Why Choose OLW School

Why Choose Our Lady of the Wayside School
      Our Lady of the Wayside School is dedicated to enriching our students’ minds, fostering a deep and meaningful faith in each child, and expanding their talents. Each student is taught to understand and live the Gospel message of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
      Our teachers want each student to succeed and are ready to work with each student at their individual academic level. Our accredited staff also includes reading and learning resource teachers, a speech pathologist and a licensed school counselor. 
      We are located in Arlington Heights, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago. We serve students in three and four year old preschool, kindergarten, and 1st through 8th grades. We offer all day and half day PK and K programs. We also offer before and after school care. 

Enriching Minds
Parents choose Our Lady of the Wayside School, in part, because of our tradition of academic excellence. OLW has twice been recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School, in 2015 and in 1997. In order to earn the 2015 National Blue Ribbon School designation, OLW students achieved scores in the top 15% in both math and English, as measured on a nationally normed test. We are proud of the great effort our teachers and students put forth every day. Both in and out of the classroom, our students are encouraged to develop critical thinking and organizational skills that prepare them for success in high school and beyond.

Fostering Faith
Parents choose OLW School because it offers students an authentic and rigorous formation in the Catholic faith. Our teachers provide students many opportunities to celebrate, deepen and share their faith by integrating worship, prayer, reflection and works of charity. Throughout the year, students participate in different service opportunities. Some activities involve the whole school, such as the Thanksgiving adopt-a-family activity. Individual grades also arrange service activities: second graders make blankets for Project Linus; kindergarteners collect juice boxes to share with the guests in the OLW PADS site. Starting in fifth grade, students are asked to help in ways that benefit the entire school: flag raising, recycling, as crossing guards and as preschool and kindergarten helpers. The OLW Buddy Program pairs younger students with older students and offers opportunities for them to interact with and learn from each other.

Expanding Talents
We encourage each of our students to recognize, develop and share his/her God given talents to become leaders today and in the future. Extracurricular activities strengthen the sense of community for students and parents and help to create lifelong friendships.

We Are One Community
OLW parents say that “community” is what they love most about our school. We are a supportive community where teachers, administrators and parents all have a positive influence on the students. We are proud of the individual attention from caring teachers, the involvement of engaged parents and the example of other motivated students that make OLW a special place.

What our parents say about OLW:
We chose OLW and a Catholic education for our children to help them develop moral and spiritual values consistent with our faith. The curriculum is challenging, and the teachers are warm and truly know our children and care for them. The sense of community that we have experienced at OLW is incomparable – The Riley Family

We send out child to school every day knowing he is getting a great education, being loved and developed by a caring community, and that Catholic values are rolled into all aspects of the school day. Our whole family benefits by the choice to send our children to OLW – The Bleeker Family

A second generation Waysider, our granddaughter has found OLW School to be her home away from home. Here she has encountered teachers and staff who call on her to the best person, reader, math problem solver she can be – even when she was reluctant. She has met children who have enlivened her life with happiness, fun times, and friendship – The Babiak Family

We felt it was important not only to share but to immerse our daughter into the catholic way of life. OLW embodies the Catholic spirit we seek to impart to our daughter – The Jacques family

We maintain that a strong faith-based education is needed to be a strong member of our Catholic Church. The daily exposure to the faith, the morals, and the ethics taught at a Catholic School are reasons why we make the choice to send our children to private school. Our Lady of the Wayside School continues to strive for excellence with both education and extracurricular activities. We like that they are willing to make changes as needed to meet those goals and work with families to achieve the best result for our children. We are happy to be part of this community – The Heraty Family

Why we chose Our Lady of the Wayside School:
High academic standards with expectations of their students to perform to the best of their ability
Feeling of community spirit, with the young and old working together to provide a very active parish and school
Small hometown feel with in a large suburb –The Ingolia Family