Student Support

Peer Counselors

The Peer Counselors are Upper School students who serve as active participants in providing a caring source of support to the students within the community.  Their role is to facilitate a deeper awareness of empathy, respect, leadership, and confidentiality. The Peer Counselors work with Middle School students both individually and in group settings covering topics including: teasing/bullying/cyber-bullying, peer pressure, and risk-taking behavior.  They assist students in skill-building to resolve their own problems while maintaining a relationship of trust and honesty.  Peer Counselors recognize their limits and are trained to refer students to the Counseling staff if further assistance is necessary and warranted.  A peer relationship carries enormous influence and power, therefore, the Peer Counselor’s ability to make a difference becomes very significant.  They create an opportunity to address students’ needs or problems in a positive way.  As community helpers the focus of their work is to foster further lessons of self-awareness, mutual respect, and personal responsibility.

Retreats

Retreats in the Seventh, Ninth, 10th, and 12th Grades offer a unique experience for students to connect, grow, and develop individually and within their peer group as they move through their Windward career. Retreats allow our students, advisors, deans, and faculty to engage in activities and conversations that connect to our development as a community, to our development as individuals, and to our advisory program. Through exposure to a wide range of activities and experiences, our students are engaged in physical, intellectual, and emotional challenges aimed at expanding their potential as lifelong learners and as citizens. Our commitment to growing collectively as a nurturing and inclusive community is reinforced through the retreat program.

Retreats have been offered at the following locations:

UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center
Camp Hess Kramer, Malibu
El Capitan, Santa Barbara
Annenberg Beach House
Senior Trips to Seattle and San Francisco

Counseling Office

The purpose of the Counseling Department is to support the well being of the Windward community. There are specific programs designed to support students directly and activities designed for parents, faculty, and staff. One way we support students is by facilitating parent discussions regarding the developmental milestones children face. Another method is to work with teachers on learning styles and provide options for ways to work with individual students.
 
Students are directly involved in a number of ways. The Counseling Department serves as a safe place for students to come and talk about their concerns with their peers, teachers, personal life, and family life. When the School has concerns about a student’s well-being, we talk with students and families about confidential courses of action that can be taken. 

Advisory Program

 
At Windward, we understand that human beings function best when they feel fully supported. We also recognize that students perform most effectively and are more successful, in and out of the classroom, when they have relationships with adults in the community that are characterized by trust, openness, and understanding.
Advisory is a place where meaningful and lasting relationships are nurtured and where challenges that students may face as they move through their years at Windward can be shared and discussed.

In small groups, students explore and discuss common goals and challenges specific to their grade level with the support of a faculty mentor. In this safe environment, individuals can share stories and seek support from their peers and their advisor throughout their Middle and Upper School years.
Windward School is a 7-12, co-educational, independent day school in Los Angeles, California.