Wingra School

718 Gilmore Street

Madison, WI 53711

23 Reviews

School District
Grade

K-8
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on January 17, 2025

I can't say enough good things about Wingra. My kiddo chose which preschool to attend requesting an art school. We had a phenomenal experience at Preschool of the Arts and wanted to find a similar structure for the transition to elementary. As an innovative educator committed to project-based learning that prioritizes student voice and choice at the middle and high school levels, I was looking for somewhere I could see myself appreciating the teachers as colleagues. Wingra checks all the boxes for me. While I don't believe they are able to serve students with all disabilities, my neurodivergent learner is thriving. The teachers are supportive and genuinely recognize them for who they are in the world. There is so much compassion and care put into everything, and you can't beat 12:1 student to teacher ratios.
Submitted by parent on November 05, 2024

We love being a part of Wingra School! Our kindergartener is thriving in the Nest classroom. We love how much time they spend outdoors and how intertwined the curricula is with the greater Madison community. The administrators and teachers are caring and responsive. Our son is excited to go to school every morning and comes home with so much to share. We highly recommend Wingra!
Submitted by parent on June 24, 2024

My children have attended Wingra for multiple years and our plan is for both of them to stay through 8th grade ("The Sky"). Wingra went through some rocky years recently but it has stabilized. Wingra doesn't have grades or tests, however their assessment of children is more based on seeing them as whole people over the arc of their education. Academics are not the top priority at Wingra, as in some other local private schools. So, if that is what you are looking for, Wingra likely won't be a good fit for your family. However, it is a place where caring teachers are given the chance to craft curriculum and follow the interests of the classroom as a group and children as individuals. I think if you tour the school, meet the teachers, see the classrooms, and talk to current families you'll get a good sense for whether it's a match for you and your kiddo.
Submitted by parent on April 25, 2024

Our child is in his first year at Wingra and we are having a very positive experience. We are welcomed each day with open arms, the staff and his teachers are wonderful. He loves going to school, is eager to learn, and is excelling in social emotional development as well as early academics (math and literacy, etc.). We love the all school classes, multi-age classrooms, and the connections between the older and younger students through learning partners and all school activities. For us, this school has everything we were looking for, including project based learning, getting out into and learning about being a community member, social justice advocacy, connecting with the outdoors, and much more. The school has also adopted a new tuition policy which makes this progressive education accessible to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. I cannot speak to some of the academic concerns described in other reviews since our child is in the early grades, but I do know that the new head of school has put in efforts to address this by bringing in math and literacy specialists and having set curriculums for those areas. Our child's teachers shared a bit about the math and literacy curriculum they use during parents' night and they do have assessments, even though there are not traditional grades and test. Every school has their ups an downs, but for us Wingra has checked all of our boxes and then some. We feel that our child is gaining so much from his experiences here.
Submitted by parent on April 17, 2024

We have been through a very dysfunction private school, homeschool with an amazing support network, homeschool with no outside support, MMSD, and now Wingra. While nothing has been the perfect experience we all want for our kids, I do feel like Wingra has been the best fit for us at this point. I have never been a fan of the teaching to the test method most public schools have, add in the over full class rooms and lack of support for the teachers and it ends up being a very chaotic and sometimes scary experience. While I do see some of the downsides to the educational standards at Wingra they still far surpassed what was happening at the MMSD school we attended. In addition to that, a friend's parent was told by MMSD the emotional well-being of the students were not a priority. That is not the case here. They very much take an interest in who the students are and how to help them succeed in school and life. I have noticed my son slipping in some of his academic accomplishments at times due to not being the most self motivated, I have had a different experience with the teachers than some others, as they have always been very aware of where my son is at and make sure I know when he's falling behind and sending work home for me to help him with so he can catch back up and stay with the class on things. I have seen both my boys become more confident in who they are and trying new and more challenging things. They feel safe and supported. During our one experience with bullying I feel like Wingra handled the situation well, trying to work with the troubled student, giving opportunities for growth and improvement, then making the hard choice of not inviting the student back when the behavior continued despite being given opportunities to change. I have chosen to hire a tutor to help my children with the areas they struggle with academically, but I feel I would have done the same thing in a public school setting so I don't see this as a failure on Wingra's part so much as supporting my students where they're at. I feel like I know more about where they have trouble and where they do well with Wingra than I did with MMSD. Overall I have enjoyed working with the staff at Wingra, I feel like my kids are safe and learning, and that they will have a good foundation moving forward in life. With public school I saw my children diminished and it was heartbreaking to watch, here I see them becoming who they want to be, with support and guidance from caring adults.
Submitted by parent on February 06, 2024

