Best Private Schools in Bellingham
Whatcom County's private-school sector is the smallest of any WA metro of comparable size, and it splits into three almost disconnected groups: the Dutch Reformed K-12 system in the Lynden farming corridor, a Bellingham city-limits cohort of small Catholic and Christian elementaries, and a progressive-pedagogy cluster anchored near Western Washington University. There is no large secular independent in the Eastside or Seattle mold. The total enrollment across all private schools in the county is well under three thousand students.
Lynden Christian Schools, founded in 1910 by D.J. Zylstra and other Dutch settlers, is the institutional anchor of the region. Roughly 1,200 students enroll across two campuses spanning preschool through twelfth grade, making it the largest private school in the county by a wide margin. Lynden Christian is a direct descendant of the Christian Reformed Church congregations that gave the Lynden corridor its enduring identity as Western Washington's most concentrated Reformed community. Most students continue from the K-8 campus to the secondary campus inside the same system.
Inside Bellingham city limits, the cohort is overwhelmingly elementary. Bellingham Christian School and the Franklin Academy lead the K-8 evangelical and non-sectarian options. Assumption Catholic School, attached to Assumption Cathedral on Cornwall Avenue, is the parish K-8 anchor. St. Paul's Academy operates as the city's Episcopal elementary, affiliated with the historic St. Paul's parish. None of these schools run an upper school, so secondary-bound Bellingham families either commute north to Lynden Christian or look across the county line to Skagit Valley options.
The progressive-pedagogy cluster is unusually deep for a city of Bellingham's size. Whatcom Hills Waldorf is one of only a handful of fully accredited Waldorf schools in WA. Cedar Tree Montessori and Montessori at Samish Woods anchor the Montessori options, mostly in the Fairhaven and Sehome neighborhoods that overlap with WWU. Explorations Academy runs a small upper-school program built around expeditionary learning and international travel with no real analog elsewhere in the county. The shape of the field reflects Bellingham's professional-class growth as WWU expanded — more arts-and-pedagogy-driven than the older religious schools to the north.
Ranked schools
- 001LYNDEN CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 002BELLINGHAM CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 003THE FRANKLIN ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 004ASSUMPTION CATHOLIC SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 005WHATCOM HILLS WALDORF SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 006MEADOWS MONTESSORI SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 007MONTESSORI AT SAMISH WOODS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 008CEDAR TREE MONTESSORI(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 009EXPLORATIONS ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 010PROVIDENCE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL NW(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 011CASCADES MONTESSORI MIDDLE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 012THE ROBERT WILLIAMS SCHOOL OF ARTS SCIENCES(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 013ALGER LEARNING CENTER- INC.(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 014INDEPENDENCE HIGH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 015ACTON ACADEMY OF WHATCOM(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 016BLUE HERON MONTESSORI SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
- 017GARDENVIEW MONTESSORI(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · WHATCOM—
All rankings · Live map