident readers, thoughtful writers, and increasingly independent learners.

Teachers explicitly demonstrate strategies that real readers and authors use, often through familiar books and mentor texts. A writing lesson might examine how an author crafts a strong lead, develops a scene, uses dialogue purposefully, controls pacing, or uses conventional and creative nonfiction text features. Children see the technique in authentic writing, practice it, and then make decisions about how to use it in work of their own.

Students read real books, talk about literature with peers, and make meaningful choices about what they read and write. As they grow, the work develops from foundational skills into deeper comprehension, inference, analysis, vocabulary, structure, voice, craft, and increasingly purposeful communication.

Individual conferences and targeted small groups focus on the particular skill most likely to move a student forward. A child may be an advanced reader refining a comprehension strategy, or a sophisticated, imaginative writer still strengthening conventions.

Foundational literacy is equally intentional and individualized. Children may enter Kindergarten just beginning to connect letters and sounds, already reading, or anywhere in between. Systematic phonics, decoding, fluency, and word study are taught at the level and pace appropriate to each child’s readiness. Rather than simply memorizing the same spelling list for a test, students learn patterns and strategies they can apply to unfamiliar words and authentic reading and writing.

Writing also has a real audience. WHPS Publishing Celebrations give children opportunities to share finished work with classmates, teachers, and families, building pride, confidence, and a genuine sense of authorship.

The goal is for children to take the strategies they learn and use them independently in a new book, a new piece of writing, or an idea entirely their own.

At WHPS, mathematics is about much more than learning procedures or getting the right answer. We want children to reason, make connections, explain their thinking, and apply what they know to problems they have not seen before.

Our program is built around Singapore Math, an internationally respected approach centered on conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

A hallmark of Singapore Math is its Concrete → Pictorial → Abstract progression. Children first develop an idea through hands-on experiences, then represent the mathematical relationship visually, and ultimately work confidently with numbers, symbols, and algorithms. This helps students understand not simply how a procedure works, but why.

Tools such as bar modeling help students make complex relationships visible. Children compare strategies, recognize patterns, communicate their reasoning, and persevere through multi-step problems where the solution is not immediately obvious.

Combined with flexible grouping and our Learning Progressions, students can deepen their understanding or continue into increasingly advanced mathematics as they are ready.

The goal is not simply to produce children who are good at math. It is to develop flexible, confident thinkers who can approach something difficult, make sense of it, and find a way forward.

Science at WHPS is something children do, not simply something they read about.

Physical science and engineering come to life through classroom investigation and our Maker Program, while life science has an extraordinary resource right on campus: our teaching zoo and Science & Nature Center.

Students observe closely, ask questions, make predictions, investigate, gather evidence, analyze results, revise explanations, and communicate what they discover. As they grow, the work develops from firsthand observation and classification into experimental design, systems thinking, evidence-based explanation, and increasingly complex ideas across the sciences.

Students also discover that science rarely follows a perfectly straight line. Evidence may challenge an assumption. An experiment may need to be redesigned. A good question may lead to another one.

We want children to know science, but also to learn how scientists think.

Explore Animal & Nature Studies →

Social studies at WHPS is not about memorizing a single version of history. Children become curious investigators of people, cultures, ideas, and the forces that shape our world.

Students explore history and current events from multiple perspectives, examining evidence and asking whose voices are represented, whose may be missing, and how the same event can look different depending on where you stand.

The questions grow with the students: What causes people to create change? Why do societies develop differently? How do geography, culture, power, and ideas influence history? What can the past help us understand about the present?

Projects make that inquiry personal. In Upper Elementary, for example, our Finding Your Roots project invites students to investigate their own family histories and connect those stories to larger patterns of migration, culture, identity, and historical events.

Research, literature, primary sources, discussion, projects, and presentations help students understand history as something to investigate rather than simply receive.

The goal is not to tell children what to think about the world. It is to give them the knowledge, curiosity, and critical-thinking skills to think deeply for themselves.

The world our children will enter is changing quickly. The technologies and careers may change, but their ability to understand themselves, work with others, adapt, communicate, solve problems, and keep learning will endure.

These skills are intentionally taught through a developmental progression grounded in child development research. Even in TK, children begin reflecting on their strengths, behavior, and friendships, then work with teachers and families to identify one meaningful goal they can practice with support from the adults in their lives.

As children mature, they take increasing ownership of that process. They set SMART goals, track progress in Leadership Notebooks, and eventually lead Student-Led Conferences with their teachers and families. That is why students have a seat at the table in conversations about their own growth.

Academic potential is only part of a child’s potential. We want children to leave elementary school knowing not only more about the world, but more about themselves and how to keep growing within it.

Explore Our Social-Emotional Learning Progression →

The WHPS experience intentionally evolves as children grow. For decades, we have followed our graduates into middle school and worked with receiving schools to understand what students need to thrive there. We use that knowledge to thoughtfully plan backward from 5th Grade.

In Lower Elementary, TK–1st Grade, children build strong academic foundations while developing independence, curiosity, confidence, and a love of learning.

Beginning in 2nd Grade, the structure gradually changes. Students work with different teachers and, at times, across our 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th multi-age groups.

By 4th and 5th Grade, the day begins to look more like middle school. Students rotate among teachers and subjects, manage increasingly complex projects and responsibilities, and develop organization, self-advocacy, and independence.

The transition is intentional and gradual. By the time middle school arrives, many of its rhythms and expectations already feel familiar.