We came to Wingra several years ago, after public school made my child into a two-dimensional, stress-ridden version of themselves. Wingra brought my child back to life, so I hesitate to write anything negative. But the school is not without deficits, so I want to caution that it is not for everyone. Wingra's strengths are social-emotional and community building. My child has a tight-knit group of friends that have sustained them throughout their time at school. In addition, my child is comfortable interacting with kids of all ages, due to the many cross-level activities Wingra promotes. The teachers know my child extremely well and truly care about them. My child feels supported, safe and seen at school. As a result, they have learned how to advocate for themselves and are comfortable speaking in front of groups of other students and adults, which is not something MMSD emphasizes. Wingra's weaknesses center around academics. Math in particular has always been undervalued at Wingra. In the lower levels, students only have math lessons 2-3 times a week, and there is little to no emphasis on learning math facts. As a result, by 5th grade my child was already two years behind in math, which no teacher ever mentioned to us. We have spent a lot of money on private math tutoring over the years. On the other hand, if your child excels in math, they will be largely on their own, as there is no formal advanced learning at Wingra. Aside from math, Wingra's social studies curriculum is a bit scattershot and not "standard." In other words, your child may graduate from Wingra without knowing the states and their capitals, or the general sequence of events in modern U.S. history, unless you teach them at home. Which brings me to my main concern about Wingra: the slack it leaves for parents to pick up. If you care about the gaps in the Wingra education, it will be your job to fill in the gaps or hire a tutor. Second, the lack of accountability and formal assessment at Wingra puts the burden on parents to ensure that learning is effective. Contrary to Wingra's primary claim, innate curiosity in itself is not always enough for every kid to meet their full potential. My child also needs structure: clear instructions on assignments, clear deadlines, reminders about deadlines, and consequences for late work. All these supports are (intentionally) absent at Wingra.For us, the social-emotional benefits have outweighed the negatives, but Wingra is NOT for all families.
Submitted by parent on December 04, 2023

My eleven year old son has attended Wingra School since kindergarten (the Nest.) He adores it all: the building, his teachers, peers and the academics. Being on the spectum I was worried about him thriving in school, but Wingra embraces differences and my son is BLOOMING. Thank you, Wingra community!
Submitted by parent on August 06, 2023

Wingra is more or less an extended preschool. Great for recess and outdoor time, fun for the first few years but as you move along, the lack of learning is extremely frustrating. The flaw in the programming is pretty fundamental and no tests/no grades creates a significant gap in learning. The curriculum is constantly evolving as they spend time "going deep" into one unit at a time. If you've explored the school, you'll know what this refers to. The problem is, this requires teachers to have to always re-create planning & materials, rather than plugging into an already tried and true system. For instance, math worksheets are drafted by teachers and usually had just a few problems. Our kids brought home the same simple work year after year. Foreign language is terrible. Several Spanish teachers rotated in and out. My kids took years of Spanish but they can not construct a single sentence. Three weeks on the Duolingo app taught one of our kids more in French than they learned in 5 years of Wingra Spanish.There are no accommodations for kids with special needs. it's just not in the budget. Instead of devoting resources here, the teachers are ok with allowing children to choose to opt out of learning. Our children are very bright but they fell far behind in multiple subjects. Wingra does not offer benchmarking or real assessment so it can take years to realize just how far behind your kid is. Many families have to supplement and pay for additional math tutoring just to catch up with their public school peers. It's a double punch. We paid an absolute fortune only to have to scramble with time, money, and stress to catch up in the basics. We are still trying to close the gap. Wingra teachers really do care about the kids and they work so hard. The school absolutely encourages kindness and understanding. The friendships were very hard to leave behind. But this isn't the only reason kids spend their days at school and the flaw is in the foundation, not the execution. We wish we had enrolled in a great public school from the beginning. I struggled with whether to write this review but wished someone had alerted me to this ages ago. It looks like more parents are coming forward with some of these harsh realities.
Submitted by parent on January 06, 2023

