2024-2025 VIEWBOOK
Seek knowledge. Develop self. Serve others.
a blacksmith. Forge on.
“No approach to education is more rigorous, purposeful, or holistic as the International Baccalaureate. Our students succeed academically, learn how to adapt, and are equipped to thrive on a global stage.”
- D r . K elly r itchie
Twenty-one years ago, Westlake Academy began a legacy to offer an International Baccalaureate education to the students in this and surrounding communities. Over the years, the Academy has helped students of all backgrounds reach their highest potential and complete all requirements to be eligible for the prestigious IB Diploma. An IB education not only provides a rigorous, academically challenging education. The IB also ensures a holistic development of each student with a focus on leadership, international mindedness, principled and caring actions, and personal development in the areas of resilience and critical thinking. We thank you for your interest in Westlake Academy.
Westlake Academy is a K-12 IB continuum school, one of only 13 schools of its kind in the state of Texas. Today, we serve almost 900 students in an engaging college-preparatory education. While the expectations of an IB education are challenging, the students at Westlake Academy are encouraged and supported by a professional and attentive staff of teachers and administrators. Throughout the IB continuum, students are required to reflect on and demonstrate their learning through presentations, projects, and rigorous formal exams that call on our learners to synthesize and evaluate their learning.
Our 25 acre, open-air campus is a beautiful setting for the inquiry-based learning that occurs within the IB curriculum. Westlake Academy has integrated outdoor learning spaces and collaboration spaces that allow our students to regularly learn beyond the four walls of a classroom. Additionally, our gym was recently renovated and our athletic fields are undergoing a transformation that includes the installation of a turf practice field and professional lighting.
There is an excitement and an anticipation of all that is to come at Westlake Academy as we enter our next 20 years. With the attention of our engaging, professional staff, the support of our wonderful Board of Trustees, and the help from our affiliate groups and community partners, our students are provided with a world-class educational opportunity. Thank you, again, for your interest in Westlake Academy. We look forward to seeing you on campus.
Forge on, Blacksmiths!
Kelly Ritchie Ph.D. Head of School Westlake Academy
Future Blacksmiths,
We are thrilled to welcome you to Westlake Academy, our municipally operated public charter school in the Town of Westlake. As a nationally recognized K-12 International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, our mission is to provide students with an internationally minded education of the highest quality, fostering well-balanced and respectful lifelong learners.
As the Mayor and President of the Board of Trustees, and a longtime Westlake resident, I take immense pride in what our town leaders established in 2003. Now, in our twenty-first year, and as a father of a senior, I am profoundly grateful for the quality education, world-class faculty and staff, sense of community, and the lasting memories we have created.
Westlake Academy is truly unique. We have achieved remarkable success both in the classroom and on our athletic fields. We believe in nurturing a healthy mind and body. Our students have gained admission to top universities across the country, and we have earned Platinum status on the Advanced Placement (AP) College Board Honor Roll, a distinction held by only 6% of schools nationwide. Moreover, over 70% of our students participate in various athletic programs, contributing to our impressive record of 52 varsity state championships. Our graduates are exceptionally prepared for college, and many enter with 24 or more hours of college credit thanks to our IB and AP programs.
As we celebrate our accomplishments over the past twenty years, I am excited about our future. With Dr. Kelly Ritchie as our new Head of School, a dedicated and highly qualified board of trustees, engaged parents, and a supportive Westlake community, I believe the best days of Westlake Academy lie ahead.
We invite you to explore everything Westlake Academy has to offer.
Sincerely,
Mayor Kim D. Greaves President of the Board of Trustees Westlake Academy
IB programmes aim to provide an education that enables students to make sense of the complexities of the world around them, as well as equipping them with the skills and dispositions needed for taking responsible action for the future. They provide an education that crosses disciplinary, cultural, national and geographical boundaries, and that champions critical engagement, stimulating ideas and meaningful relationships.
What is the International Baccalaureate? The first IB programme, the Diploma Programme (DP), was established in 1968. It sought to provide a challenging yet balanced education that would facilitate geographical mobility by providing an internationally recognized university-entrance qualification, but that would also serve the deeper purpose of promoting intercultural understanding and respect.
