Get to Know Wendy Levey
Wendy Levey founded and directed Epiphany Community Nursery School, ECNS ETC and STEAM-E Summer Days camp. The school was founded in 1975, the activity center called ECNS ETC was originally called Rhythm and Glues and was founded in 1990 and STEAM-E Summer Days camp was founded in 1996.
Educated at Wheelock College, Bank St. graduate School and Teacher’s College, Wendy decided to start her own school. As the school grew from 5 children at inception to as many as 150 children, she began developing an educational foundation based on 3 blocks: 2s need to learn how to share and separate, 3s need to learn how to be independent and 4s need to be active learners. Each one of the steps builds on the former step. The school was highly multi-cultural celebrating many holidays through food and music.
No one fights harder for the children she works with than Wendy Levey.
No institution survives being stagnant, so Wendy added classes in Emergent Reading and Emergent Math for the 4s and Sequencing the Body, Sequencing the Mind for 3-year old children. Because she knows children need educational fluidity, it made sense to have classes and camp available to the children as well. She added Sunrise Movement before school started in the morning, so they can have a gym activity first thing and be ready to learn more capably when they enter the classroom. Healthy body, healthy mind is always important.
Wendy has served on the Boards of two independent schools, a college and a rehabilitation center, helping her to stay current with educational and societal trends. She has also been part of several films about getting into school: Nursery University directed by Mark Simon and Getting Into Kindergarten directed by Pam French.
Wendy Levey now consults full-time on all things education, helping families from all over the world with children from pre-school through high school with their educational journeys in New York City, Westchester and Connecticut. This runs the gamut from child assessments, to parent information sessions individually or to corporations and companies, to interview skill work for middle school, high school or college, to suggestions on classes, books or enrichment specialists, to advocating at the schools applied to. Her close ties to the schools over the years, her respected honesty in dealing with the admissions teams, her true understanding of the strategy in school placement, her belief in fit not brand and her on-site visits for current knowledge of programming and changes are hallmarks of what “all things education” means.
Experience
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Founded and ran a premiere pre-school on the Upper Eastside for over forty years
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Developed and established relationships with Directors of Admissions and many school heads in NYC schools
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Wendy Levey has served on various school boards throughout her career
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WLC in grades Pre-K through High Schoo
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WLC works with Law Firms consulting on school placement and choices for families at odds on the best schools and activities for their children
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WLC works with companies educating their employees on what to look for in a school, types of schools and the logistics of applying to school public and private
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WLC works with schools (preschools and kindergartens) to evaluate classrooms and the application of the most current educational practices and materials
Featured in...
When documentary filmmaker Mark Simon, came to me about participating in his film Nursery University, I said, “ No!”. Mark was tenacious and when I saw he truly wanted to make a serious instructional film about the process of applying to pre-school in all parts of NYC, I was sold on his sincerity and desire to educate young families.
This film was shown in movie theaters , has been available on Netflix and has even been used at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate Education school and Columbia’s as well.
Click here to view the trailer for this documentary.
Placement
Our families had an outstanding year, we are thrilled with the placement options. Here are the schools where our students were accepted in pre-school and K-12 or K-8.
Nursery Schools (Uptown):
All Soul’s School
Brick Church Nursery School
Caedmon School
Central Synagogue Nursery School
Church of the Epiphany Nursery School
Christ Church Day School
Dwight Nursery School
Episcopal Nursery School
Garden House Nursery School
Horace Mann Nursery School
International Preschool
Madison Ave Presbyterian Church Day School
Marymount Pre K
92nd St. Y Nursery School
Park Children's Day School
Park Avenue Synagogue Nursery School
The Saul and Carole Zabar Nursery School at the JCC
St. Bart’s Nursery School
St. David’s Pre K
St. Thomas More Nursery School
Temple Shaaray Tefila Nursery School
Temple Emanu-El Nursery School
Westside Montessori Nursery School
William Woodward, Jr. Nursery School
Nursery Schools (Downtown):
Acorn School
Avenues School
Barrow Street Nursery School
Chelsea Day School
First Presbyterian Church Nursery School
Jack and Jill Pre-School
TriBeCa Community School
UNIS
Washington Market School
Ongoing schools:
All Girls (K-12):
Brearley School
Chapin School
Hewitt School
Marymount School (pre K-12)
Nightingale-Bamford School
Sacred Heart School (pre K-12)
Spence School
All Boys (K-12):
Allen-Stevenson School (K-8)
Browning School
Buckley School (K-8)
St. David’s (Pre K-8)
Coed (K-12):
Avenues School (Pre K-12)
Basis School
Birch-Wathen Lenox School
Columbia Grammar Prep School
Dalton School
Friend’s School
Riverdale Country School (Pre K-12)
St. Luke’s School (Pre K-8)
Town School (Pre K-8)
Trevor Day School (Pre K-8)
Trinity School
UNIS (Pre K-12)
Brooklyn (K-12):
Berkeley-Carrol School
Brooklyn Friends School
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School
Greene Hill School
Hannah Senesh Community School