Dear Laker Community,

This month, we celebrate balance, highlighting the shared importance of our intellectual, physical, and emotional well-being.

Balance is at the heart of what makes Windermere Prep so special. We blend the traditional American high school experience with world-class international education. Our mission to engage and inspire our learners to discover their passions comes to life on the stage, on the fields, in the classrooms, and in just a few weeks, in the Learning Commons during IB Diploma Program examinations. Our students have endless opportunities to explore and discover with the goal of building the best versions of themselves for the global community.

At tonight’s Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Exhibition, our junior IB students will show how they have embraced balance, cultivated their passions, and extended their thinking in ways that are both profoundly meaningful and deeply personal. These students connect TOK to the world around them through an exploration of three objects of personal significance. They ask and answer questions like, “Is bias inevitable in the production of knowledge?” and “How can we distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?” These are the kinds of questions that don’t have single right answers. They require critical and creative thinking, balancing a range of perspectives, and developing an argument through justification and evaluation. Along with the MYP Personal Project Exhibition on April 21, this exhibition serves as a testament to the value of an IB education at WPS, inviting all our learners—the students, the parents, the faculty and administration—to push beyond the limits of what we currently know.

April is the perfect time for these exhibitions and also the perfect time to commit to balance. This is a stressful month as we come into the final stretch of the school year, but it’s also a celebratory time, especially in the high school where our seniors are making their final choices about college, looking forward to their breakfast, walk out, and Grad Bash, and preparing to show what they know and can do on internationally validated assessments starting at the end of this month.

In July, we will see the fruits of their hard work and celebrate the incredible intellectual achievements of our newest alumni. We will balance their academic successes on their IB exams with their successes physically and emotionally as we embrace the whole learner and look forward to seeing how our Lakers continue to make the world a better place.

Dr. Brenda Fields

Assistant High School Director and IB Diploma Program Coordinator