Welcome to Woodside High School

Check here regularly to find: 

  • Events for Future Families

  • Helpful Links to Explore the School

  • About Woodside High

  • College Acceptance News

  • School News

Upcoming Events

Shadowing | September 16, 2024 - January 31, 2023

We look forward to giving you a glimpse of a day in the life of Woodside High School student. Enjoy the vibrant campus, rich in activities and opportunities to grow. Get a feel for the springboard to such universities as Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, MIT, NYU, and others. Woodside High School offers a rigorous academic program geared towards the completion of the UC/CSU A–G Requirements and solid preparation for the next level of scholarship and disciplinary study.

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Prospective Student Open House | January 2025 - more information to come

 

Woodside High School Spirit Attire

Check off some holiday shopping and stock up on some new WHS spirit attire through the Athletic Booster Organization. Please go to the online store and purchase items.

Helpful Links to Learn about Woodside High School:

Parent Organizations

Follow WHS  WHS Instagrams capture Woodside Pride and the Four A’s - Academics, Athletics, Activities and Arts. Popular ones include:

About Woodside High School

Over its half-century, Woodside High School has emerged as one of the most dynamic and diverse comprehensive high schools on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside High School students graduate ready to take on the challenges of a college environment and with a unique understanding of a complex society based on their experience in our diverse community.  Our mission is to provide opportunity that matches privilege.

Woodside High School is a fully-accredited, comprehensive four-year secondary school that has been serving the communities of the mid-Peninsula since 1958. The 34-acre campus is one of four comprehensive campuses in the Sequoia Union High School District. The District's total student population is approximately 8,000, with approximately 1,700 of those at Woodside.

Each school year is two semesters totaling 39 weeks of learning, and students follow a rotating block schedule with 95-minute classes every other day.  Most students enroll in six courses each semester. Our student-to-teacher ratio is 26:1. Seventy-two percent of our 129 certificated staff have a Master's degree.

Enrollment

  • Total student enrollment: 1,643

  • Freshman enrollment: 372

  • 62% of students self-identify as students of color

Instruction

  • Student-teacher ratio: 26:1

  • # of faculty and administration members: 125

  • # of faculty with advanced degree: 95

Arts,  Activities and Athletics

  • 80% of students participate in an after-school sport, a student-run club, theatre, or music performances

  • 33% of students are enrolled in one or more Advanced Placement (AP) courses and collectively take 1,207 tests in May

  • The average SAT score is 1227

  • 30% of students are enrolled in a small-cohort academy: Green Academy, Graphics and Tech Academy or AVID

  • # of large-scale theatre productions: 2

  • # of music concerts played in the concert hall: 2

  • # of student-run club: 50+ 

  • # of athletic teams: 40+

  • # of varsity sports offered: 20+

College News: The Class of 2024 Graduated to Success

We are proud that 94% of graduates are attending college. Woodside High School is socio-economically, ethnically, and academically diverse. Educating all students to their highest potential and preparing all students for post-secondary success is a challenge embraced at Woodside High School. Over half of the Class of 2024 are attending 4 year colleges, and the other 40% are attending 2 year colleges. Students also joined the military, are taking a gap year, enrolled in trade programs, or are working.

The Class of 2024 are attending elite private colleges such as Amherst, Brown, Duke, Penn, Parsons, Wake Forest and many others; out-of-state public universities including University of Arizona, Michigan State, and University of Oregon; all University of California campuses with many attending UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis; California State schools; and many students will attend nationally ranked community colleges, like Canada, Foothill, College of San Mateo and Santa Barbara City College, with plans to matriculate to a UC or CSU. 

College Acceptances and Destinations

Class of 2024
Class of 2023
Class of 2022
Class of 2021 - Not available due to pandemic
Class of 2020
Class of 2019
Class of 2018
Class of 2017

Wildcat News

SoCal 2024 College Tour  The College Access Program (CAP) funded a free trip for 60 Juniors over 3 days to visit colleges in Southern California to make sure all students are preparing for college and dreaming big. The Students visited Cal State Fullerton, Chapman University, UCLA, Univ. of Southern California USC, UCSB and Cal Poly - SLO.