Our child was not successful here, and I will echo some of the past reviews that mention that there is a big disconnect between the inclusive environment they claim to foster, and the reality. Nowhere else is this more obvious than noticing that their inclusive language mentions everything *except* for ability. If your child has special needs, is highly independent, or has divergent learning preferences, they will not last here and the school has practically zero resources to help them nor do teachers have experience with these types of kids. The school system is incredibly rigid which is the complete opposite of the image they present externally. At one point we were receiving daily frantic emails about things our child was or wasn't doing, often involving how engaged he was with the group activities. While we really loved the teachers, the reality is this school works for a very specific kind of child and you aren't going to learn that until you've committed to sending your child here and you experience the first few weeks.We have since moved our child to MMSD, to a school with historical low (okay, awful) ratings, and he is *thriving*. I'm so completely blown away by how much better the MMSD system is and their capacity to work with all kinds of children and enable them to be successful. If you were like us and concerned about sending your child to the local low-performing public school, I would urge you to strongly reconsider. Doubly so if your child has any special needs or is, like ours, incredibly independent. Plus, you'll save yourself an extra mortgage in the process!I am beyond relieved to be done with this school and put this behind us. In hindsight the vibes were way off and we should have noticed that sooner.
Submitted by parent on May 12, 2022

My family has been at Wingra for 1 year and overall we are really pleased with the experience. We've found that our child's anxiety about school is decreased and their curiosity, interest in social justice issues, and confidence are vastly improved. Our child was crushed by test anxiety and timed math drills in MMSD and is much happier in a smaller, closer-knit environment. They are taking responsibility for--and interest in--their own learning in a way they never did at her old school.
Submitted by parent on April 11, 2022

Wingra is now so incredibly dysfunctional that it’s hard to know where to begin, but the main reason we can no longer attend is that the academic program at Wingra is so poor after a steady decline. Wingra claims to see the whole child and meet children right where they are academically and socially, but is unable to do this. Examples of academic issues include children not having learned multiplication and division in the upper elementary grades, and no formal spelling well into middle school. Our family (any many others before us) discussed such academic issues with the school, and it simply never changes. There are many other warning signs of the troubles at Wingra: excellent teachers and staff have left, students and families leaving, poor communication, the impossibility of truly discussing parent concerns, the number of children who “need” tutors for math and reading, the resignation of the head of school, a disengaged board with no interest or involvement in the actual happenings of the school, parents resigning from the board leaving a board with no current parents, the business manager and director of education resignations now too… and plenty others. I regret that my family attended and would not recommend Wingra School. Academics: Children who need prompting and encouragement to do their work fall through the cracks and develop terrible habits for getting out of school work in a setting where they are not accountable for any school work. And, as a parent you are not informed about what your child is doing (or more to the point, not doing) at school. Students are not guided to reach their potential academically. Leadership: The leadership of the school is condescending and out of touch with the concerns of parents, and unwilling to discuss issues in a substantive way. The prevailing model of “discussing” issues is to talk and talk and talk about it, insisting that they hear and understand you, while they wait you out until you no longer are able to keep at something that isn’t ever going to be resolved. It’s a very frustrating process. The community has asked many times to discuss the academic program, progressive education, behavior and bullying, for example, but it doesn’t happen. Bullying: This has caused a great deal of anguish for families whose children experience bullying as their concerns are dismissed by the leadership. Parents are generally not adequately informed about these issues, big or small.
Submitted by parent on January 31, 2022

My family left Wingra in 2021, just as the board announced it was not interested in working in service of the current population of the school. Having already experienced deficits in the educational programming, this new directive of the school sealed the deal for our early departure from the community. We have since moved onto a less expensive private school that provides an infinitely better education.
Submitted by parent on August 23, 2020

Our experience with Wingra was poor. We left MMSD because the classroom environment can be chaotic, quite often, and because the curriculum isn't always very engaging, and because they don't have resources to allow for kids to move ahead in some subject areas when they're ready. We tried Wingra in hopes that it would address these deficits, but instead we found that Wingra lacks diversity (racial, socioeconomic, and diversity of thought), has a toxic culture that it refuses to acknowledge or address, and despite a creative curriculum, fails to deliver in a way that can reach a variety of learning styles. This is going to sound really harsh but Wingra is a woke white people school built on the unquestioned foundations of conquest culture. No thanks.
Submitted by parent on March 16, 2016

