Private Schools in Windermere: Windermere Prep, Foundation Academy & More
A grounded look at the private school options serving 34786 — and what to know about charters in the area
Windermere, FL is home to Windermere Preparatory School (WPS), a PK3-12 private school on a 48-acre campus at 6189 Winter Garden-Vineland Road, founded in 2000 and now enrolling roughly 1,600 students. WPS is the only school in Central Florida to offer the full International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and was ranked the #1 Best Private K-12 in Orange County by Niche for 2026. Foundation Academy operates a Lakeside Campus at 8464 Winter Garden Vineland Road serving K-5, with its 6-12 Tilden Campus on 67 acres in south Winter Garden. There are no charter schools located inside the Town of Windermere itself, though Orange County charter options like UCP West Orange Charter and Oakland Avenue Charter serve the surrounding 34786 area through lottery enrollment.
If you're house-hunting in Windermere and the public school zoning isn't quite the right fit, the 34786 ZIP has more private school options within a 15-minute drive than just about any other suburb in the metro. They're very different schools serving very different families.
The most common question we get from relocating families isn't "what's the best private school?" It's "which private school matches my kid?" Those are different questions. Here's an honest rundown of the actual options, what they cost, and where the trade-offs land.
Windermere Preparatory School: The Flagship
WPS is what relocating families usually mean when they say "the private school in Windermere." It sits on a 48-acre lakefront campus at 6189 Winter Garden-Vineland Road, next to Lake Cypress on the Butler Chain of Lakes. Founded in 2000, it now enrolls roughly 1,600 students from PK3 through 12th grade, representing 50+ nationalities.
The headline credential is real: WPS is the only school in Central Florida offering the full International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, and it's a candidate school for the IB Primary and Middle Years Programmes. It's part of the Nord Anglia Education network with partnerships involving MIT, Juilliard, UNICEF, and IMG Academy. For 2026, Niche ranks it the #1 Best Private K-12 in Orange County.
WPS also runs a residential boarding program for grades 7-12, which is unusual for the Orlando area. Tuition lands at the high end — seven-day domestic boarding runs around $78,150 a year, with day tuition meaningfully lower but still in the premium private school tier.
For a deeper dive on programs, admissions, and the IB pathway, see our companion guide on Windermere Preparatory School and the IB Diploma Programme.
Foundation Academy Lakeside: The Christian Option Inside Windermere
If you want a faith-based education without commuting across town, Foundation Academy's Lakeside Campus is the closest answer. It opened in 2019 at 8464 Winter Garden Vineland Road — sharing property with First Baptist Church Windermere — and serves Kindergarten through 5th grade with small class sizes.
Foundation Academy itself was founded in 1958 as a ministry of First Baptist Church of Winter Garden and now operates three campuses: the Plant Street Campus in downtown Winter Garden (PK-3 through 5th), the Lakeside Campus in Windermere (K-5), and the 67-acre Tilden Campus in south Winter Garden (6th-12th). Total enrollment runs around 1,200.
Tuition runs from approximately $9,485 for PreK to $16,590 for high school. Foundation reports 100% college placement since 2010 and emphasizes a "four pillars" approach (Faith, Academics, Fine Arts, Athletics). For families who want their kids in a Christian environment from kindergarten and don't mind the campus transition to Tilden in middle school, Lakeside is the only Foundation campus actually inside the Windermere ZIP.
Catholic, College Prep, and Other Privates Within 20 Minutes
Beyond the two Windermere-area campuses, several strong private schools sit within a reasonable commute and pull a meaningful number of families from the 34786 area.
Holy Family Catholic School (Orlando)
A PK3-8 parish school about 10-15 minutes east of Windermere, Holy Family is the go-to for Windermere Catholic families looking for elementary and middle school. It's part of the Diocese of Orlando, integrates faith into daily curriculum, and feeds into Bishop Moore Catholic High School. Holy Family is well-regarded locally and is a frequent answer for families who want the Catholic option that doesn't require a long drive.
The First Academy (Orlando)
A larger PK-12 Christian college prep school of about 1,604 students, The First Academy sits in southwest Orlando off John Young Parkway — roughly 20 minutes from Windermere depending on traffic. TFA is known for strong athletics (it's a Florida high school athletic powerhouse) and a robust college-counseling program. It draws Windermere families looking for a Christian K-12 option with a bigger student body and broader sports/extracurricular offerings than Foundation.
Lake Highland Preparatory School (Orlando)
The premier non-denominational college prep in the metro, Lake Highland Prep is a PK-12 school located near downtown Orlando. The drive from Windermere is roughly 25-30 minutes, which is the trade-off — but for families chasing the highest-tier secular private school in Central Florida outside of WPS, LHP is the other name that comes up. Strong academics, very competitive admissions, and a long track record of selective college placements.
Montessori Programs Near Windermere
Windermere proper doesn't have a dedicated Montessori school, but several authentic Montessori programs serve the 34786 area. Continuum Montessori partners with Valencia College for dual-enrollment for older students; Enlighten Montessori operates near the YMCA in Dr. Phillips and explicitly serves Windermere, Gotha, Ocoee, and Winter Garden families. If Montessori is non-negotiable, you'll be making a short drive — but the options exist.
Wait — What About Charter Schools?
This trips people up: charter schools are not private schools. Charters are tuition-free public schools that operate under a performance contract with the district and require lottery enrollment.
For Windermere specifically: there are no charter schools located inside the Town of Windermere. The closest options are UCP West Orange Charter School in Winter Garden, which explicitly serves Windermere among its enrollment areas, and Oakland Avenue Charter School in nearby Oakland. Orange County has 41 charter schools district-wide, so the charter pathway means commuting and applying through the OCPS lottery.
How to Think About the Choice
Three rough framings actually help relocating families more than rankings:
- Academic pathway matters more than prestige. If you want IB, WPS is the only Central Florida private with the full Diploma Programme. If you want AP-heavy college prep, Foundation, TFA, and Lake Highland all deliver it competently.
- Faith fit is binary. Foundation Academy, Holy Family, and TFA are explicitly faith-integrated — that's a feature for some families and a non-starter for others. WPS and Lake Highland are non-religious.
- Commute math is real. WPS and Foundation Lakeside are inside Windermere. Holy Family is 10-15 minutes. TFA and Lake Highland are 20-30 minutes one way. Multiply by twice a day, 180 days a year, and the difference compounds.
For broader public school context, our companion guides on Elementary School Options in Windermere 34786 and High School Options for Windermere 34786 walk through the OCPS side of the equation.
What the Locals Know
Two things experienced Windermere families will tell you. First, WPS's published $78K tuition is the boarding rate — day tuition is high but not that high. Always ask for the day rate when benchmarking. Second, Foundation Academy's Lakeside Campus is genuinely small and still growing toward full K-5: a feature if you want low ratios, a drawback if you want a deep extracurricular bench in elementary years.
Also worth a serious look: Florida's Step Up For Students scholarship. Income-eligibility has expanded significantly in recent years, and many Windermere-area families use it to offset tuition at participating schools.
For more on Windermere Preparatory School's programs, admissions, and campus, visit Windermere Preparatory School.
Thinking about a move to Windermere and trying to line up the school question with the housing search? Browse our Windermere homes for sale hub, or contact David Myers for help mapping your school priorities to the right neighborhood.
