Westside School is West Seattle's secular independent school, a preschool-through-8th-grade program of about 340 to 390 students in the Arbor Heights neighborhood. It opened on September 9, 1981 as Westside School for Young Children with 11 students, founded by parents and educators, and moved repeatedly as it grew, including into a leased church space in 1990 and the former E.C. Hughes public school building in 2010. It became an accredited member of the Northwest Association of Independent Schools in 1996 and added middle school grades between 2011 and 2013. A $4.2 million capital campaign financed the renovation of the former Hillcrest Presbyterian Church at 10404 34th Avenue SW, which became the permanent campus in 2015.
Westside is the only NWAIS-accredited independent school in West Seattle that spans preschool through eighth grade; Explorer West covers only the middle years, and families otherwise cross the bridge to Seattle Country Day, the Bush School, or Epiphany. Its progressive, project-based model and no-cut athletics put it closer to Bush than to the more academically selective Seattle Country Day. The tradeoff is tuition near $27,000 to $30,000 with about a quarter of students on need-based aid averaging $14,500, in exchange for an 8:1 student-teacher ratio and a neighborhood location.
The 53,000-square-foot main building was joined in 2021 by an adjacent preschool facility converted from a former church. Programs include Mandarin and Spanish, visual arts, music, physical education, experiential education with field trips, and athletics for grades 4-8. Dr. Daryl Wright became head of school in 2025.
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