National Signing Day  10 Seniors marked a milestone after years of hard work and dedication, they committed to playing college sports as part of National Signing Day. Congratulations to: Arielle Bruk - Chapman University (volleyball); Audrey Chung - Brown University (swimming); Connor Davison - Macalester College (baseball); Edana Huang - UC San Diego (swimming); Daniel Mendoza Lucio - DeAnza College (football); Greta Kasle - DeAnza College (volleyball); Katie Myers - Oregon State University (rowing); Harry Pelzman - UC San Diego (baseball); Ben Ricketts - College of San Mateo (football); and Ellery Singleton - University of New Hampshire (volleyball).

Congratulations to seniors Kyla Burfoot, Spencer Bergland and Patrick Van Hoven - WHS National Merit Scholarship FINALISTS!  In February 2024, Principal van Putten had the honor of informing these scholars that they moved to the FINALIST status in the National Merit Scholarship Program and presented them with a Certificate of Merit. All Finalists will be considered for National Scholarship Awards to be offered in 2024. In March, all National Merit Scholarship winners (Merit Scholar® awardees) will be chosen from this group of Finalists based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments.

WHS’s 2024 Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program  Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional promise. Woodside's eleven Commended Students placed among the top 34,000 students who entered the 2024 competition by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) on College Day last October.

"Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success," commented a spokesperson from NMSC. "These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success."

Congratulations to Woodside's Commended Students (alpha order): Leif Austin, Thomas Beasley, Audrey Chung, Lemons Hachigian-Kreutzer, Madeleine Kimbro Norman, Justin Lee, Alya Madhani, Natalia Richter, Tao SatoPerry, Eva Urbanek, and Megan Xu.

College Access Program (CAP) The WHS College Access Program (CAP) is a four-year college prep program free to all Woodside students. CAP includes college visits, standardized test prep, free SAT and PSAT testing, college essay coaching and balanced ‘college list’ creation. WHS uses premier companies, like AJ Tutoring and ObiCoach, to oversee programming in order to ensure quality is on par with what students receive in a private setting. Pictured above is the Class of 2024 visiting colleges in Southern California. CAP programming and college trips are no-cost to students.

CALGAMES 2023 On October 7th and 8th, Team 100 - Wildhats hosted the Cal Games in the New Gym. Bay Area high school robotics teams competed in a friendly competition using last year’s robot designs and the FIRST® Robotics competition course.

The Wildhats went on the run of a lifetime after a rough 3 starting matches at the competition CalGames, confidently winning 7-straight outstanding games to move from 42nd place to finish the qualification matches in 6th place, becoming an alliance captain and fighting through the playoffs bracket all the way to the semi-finals with 3 straight wins and our alliance partners the M-A Bears (Menlo Atherton High School) and Homestead Robotics (Homestead High School).

Additionally, there was a second robot competing at CalGames… the rookie-bot! Team 100B or 9900, or the crowd-favorite laundry basket robot, allowed many freshmen and rookie members of the team to compete at this high-level competition and gain lots of experience on the field.

Fall Play 2023 Murder is afoot in the Performing Arts Center with  the latest fall play production of “Don’t Try to Wake Him, Hand Me the Shovel.” One unique aspect of the play is the immense number of roles offered. While many plays often have a smaller cast, this production sits at 23 people, each with an integral role in the story.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella  The spring musical ran for two weeks in March to a full house and a standing ovation after each performance. The actors and actresses had incredible vocal range and timing. The student-designed and fabricated set design was dramatic! And the costumes created the fantasy... Well done student thespians! 

Music Spotlight WHS offers Band, Advanced Band, Guitar I and II, Jazz Ensemble, Orchestra and Choir. Mr. Gaydos, the new and very popular Music Director, is an avid musician himself and plays the trumpet, piano, violin, flute, and oboe.

Art Boom Artists are thriving at Woodside High. Art, Ceramics, Photography, Animation, Film, Digital Arts, and Music hosted a campus art exhibit on the Quad and throughout the Digital, Visual and Performing Arts Building (DVPA).