Westland School is a progressive, independent, private,

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

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elementary

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...

located in the Bel Air community of

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, serving students from kindergarten through sixth grade. The school is located on

Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is nam ...

across from the Bel Air Presbyterian Church. Westland is accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) through 2016.

History

When Westland opened in 1949 it was the first progressive school on the

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, operating under the educational philosophy of

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...

. One of the founders was child psychologist Marie H. Briehl. Students were encouraged to explore their subjects hands-on and were taken on numerous field trips to learn about the world firsthand. Many of the early students were the children of writers and actors under the "

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", including

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

Abraham Polonsky Abraham Lincoln Polonsky (December 5, 1910 – October 26, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for '' Body and Soul'' but in the early 1950s ...

, and

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The school opened with 13 students in a couple of rented rooms. It expanded in 1957 and moved to its current location in 1965, becoming the first school to locate in what has now developed into a major "institutional corridor" in the area of the

Sepulveda Pass Sepulveda Pass (elevation ) is a low mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles. It is named after the Sepúlveda family of California, a prominent Californio family that owned the land where the pass lies. It connects the ...

. Today the school has about 130 students and an annual tuition of around $31,000. The students are divided into "groups" rather than grades, which may include children of varying ages.

Legacy

The archives of the Westland School reside in the University Library at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

References

External links

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GreatSchoolsAerial Photograph from Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westland School (Los Angeles) The Private elementary schools in California Educational institutions established in 1949 Schools in Los Angeles 1949 establishments in California Bel Air, Los Angeles