Welcome from the Executive Director

I’m so glad you found San Francisco Waldorf School!

Whether you are in a Kindergarten classroom, a middle school math class, or a high school basketball game, you'll see something special here. That special quality comes from our foundational philosophy of developing the human being. For the sake of our students, and with our students, we are constantly exploring what it means to be human. 

There are many ways that you'll see the development of human capacities deeply embedded in the educational experience at San Francisco Waldorf School. One important way is through relationships. By centering the relationship of teachers to students, and students to their peers, we create classrooms that are filled with vitality, where young people are empowered to explore and take risks. In our classrooms, students learn to appreciate their differences, develop language to describe those differences, and enjoy the expanded creative potential of a diverse group.

Another way that you will see relationships at work is through synchronous learning. Every curriculum subject is taught in a way that activates all modalities of learning. Teachers create lessons using the senses (including the senses of safety and warmth), movement, speech and story, artistic expression, and critical thinking, to enable students to deeply explore the curriculum and make it their own. The result is joyful, engaged students, highly creative work products, and expansive discussions. 

We also provide synchronous learning experiences by highlighting connections between subjects. Each grade level contains curriculum themes such as “rights and revolutions” in Eighth Grade, for example. In core subject classes and special subject classes, such as language or math, we explore the themes from many angles. When each child is a musician, a writer, a mathematician, and a scientist, their achievement is healthy, well-rounded, and balanced.

Through the Waldorf approach, we are asking much more of each student than just intellectual engagement. They are not just learning but developing a sense of knowing. As they learn about the world and the peoples and ideas that make up the world, San Francisco Waldorf students come to know themselves. 

Waldorf education is more than 100 years old. Waldorf schools are found in more than 80 countries. Each school is developed uniquely within its community. At San Francisco Waldorf School, we cherish our 45+ years of participation in this city. We draw from its history, nature, and culture to express the Waldorf curriculum in a way that meets families in our particular place and time. We consciously develop our community together, so that everyone at our school  feels a sense of belonging and creative expression. 

Please accept my invitation to visit our campuses to see the dynamic teaching and learning that happens at San Francisco Waldorf School, and get to know our warm community. We’d love to meet your family!

Lauren Smith, Executive Director