We were living overseas and found Wingra through the progressive schools network. We had high hopes as our daughter started half-way through 5th grade as a trial to whether she would attend middle school there. We have been humbled by the dedication and inspiration of the staff and our daughter is thriving. Middle school can be such a trying time, but with the nurturing and open atmosphere at Wingra we can see and feel our daughter thriving; no fear of bullying or being made to feel awkward or stupid. Children are encouraged to self-advocate and taught how to navigate the world through dialogue, listening, and discovery.
Submitted by parent on May 01, 2015

My daughter came to Wingra 3/4 of the way through kindergarten (sadly she did not thrive in the public schools in Madison and had a miserable experience there). The entire Wingra community (teachers and students) accepted her with open arms. Within a week my daughter's joy for school returned and for several years she thrived at Wingra. Due to my husband's job, we had to move out of state. Leaving Wingra behind was one of the hardest things about our move. My daughter is back in the public schools in third grade (due to all the school testing, we know her reading and language level are at the 4th grade level). In addition to learning, my daughter got to experience an open, trusting, loving community that accepted her and never judged her, where she always felt welcomed and "okay." Wingra is a wonderful school that fosters a love of learning. We miss it a lot and recommend it highly.
Submitted by parent on October 08, 2014

This school works well enough for many children, but high IQ boys with inattentive ADD will NOT do well here. I know a few, including my own son, who were miserable, despite the admininstration's promises. If you child is a truly divergent thinker who marches to his/her own drummer and is not terribly interested in pleasing the teacher and being a follower of group activities, they will not be happy here. We are homeschooling now. They were also not able to meet some of my son's medical needs, which made his time worse there. Quiet kids who get lost in the shuffle of regular school may do fine here. If your kid is gifted in math and science and language, I do not advise you send them here. The staff do not understand gifted kids with learning differences, even though they SWEAR up and down that they do.
Submitted by parent on April 28, 2014

This school is perfect for parents looking for an alternative to schools and programs for their gifted child. Children are given challenging work without testing, labelling, or comparing. Wingra is also fantastic for children who are sensitive and creative, or who tend to learn and think in unusual ways. I've seen children enter the school self-conscious, suspicious, angry and frightened and by spring, they're skipping down the hallway, performing in the monthly follies, and authoritatively explaining their projects to an audience of students, parents and teachers. I've never before met children so completely comfortable with themselves as are Wingra students. When my child was crying because he had to go home sick, five children from his class and two from other classes stopped by to ask him what was wrong and offer words of comfort and sympathy. My son (normally a dawdler) never has a problem getting ready for school in the morning since he started at Wingra and a threat of "You're going to be late for school," is enough to get him moving. Over school breaks, he's always asking, "When can I go back to school?"
Submitted by parent on April 25, 2014

Wingra School is a progressive school that truly teaches to the whole child. We have one child who has graduated from Wingra and one still there. The teachers are dedicated, creative, and very competent. They teach concepts in context and make instruction very practical. Students are well-prepared for high school and many high school teachers say Wingra students are creative, higher order thinkers. As an educator who's worked in the public schools for 23 years I can truly say that Wingra students get a wonderful education in a caring, respectful environment.
Submitted by parent on April 14, 2014

I have two children at Wingra and we all love it. At Wingra, my kids are challenged to reach their goals in a supportive and compassionate environment. They are active participants in their education. They have a voice in what they learn and how they learn. What I love about Wingra is that students are really learning about themselves as learners and developing a clear sense of what drives them. This is something, I feel, is often lost when students are working primarily for a test score or a grade. At Wingra, my children at gaining the academic and social skills they need to follow their dreams, be a caring community member. The teachers at Wingra are top-notch professionals. They are dedicated to the students, families and their profession. I am so thankful our family chose Wingra!
Submitted by parent on April 12, 2014

Both of our children began going to Wingra School in Kindergarten. What we love most about Wingra is that our children LOVE going to school. The fact that they love school does not mean that learning is easy at Wingra. Students are challenged according to their learning level and abilities, pushing the envelope of their comfort zones. Our kids delve deeply into each subject, discovering how it applies to real life through field trips, hands-on projects, experiential learning and collaboration. What they learn sticks with them because it all feels relevant, applicable, and interesting! Kids are also expected to work in groups, collaborate with their peers, and learn to respect and listen to one another. As a result, our son and daughter have developed excellent leadership skills, empathy and self-confidence. Not only does Wingra nurture our children as learners, but the staff also works with them to be good friends and community members. Finally, what we love about the school is that our kids are allowed to be who they are and, with the help of Wingra, are developing into their best selves. Thanks, Wingra School!