With the introduction of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in 1994 and the Primary Years Programme (PYP) in 1997, the IB identified a continuum of international education for students aged 3 to 19.
These four IB programmes can be implemented independently or in combination. They are all underpinned by shared values and a shared emphasis on developing students who are lifelong learners and who are able to not only make sense of, but to make a positive impact on, our complex and interconnected world. These aspirations are summed up in the IB’s ambitious mission.
BASED ON INQUIRY
A strong emphasis is placed on students finding their own information and constructing their own understandings.
FOCUSED ON CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING
Concepts are explored in order to both deepen disciplinary understandings and to help students make connections and transfer learning to new contexts.
DEVELOPED IN LOCAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS
Teaching uses real-life contexts and examples, and students are encouraged to process new information by connecting it to their own experiences and to the world around them.
FOCUSED ON EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION
This includes promoting teamwork and collaboration between students, but it also refers to the collaborative relationship between teachers and students.
DESIGNED TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO LEARNING
Teaching is inclusive and values diversity. It affirms students’ identities and aims to create learning opportunities that enable every student to develop and pursue appropriate personal goals.
INFORMED BY ASSESSMENT
Assessment plays a crucial role in supporting, as well as measuring, learning. This approach also recognizes the crucial role of providing students with effective feedback.
THINKING SKILLS
Including areas such as critical thinking, creative thinking and ethical thinking
RESEARCH SKILLS
Including skills such as comparing, contrasting, validating and prioritizing information
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Including skills such as written and oral communication, effective listening, and formulating arguments
SOCIAL SKILLS
Including areas such as forming and maintaining positive relationships, listening skills, and conflict resolution
SELF-MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Including both organizational skills, such as managing time and tasks, and affective skills, such as managing state of mind and motivation
These five categories of interrelated skills aim to empower IB students of all ages to become self-regulated learners who know how to ask good questions, set effective goals, pursue their aspirations and have the determination to achieve them. These skills also help to support students’ sense of agency, encouraging them to see their learning as an active and dynamic process.
Encouraging in-depth, collaborative inquiry, PYP students carry out an extended, in-depth, collaborative inquiry known as the PYP exhibition in their final year of the programme.
The exhibition also represents a unique and significant opportunity for students to showcase the attributes of the IB learner profile developed throughout their engagement with the programme while they conduct an in-depth inquiry into real life issues or problems.
The Primary Years Programme emphasizes that students build their learning on existing experiences and knowledge. In the classroom, both structured and open-ended inquiry methods are used to guide learning. Teachers create engaging learning experiences that spark curiosity and encourage students to seek out new knowledge and understandings. In the PYP, learning is viewed as a continuous journey, where teachers identify students’ needs and use assessment data to plan the next stage of their learning.
These elements that students need to lead successful lives underpin the PYP’s curriculum framework. Schools work with these elements to construct a rigorous and challenging primary education curriculum that is challenging, engaging, relevant, and significant. With local and global contexts incorporated into the PYP curriculum, students inquire into six transdisciplinary themes and to consider the conceptual links between them. The themes include:
‘who we are’ ‘where we are in place and time’ ‘how the world works’
Learning environments nurture student agency by providing students with voice, choice, and ownership. This encourages every student to take responsibility for their learning, the PYP develops students’ academic, social and emotional wellbeing, while simultaneously focusing on international-mindedness and the development of strong personal values.
In 10th grade, students complete the personal project, the culminating experience of the Middle Years Programme (MYP). The project demonstrates the application of the MYP’s Approaches to Learning Skills. This project is based on the student’s interests and talents, resulting in a product or outcome. Students show their passions in a variety of ways, from building a computer to learning a new language to volunteering at a local organization or abroad during their break. These experiences are showcased in an annual Personal Project Exhibition.
The MYP is a challenging framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world. Students who complete the MYP are well-prepared to undertake the IB Diploma Programme (DP).
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) comprises eight subject groups.
In grades 6-8, students take all 8 subjects.
In 9th and 10th grade, they choose 6-8 subjects.
