The Meridian School is a PreK-5 secular independent in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood, founded in 1976 and located in the historic Good Shepherd Center adjacent to the 6.5-acre Meridian Park. Enrollment is approximately 200 students. The school sits within Seattle's progressive K-5 secular-independent set, the cohort that includes Bertschi (Capitol Hill), Spruce Street School (downtown), Epiphany School (Madrona), and University Child Development School (Laurelhurst).
Meridian's distinguishing identity within that peer set is its commitment to integrating experiential learning and project-based work with conventional academics — the Good Shepherd Center campus and adjacent park are used as extended classroom space. The school has been a notable early-mover among Seattle independents on diversity, equity, and inclusion programming, with that work treated explicitly as part of the school's identity rather than a separate workstream.
Graduates typically continue to Seattle's secular middle-and-upper independents — Lakeside (which begins at 5th), University Prep, Seattle Academy, The Bush School, Eastside Prep, Overlake — or to public middle schools. The PreK-5 footprint is the smallest on the Seattle elite secular K-5 set, and the corresponding tradeoff is intimate community against the absence of a built-in middle school continuation. Class sizes and the small-school-by-design model are central to the value proposition.
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