Lakeside School (Seattle)


Lakeside School is a private/independent school located in Seattle, Washington for grades 5–12. Famous alumni include Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. As of 2019, school review website Niche ranks Lakeside School the best private high school in Washington state and the 14th best private high school in the United States.

History

Lakeside School was developed in 1919 by Frank G. Moran as Moran-Lakeside School on the shores of Lake Washington in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle. Originally, the school was intended to feed students to Moran's other school, the Moran School on nearby Bainbridge Island. In 1923 the school was incorporated and renamed to Lakeside Day School. In 1923, it moved to the present site of The Bush School in Washington Park. In 1930, Lakeside moved to its newly constructed campus at its current location. It became coeducational upon merger with St. Nicholas School, a Capitol Hill private girls' school, in 1971.

Academics

All courses at Lakeside are college preparatory, and although AP courses are not offered, the majority meet or exceed the rigor and depth of the AP curriculum. Honors courses are only available in science and math. Graduation requirements include 2 years of Arts, 4 years of English, 3 years of History, Level III in either Chinese/French/Spanish/Latin, 3 years of Math, 2 years of Physical Education, and 2 years of Science. Additionally students are required to perform 80 service hours and participate in one week of Outdoor Education before graduation.
Typically 100% of students go on to matriculate at four-year colleges, with 88% of graduates out-of-state.

Student life

Lakeside has many student-initiated and led clubs, such as the Chess Team, the Acafellas and Bellas, Amnesty International, Quiz Bowl, Ethics Bowl, and Imago. Other aspects of student life include the affinity groups, like the Black Student Union, GLOW, MIxED, Lakeside Asian-Pacific Students, and Sí Se Puede. The number and nature of clubs changes each year as student interests change.

Athletics

A large athletics program offers golf, football, soccer, volleyball, crew, wrestling, baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, diving, lacrosse, cross country, and track and field as well as a strength and conditioning program. In recent years, the boys' swim team won a 3A WIAA state championship in the 2011-2012 season as well as in the 2012-2013 season. The 2013-2014 boys' soccer team won the WIAA state championship in the 3A division. The 2014 girls' swim team won the 3A WIAA state championship for the first time in school history, and won the 2015 state championship as well. The 2016 volleyball team won the 3A WIAA state championship for the first time in school history.

Global Service Learning

Established in the summer of 2005, the school's Global Service Learning Program, commonly referred to as GSL, aims at helping students look at the world from a different point of view while helping the underprivileged around the world. In 2005, students visited India, Peru, and China; in the summer of 2006 students travelled to Peru, China, Morocco, and the Dominican Republic. In the summer of 2007, 86 Upper School students traveled to Peru, China, Morocco, India, and the Dominican Republic. This list grew to include Senegal as an option for the 2009 summer trips, Ecuador for the 2013 summer trips, Thailand for 2014, and the Dominican Republic for 2015. The Middle School opened its first Global Service Learning Program for seventh graders with trips to the Makah Indian Reservation on Neah Bay in the summer of 2006; it sent an eighth grade trip to Costa Rica every summer between 2007 and 2014. It also began a trip for sixth graders to Broetje Orchards in the summer of 2010. In 2015, it implemented week long GSL trips around the Pacific Northwest for 8th graders. Students visited Cloud View Farms, the Quinault Reservation, Vernonia, Elwha, the Makah Reservation and Broetje Orchards.
The Global Service Learning Program is one piece of a broad change in curriculum and administrative policies aimed at increasing diversity. The school has focused on, in recent years, its role as an elite prep school and its desire for diverse viewpoints and backgrounds of its curriculum, faculty, and students.
Lakeside students have the opportunity to study abroad during their junior year of high school through schools called School Year Abroad, the Mountain School, the High Mountain Institute, the Maine Coast Semester, and CityTerm. Students may apply in the winter of their sophomore year to spend part of their junior year at one of these schools.
Lakeside has a long tradition in engaging students in global affairs. In 1984, Lakeside students competed against students at Moscow School #20 in a chess match relayed by Telex. The event was one of the first of its kind. A yearly exchange program with Moscow School #20 began in 1986, the first such regular American-Soviet school exchange in the country. Since 1984, the schools have been sister schools.

Notable alumni