- Language Acquisition
- Language and Literature
- Individuals and Societies
- Sciences
- Mathematics
- Arts
- Physical & Health
Education
- Design
Students learn best when their learning experiences have context and are connected to their lives and their experience of the world that they have experienced.
Using global contexts, MYP students develop an understanding of their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet through developmentally appropriate explorations of:
- identities and relationships
- personal and cultural expression
- orientations in space and time
- scientific and technical innovation
- fairness and development
- globalization and sustainability
The core is made up of three required components, which aim to broaden students’ educational experience and challenge them to apply their knowledge and skills.
EXTENDED ESSAY
an independent, self-directed piece of research, culminating with a 4,000-word essay.
CREATIVITY, ACTIVITY, SERVICE students undertake and engage in activities related to each of the three strands.
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE students reflect on the nature of knowledge and on how we know what we claim to know.
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, one of the world’s most respected preuniversity courses of study, requires the completion of:
- Extended Essay
- CAS project and requirements - TOK - Successfully completing internationally-normed exams
GROUP 1
Literature
GROUP 2
Spanish, French
GROUP 3
Buisness Management, Economics, Government, Hisotry of the Americas
GROUP 4
Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Systems & Societies, Physics
GROUP 5
Analysis & Approaches, Analaysis & Interpretation
GROUP 6
Visual Arts
Through the DP, schools are able to develop students who:
- have excellent breadth and depth of knowledge - flourish physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically - study at least two languages
- excel in traditional academic subjects
- explore the nature of knowledge through the programme’s unique Theory of Knowledge course
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, one of the world’s most respected pre-university courses of study. Designed for highly motivated students, the IB Diploma Programme is a rigorous two-year course of study leading to externally assessed examinations. The DP offers both breadth, in terms of the range of courses offered, and depth, in that students must take each course for two years. It is a deliberate compromise between the specialization required by some colleges and universities and the breadth preferred by others.
Abilene Christian University
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Angelo State University
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Art Institute of Dallas
Auburn University
Austin College
Barry University
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Belhaven University
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Angeles
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Barbara
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Primary Parent Coffee and Tour:
Hear from campus administrators about student activities, academics, athletics and more. The presentation lasts about 30 minutes, followed by a tour of the campus. Please plan to be on campus for about an hour in.
Primary tours are for students looking to start their journey at Westlake Academy from Kindergarten to 5th grade.
SEPT 26 9:30 am OCT 17 1:00 pm NOV 7 9:30 am NOV 21 1:00 pm DEC 12 9:30 am JAN 16 1:00 pm
FEB 20 9:30 am MAR 27 1:00 pm
Please scan and complete the form in the QR code to save your space in the listed tour dates.
Parent Coffee and Tour:
Secondary tours are for students looking to start their journey at Westlake Academy in Grades 6-12. If you have siblings that each qualify for both tours, please join us for the Primary tour as it will cover the whole continuum, K-12th grade.
Please scan and complete the form in the QR code to save your space in the listed tour dates.
Westlake Academy is an open enrollment college preparatory charter school, which is operated by the Town of Westlake. This means that we are a public school, funded primarily through contributions from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Charter schools are granted some freedom from many of the State regulations, but still must maintain accountability through State assessments.
We look forward to connecting with prospective families interested in pursuing the interntationally recogized, rigorous IB education. We would love to meet you and tell you more about Westlake Academy.
The lottery for the 2025-2026 school year will take place on February 20, 2025, at 5:00 pm. This will be a streamed on Facebook Live, through our school Facebook page.
The Westlake Academy 2025-2026 Lottery Waitlist Application is available starting on December 1, 2024 and will remain open through January 31, 2025. All applications received during this time will be included in the lottery for waitlist positions for the 2025-2026 school year. Any applications received after January 31, will be added to the bottom of the grade level waitlist in the order they are received.
December and January
Lottery drawing for applications accepted from secondary boundary students
February and March
Conduct lottery and notify applicants of lottery outcome
April
Notify Westlake residents (primary boundary students) of Kindergarten
Roundup
June
Begin enrollment of new Westlake resident students
August
New students admitted from the lottery will be notified beginning August 1st through the first two weeks of the start of the school year
Please visit our website for more detailed information on this process.
