Student Life
Student Leadership and Clubs
High school students serve their community and learn leadership skills by joining the Ravens. Ravens help conduct admissions tours, sponsor prospective student events and visits, host the annual Red Cross blood drive, organize fund-raising events, lead assemblies, and run the spring prom (open to all high school students). Student interest also determines extracurricular clubs (past clubs have included a ukelele club, an animé fan club, a Jewish Student Union, a gay-straight alliance, and an environmental activists club).
Service Learning
Service to the greater community is one of the basic commitments upon which The Waverly School was founded. We use the term “service learning” rather “community service” because we strive to create curriculum that inspires involvement and action locally and globally. We encourage and support students to do their service learning in areas that reflect their passions. Some of the service is organized during school hours; additionally, the assistant head of school will make periodic announcements about service opportunities. High school students are required to participate in a total of 60 hours prior to graduation.
Advanced Placement Classes
Several courses, particularly in the humanities and sciences, can be taken for Advanced Placement (AP) credit. The requirements for AP include an increased and more difficult reading load, additional meeting time with the teacher, and a commitment to intense independent study. Some AP courses require a supplementary summer session for an additional fee. All students enrolled in an AP class must take the AP exam in order to receive AP credit on their transcripts.
Conferences + Study Block
At the high school, two 30-minute conference blocks offer students time to meet one-on-one with teachers. This time is used to discuss areas for growth as well as areas of success. In addition, high school students have a daily study block built into their schedule. Students are encouraged to do homework during this time, in part to limit how much time is spent on homework at home.
Physical Education
Waverly’s physical education program aims to build lifelong, healthy exercise habits. All students in the 9th and 10th grades are required to complete physical education units. Given the varying needs of the community, Waverly offers multiple options for fulfilling the physical education requirement. Students can earn a physical education credit for a given school year in the following ways:
• Participation on a school team for one season.
• Participation in two seasons of CrossFit at a local gym.
• Participation in a full year of Waverly’s Bollywood Dance Club.
• Consistent, documented participation in a club sport or class outside of school.
Athletics
High school students participate in the International League, affiliated with the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) in girls’ and boys’ basketball and volleyball. Student interests determines club sports each year. In the past, Waverly students have enjoyed soccer, golf, tennis, hiking, cross-country, camping, pool (billiards), Ultimate Frisbee, Bollywood dance, and cheerleading. Read more about athletics.
Love and Justice
The intersection of love and justice is an important space to hold together with our students. Many of the curricular areas and approaches we have always engaged with in Wellness – social justice, sexuality, healthy communication and consent, decision making, human development, body image, gender identity, psychoeducation, and many more – have a new home in the Love and Justice program.
Love and Justice classes meet by grade level on a weekly basis. Through a social justice lens, and informed by interpersonal neurobiology, the Love and Justice program supports student understanding of self and community.
Ninth Grade: The 9th grade Love and Justice program integrates body, brain, and relationship through a unit-based curriculum. Units include Body Trust, “Zombies: Managing Anxiety,” and a Relationships curriculum that covers human development, communication, sexual health, consent, and much more. The Love and Justice comprehensive sexual education curriculum relies on the work of Advocates for Youth, which is mapped to the National Sexuality Education Standards, covers all 16 topics deemed essential by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is LGBTQ-inclusive, trauma informed, and culturally responsive. or a full description of the 9th grade units, please view our high school course catalog.
Tenth Grade: The 10th grade Love and Justice program begins with a strong focus on social justice, and utilizes components of the Story of Self, Us, Now, developed by Harvard professor Marshall Ganz, Black Lives Matter School, and Teaching Tolerance curriculums to engage students in learning about racial justice. Student learning will culminate in an action project in February. In the late spring, students will participate in a unit-based curriculum that centers on Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality. Tenth graders will also have a unit in the spring that focuses on relationships and healthy sexuality.
Eleventh Grade: Love and Justice in 11th grade centers around the theme of restorative justice and asks students to explore the essential question: What does it mean to be in just relationships with one another? In the fall, students will participate in learning around restorative justice, and spend time exploring the framework of intersectionality as it relates to identity and relationships. Students will work in small groups as well as a larger class community. In the spring, students will have the opportunity to work on a project that deeply examines the ways in which oppressive systems inform their experiences, relationships, and identities.
Twelfth Grade: In the 12th grade, Love and Justice electives prepare and empower students to choose an area of focus that is meaningful to them. Developed in collaboration with facilitators, 12th graders have opportunities to participate in two of the following electives over the course of the fall and winter: Radical Self-Love, Racial Identity Development, All About Love, Queer Spectrum, Intersectional Feminism, Men’s Story Project, and more. For more on the 12th grade electives, please view our high school course catalog.
In the spring, 12th grade students re-engage with the themes of Love and Justice with particular attention to empowering and preparing students to launch young adult lives after high school. Themes for the spring semester include creating healthy adult relationships, approaches to healthy sexuality after high school, and empowering students to navigate their lives during these important next steps.
Outdoor Education + Field Trips
Outdoor education excursions typically occur in the spring. Options have included rock climbing in Joshua Tree, exploring music and the recording industry in Nashville, and staying in Los Angeles to produce a music video. Every other academic year, juniors and seniors have a chance to go to Costa Rica to live with local families, shoot whitewater rapids on a raft trip, and contribute to the local area by helping with a community service project.
Day-long field trips include visiting the Getty Villa or the Norton Simon Museum, exploring Little India in Artesia with the Bollywood Dance Club, reinforcing physics concepts at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and seeing local cultural exhibits or performances that fit in with the curriculum.
Trips are designed to accomplish many objectives:
- For students to enjoy and learn about the world around them
- To challenge themselves individually and as a team
- To bring students and faculty together away from the pressures of school.
Unless a student cannot attend for a medical reason, all students are expected to participate.