The program began on Monday, July 6, and classes were held Monday through Thursday for four weeks. For the first time ever, Windward’s Summer Program was offered exclusively to Windward students. Each year, this program is offered to the public, and students from all over the world attend. However, due to the pandemic, Summer Program co-directors, Westchester Middle School Teacher Ms. Di Salvo and Co-Director of Outplacement Ms. Ehrlich, reconfigured the Summer Program to be geared toward Windward students only. Another first for the program was that it was offered remotely, which allowed for both Manhattan and Westchester students to be grouped together for the first time. 

With 553 students from Grades 1-9 having participated in the program this year, it was Windward’s most successful summer program yet. 110 Windward faculty members partook in the program to teach math and language arts for all students, and study skills for students in Grades 8-9. 

Each year, The Windward School Summer Program aims to help students avoid the “summer slide,” when learning is halted and students may lose ground on the skills they learned and practiced during the school year. The Summer Program was especially important this year, as Windward wanted to extend additional academic support following the spring semester of remote learning. As one parent mentioned, “the summer slide is real in a normal environment, and especially in the COVID era, the reinforcement of skills was vital for our students.