“Imagine a worldwide community of schools, educators and students with a shared mission to empower young people with the values, knowledge and skills to create a better and more peaceful world . t his is the i nternational B accalaureate . ”
Based on a large international data set, by the end of the Diploma Programme (DP), 98% of students aspired to at least a bachelor’s degree and 81% aspired to a master’s, doctoral or professional degree.
In line with previous research, about 85% of DP students in the United States enrolled in university immediately after high school, compared to 66% of all US high school graduates.
DP students were also more likely than other US students to continue on to their second year of university (persistence).
At Westlake Academy, we offer the entirety of the IB continuum which allows our stuents to benefit from a consistant curriculum thorughout their academic journey.
Studies exploring the high school outcomes of former MYP and non-MYP students found that former MYP students performed significantly better than non-MYP students in total DP points earned. Students were 39% more likely to score a 3 or above on an AP exam and 4 or above on an IB exam
Westlake Academy is one of 13 IB continuum schools in the state of Texas.
Adventures of Science Club
Algebra & Geometry Support
Badminton Club
Bullet Journaling & Come Together
Chemistry Club
Chinese Club
Crocheting Club
Cross Country
DEBATE CLUB
DECA Club
Drama Club (TUE)
Faith Foundations
Female Empowerment Club
Fine Arts Course
FIRST Robotics Club
Hack Club
High School Maths Club
International Youth Neuroscience Association
Key Club
Kids in the Garden
Kids in the Kitchen: Cooking Class
Lil’ Blacksmiths
Mathematics Supplementary Course
Middle School Math Club
Mathematical Olympiads
Physics Club
PYP Chess Club
Red Cross Club
Rubik’s Cube Club
Running Club
Scottish Dancing
Secondary Chess Club
Secondary Library Advisory Committee
The Writing Club
TippiToes® Dance-Ballet, Tap & Jazz
ATHLETICS BY THE NUMBERS
Athletics Teams
Basketball
Baseball
Cheer and Dance
Cross Country
Golf
Football
Soccer
Tennis
Track and Field
Volleyball
70% PARTICIPATION IN ATHLETICS
52 VARSITY STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
33 ATHLETIC TEAMS
Our three affiliate groups are a huge reason we are able to do what we do! For those looking for dynamic ways to be involved in their child’s education, these groups offer opportunities for parents to make an immediate impact.
Established in 2003, the Foundation is an independent, 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Our Board of Directors is comprised of Academy parents and community members who volunteer their time, talent, resources, leadership and expertise in service to the students and teachers of Westlake Academy.
The Academy relies on Foundation funding for approximately 20% of its annual operating budget. Our initiatives raise $1.5 million annually for school operations, academic programs, teacher training, equipment, technology, and the endowment. Westlake Academy would look very different without charitable contributions!
The purpose of the Westlake Academy House of Commons is building, serving and supporting the Westlake Academy Community and the fostering of a first class education for all Westlake Academy students.
The House of Commons is a 501(c)3 parent volunteer organization. They supply teacher and school grants, hold year-round teacher appreciation activities, and put on fun events like Monster Mash, Mother and Son Fun Night, Spirit Nights, Uniform Resale, the Daddy Daughter Dance, Bandana Bonanza, and so much more!
Blacksmith Booster Club is a tax deductible 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. From funding for sports banquets and senior nights to travel expenses and team banners, every dollar donated goes to support the success of our athletes and coaches at Westlake Academy.
We invite you to become a member of the Westlake Academy Booster Club. This club offers parents and members of our community the opportunity to be actively involved in supporting our student athletes and coaches. As a member you are also given voting rights and access to all published Booster Club meetings.
Mission
Westlake Academy is an IB Continuum School where students become compassionate, life-long learners through an internationally-minded, balanced education that empowers students to contribute to our interconnected world.
Vision
Westlake Academy inspires college bound students to achieve their highest individual potential in a nurturing environment that fosters the traits found in the IB Learner Profile Attributes.
