The Prairie School

The Prairie School in Wind Point, WI, is one of the finest private, independent, college preparatory day schools in the United States. Prairie serves students from Early School/Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12, developing educated, poised, confident, creative, and responsible leaders through rigorous and demanding academic programs that enhance individual talents and abilities.

We believe a well-rounded education is the key to lifelong success. Our students are encouraged to pursue and achieve excellence in all things. Here your son or daughter will realize their dreams as a scholar, artist, athlete and leader. By capitalizing on the countless opportunities available to them at Prairie, every single student shapes an experience that prepares them to enter the next phase of their life capable and confident.

The Prairie School nurtures the creativity, interests and abilities of every student, inspiring each to explore, thrive, and add value individually and in collaboration with others. Our community of students, faculty, and families works together to create a collaborative and supportive culture grounded in human values – celebrating both our differences and commonalities. Prairie graduates are prepared for college and life with the desire and skills to make the world a better place.

The Prairie School is a community of students, faculty, and families who care for and respect one another, celebrating both our differences and commonalities. We value the representation and full engagement of individuals whose differences include, but are not limited to, age, ethnicity, family makeup, gender, learning profile, physical ability, race, religion, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status.

We acknowledge that inclusivity is a complex idea to define and quantify. Beyond multicultural personal identities, The Prairie School embraces diversity of thought, culture, and all that may be unseen but also subject a person to preferential or disadvantageous treatment. We believe that inclusivity makes our students, faculty, and community members wiser and better able to fulfill our mission of promoting lifelong individual and collective growth.

Our broad curriculum and master faculty foster the development of leaders for the 21st century by exposing students to diverse range of ideas, teaching methods, and extensive leadership training. We realize that every child is unique. As a result, we cultivate and nurture each student’s personality, perspective, and dreams so that they reach their true potential as scholars, artists, athletes and leaders. By utilizing methods both tried and true as well as bold and new, Prairie’s process focuses on developing well-rounded learners prepared to lead.

With virtually every graduate attending a four-year college or university, College Counseling helps students consider their options early. College counseling begins freshman year when our counselors provide students and families with the guidance needed to start the selection process. With over 70+ schools visiting campus annually, and with plentiful one-on-one sessions to explore a student’s abilities, skills and interests, College Counseling is committed to ensuring every child makes an informed and confident decision about the next phase of their educational career.

The Prairie School is designed to teach students how to ask questions, find or create the answers to those questions, and share those answers across a range of mediums. We believe that our mission’s focus on the whole child and the development of their character and creativity is the best way to prepare our students to be leaders in a world where change is a constant and the competition is fierce. As Karl Fisch noted, our students are preparing for jobs that do not yet exist, that will use technologies that have not been invented, to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet. That is a daunting task, but our students are truly prepared to meet these unknown challenges. Here they learn to communicate effectively, creatively approach and solve problems, evaluate evidence, understand bias, and, most importantly, to ask questions. Many answers are out there, but it is tomorrow’s leaders that will frame the inquiry and we are preparing our students to be those leaders.

Our selective admissions program allows us to focus on motivated, above-average students with supportive parents who want to do more than just reach proficiency. Our college preparatory program is a balance of tried and true methods of instruction, with bold and new pedagogical innovations. All of our students are challenged and supported every day, to grow and improve, by a nationally recruited and experienced faculty. All of our seniors are accepted to selective four-year colleges and universities where they thrive.

Our students thrive in college and as adults because they are highly skilled, self-motivated learners who know how to succeed both individually and as a part of diverse teams. They know how to take action, build relationships, collaborate and communicate. Here, they have learned a myriad of important interpersonal and technical skills within the context of pursuing academic, personal, and collaborative excellence. At The Prairie School we also set aside school time for community service and to study current events to promote active citizenship.