Westridge School Private School for Girls in Los Angeles CA

Blog & Resources for Parents

Westridge's community blog featuring Head of School Andrea Kassar,
Leadership & faculty members, & special guests
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Lower & Middle School Dean of Student Voices Tamara Shahar Jaffe ’08 Continues to Make Her Mark (at Westridge!)
  • Alumnae
Westridge School

As we celebrate Black History Month, we are proud to highlight alumna Tamara Shahar Jaffe ’08 and her work as Westridge Dean of Lower & Middle School Student Voices. In her role, she coordinates many aspects of lower and middle school student programming in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), including leading Middle School affinity spaces, helping students develop assemblies about topics that are important to them, facilitating conversations around difficult concepts, teaching sixth grade sessions on civil discourse and the vocabulary of equity work, and more!

Read More about Lower & Middle School Dean of Student Voices Tamara Shahar Jaffe ’08 Continues to Make Her Mark (at Westridge!)
Westridge School all girls school Los Angeles
  • All-Girls Education
  • Parents
  • Students
Melanie Horn

There was no hesitation, the Tigers must field a team! And so, we did! How could a girls’ school not jump at this unique opportunity? But to find later that Westridge was the only school in the greater Pasadena area and the only girls’ school in the greater Los Angeles area to field a team, was sort of incredible to me—in not such a good way.

Read More about Female Athletes and Football Participation: The Final Frontier
Westridge School all girls school Los Angeles
  • All-Girls Education
Valerie Trimarchi

I have these moments in my studio and at Westridge I call "NOW". It is when I am in the flow, or my students are in the flow, engaged, creating, making, struggling,  pushing themselves, finding their solutions. One day we were painting water with one-inch paintbrushes, there was calm music playing and I watched them for moment as an observer, overcome with joy, listening to the pffft pffft pffft of the brushes as they covered their big papers with paint. It was messy, blue and green puddles and water cups, kids shoulder to shoulder pffft pffft pffft. This was a NOW. I was filled with joy, flow.

Read More about Why I Teach, Why Westridge
Westridge School all girls school Los Angeles
  • All-Girls Education
  • Head of School
Andrea Kassar

Last week I hosted Thursday afternoon-snack-chat with faculty and staff in my office, a weekly time for colleagues to drop in for some food and conversation. Sometimes we talk about work-life and Westridge, but most often it is a chance to chat about life and the world beyond Westridge and to get to know one another better. On Thursday, the topic of interesting jobs we have held in our lives before Westridge came up—some shared about their experiences working in coffee shops or research labs with mice or data management. The job that I mentioned was one I held in college for three years, as a paid research assistant in a developmental psychology lab, where we studied children’s cognition and language acquisition. The job led to my senior-year research project on language comprehension in 13-month-olds. Besides being adorable (I got to meet about one hundred 13-month-olds from the Chicagoland area!), the work gave me the opportunity to see theories of language acquisition in real time.

Read More about Nothing is Static: What 13-Month-Olds Can Teach Us About Learning, Listening, and Life

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Resources for Parents

Here are some of the resources we draw from as educators, which may also be helpful for you and your daughters!

Please note: Some of the resources, particularly the websites, update continuously and we are in no way encouraging or endorsing their content in its entirety. Some may contain material or subject matter not suitable for younger children. Please use your discretion when viewing.