A Curriculum of Choice and Challenge: Learning at Westover
At Westover, a student’s schedule can move from Multivariable Calculus to The Art of Investigation: Mystery Novels, from AP Environmental Science to Printmaking: Art in Multiples, or from Astronomy: Exploring the Cosmos to Film and Social Change. That range is not accidental. Westover’s curriculum is designed to pair academic rigor with a true freedom to explore, giving students a strong foundation in the core disciplines while creating room to pursue the questions, subjects, and ideas that capture their attention. Westover’s academic approach combines thoughtful teaching, a supportive and student-centered environment, and a global outlook shaped by technology and mentorship. In practice, that means classes are built not simply around what students need to know, but around how they learn, how they think, and how they begin to make connections across subjects.
That sense of possibility comes through in the course offerings themselves. English electives range from Begin Near the End: The Short Story and The Rise of Cottage-Core to Literature After Empire and Loud Enough to Matter: Voice, Truth, & the Art of the Story. Science students can study Hydrology, Geology, or Public Health: Epidemiology, while WISE offerings include Engineering for Change: Designing a Better World, Robotics, 3D Rendering, Public Health: Epidemiology, and Architectural Engineering. The arts add another layer, with courses in ceramics, drawing, printmaking, theater, music, and performance, including opportunities that take students into museums, studios, rehearsal rooms, and collaborative creative work.
What ties those choices together is an emphasis on active learning. In Historical Inquiry, ninth graders practice oral history, news literacy, research, and evidence-based argument while pursuing topics that interest them. In WISE, students prototype, code, build, analyze data, and work through open-ended problems tied to real-world challenges. In the Rasin Center’s Research & Action: UN Sustainable Development Goals from New Orleans to Connecticut, students conduct original research, connect with community partners, and design projects intended to create tangible impact. Even the Westover Institute creates space outside the traditional schedule for students to dive into big questions around law, social justice, sustainability, leadership, technology, creativity, well-being, and more. Every student takes at least one Institute course each year and may choose as many as four.
The result is a curriculum that feels both expansive and personal. Students are challenged to build depth, but they are also encouraged to experiment, cross boundaries between disciplines, and try something they did not know they were interested in yet. That balance of rigor and discovery is what makes Westover’s academic program distinctive: students are not simply moving through a course list. They are learning how to follow a question, test an idea, and shape an education that becomes increasingly their own.
To explore Westover's full curriculum guide, please click here.
To explore Westover's full curriculum guide, please click here.
Be Boldly You
Westover School admits students of any race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, or disability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. As a gender-diverse girls school, Westover welcomes applicants and students who are assigned female at birth and/or identify as girls. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational policies, admissions and financial aid policies, and athletic or other school-administered programs.