Waldorf in the City

At our school, relationships are at the center: relationships with each other, with the land our campuses are located on and the land’s historical stewards, and with the city in which our school is located. 

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that San Francisco Waldorf School campuses are located in Yelamu, on the unceded territories of the Ramaytush Ohlone, who are the original inhabitants of what is now called the San Francisco Peninsula.

We recognize the historic discrimination and violence inflicted on the original stewards of this land, and we recognize the critical work tribal members continue to do as vibrant members of our communities.

We also acknowledge that the greater Bay Area is the ancestral territory of the Miwok, Yokuts, Patwin, Chochenyo, and other Ohlone peoples. San Francisco Waldorf honors Indigenous peoples—past, present, and future—here and around the world, and we pay respect to local elders and tribe members, including those of the lands from which you are joining us.

We remember that the land we benefit from is not our own, and we commit to being good ancestors by keeping the Ohlone people's histories alive.

More than 45 Years in San Francisco

Much like our city, San Francisco Waldorf School goes beyond expectations. Our roots were laid in Pacific Heights, with the Presidio forest as its backyard, where our first Kindergarteners began school in 1979. Today, our school stretches across the city, with two historic campuses in Pacific Heights for Preschool and K-8, and a LEED-certified high school building with a sports center and performing arts venue, custom-designed and built for SFWS, in West Portal. 

Learn more about our history.

Like San Francisco, our school is driven by both tradition and innovation. We combine the time-tested philosophies and methods of more than 100 years of Waldorf education with the best of innovative independent education, empowering our students to think for themselves and make a difference in the world. Our hands-on and multidisciplinary approach to STEM appeals to families immersed in the tech-forward environment of San Francisco, who see the value of an experiential, human-centered education that develops capacities like creativity, critical thinking, and self-knowledge. Bay Area families who send their children to our school also recognize that our arts-infused curriculum is based in neuroscience and develops confidence, wholeness, and practical skills alongside an aesthetic sense that serves our graduates throughout their personal and professional lives. 

Community Service and Engagement

​

Our Community Service and Engagement program is a values-based, integral part of our school, and deeply aligned with our high school motto: “know yourself, know the world”. Unique in that it encourages, appraises, and deepens student commitment without mandating a specific number of hours, our program includes two All-School Service Days every year. The program draws upon students'  interests, and supports the college admission process for our High School students, as they begin to build a story about themselves and their work in the world. Students have a supervisor, with whom they develop a close relationship, who oversees their Community Service and Engagement planning.

Read an article by SFWHS Faculty Dr. Joan Caldarera about our approach to community service and engagement.

Groups we've worked with include:

• 826 Valencia
• Berkeley Animal Shelter
• GLIDE Memorial
• Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
• KQED
• Playworks
• Pomeroy Center
• Project Open Hand
• Refuse Refuse
• San Francisco Botanical Garden
• San Francisco Recreation and Parks
• San Francisco Zoo
• Service Space
• Slide Ranch
• St. Anthony's
• Surfrider
• Three Springs Community Farm

Our Ninth Grade goes into the community three times each year as a group. 2025-26 initiatives include:

• Angel Island cleanup and museum tour
• GLIDE Memorial service day
• San Francisco Public Library visit

Our Twelfth Graders take a day away from school each year to staff polling stations for local elections, preparing by taking a training in civic engagement. This work is paid, and students use the funds to support their Senior Trip.

"Had the best experience with students from Waldorf High. They had groups in West Portal with signs saying 'free hugs'. They then asked if they could give you a hug. I had the best hugs. Also, a group of students were going around picking up garbage on the sidewalks. People were actually saying 'thank you'. Very proud of these young people. Thank you!!!!" 

-From a West Portal neighbor who encountered our "kindness" work

Vibrant Collaboration

We’re also proud to have professional musicians and working artists on our faculty, who bring the vibrancy of their engagement with the city’s arts scene into our school, inspiring their students and colleagues. We host speakers from across the city, the region, and the world, offering our students direct access to some of the most important voices across contemporary dialogues.

Recent examples and collaborations include:

• Alumni panel on professions within Environmental Awareness and Ecology
• Braver Angels
• Christina Conklin, author of The Atlas of Disappearing Places
• Frank Marchis, SETI Institute
• Honey Mahogany, Director of SF Trans Initiatives

Urban Green Spaces

As a community, we’re committed to helping young people connect deeply with the natural world, reducing our carbon footprint, and preserving green space. Many faculty, staff, and students bike, walk, or carpool to school. Both our campuses boast prolific gardens with beehives, and Apple the bunny lives in our garden. Our younger students have the opportunity to grow food, compost, observe scientific processes at work, and experience the seasons, as well as local flora and fauna, during excursions to the parkland in the Presidio. Older students participate in wilderness excursions, curricular trips to observe marine life and study coastal ecology, and use local materials in their classes: in the Tenth Grade History of Color main lesson, students work with plant dyes, pigments, and ink made from local plants and minerals, drawing from their environment for the colors they use in art and writing; in Ninth Grade Basketry class, students learn about local plants suitable for weaving, prepare them for use, and shape them into vessels.

San Francisco is a city that offers world-class urban culture with spectacular parkland, sea, and green space. Our Pacific Heights campus is steps away from Alta Plaza (1.5 blocks from our Pacific Heights campus and visited daily by our students) and the Presidio, a national landmark with tremendous cultural, historic, and ecological significance to the city of San Francisco. All of our students at the Grade School, from Preschool to Eighth Grade, get to know the Presidio intimately: exploring its towering eucalyptus forests, observing the tides of the Pacific Ocean from its windswept hillsides, and studying its history and ecology as part of our social studies and environmental education curricula.

Affordable Waldorf Education

Aligned with our core belief that Waldorf education should be accessible to all families regardless of current financial circumstances, we are working to build a school population that reflects the economic diversity of the Bay Area community through our Equitable Tuition Program. Forty percent of SFWS families currently participate in the program, which enables students to attend our school who otherwise would not be able to afford Waldorf education.

Facility Rental

The David Bushnell Center for Athletics and Community is home to school athletic events, performances, conferences, and gatherings, and we are proud to share our campus and rent this beautiful, adaptable space to values-aligned community organizations.
Consider us for your next event in San Francisco!

Come visit and learn more about us.