Welcome from the Administrator

Welcome to Santa Fe Waldorf School's web-site.  Whether you are visiting on-line from Santa Fe, northern New Mexico or from other parts of the country or world, we invite you to browse our website to learn more about our School and about our programs offering a Waldorf education to children and youth and their families, Preschool through 12th Grade.  I hope our new site will give you a sense of the enthusiasm and vibrant life of our Preschool-12 school in the stunning landscape of the Southwest.

This is my fourth year as School Administrator after seven years as the School’s High School Coordinator. My decades of work in biodynamic farming and gardening, overseas rural development service, and social therapeutic work in the Camphill movement provide a foundation for the joys and challenges of independent school administration in the 21^st century.

Since its founding in 1983, SFWS has steadily put in place an exceptional curriculum and faculty—students are happy, active, interested and not only prepared for college and university, but for lifelong learning.

If the Waldorf approach is new to you, please read our curriculum sections. An essential characteristic of Waldorf education is its developmental approach. Children are taught subjects at each stage of their development in ways that will be most receptive to them. Waldorf’s unhurried and measured approach to learning concentrates on the physical, emotional, and intellectual foundations of literacy and numeracy resulting in students who grow more confidently into each academic stage of their development. The results evidenced in the lives of Waldorf graduates are irrefutable. For details, read this article from the Waldorf Research Institute: http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/SW-2-Standing-Out.pdf

Our approach to academics is rigorous, dynamic, integrated, and increasingly recognized.  Whether the subject is math, history, science, language arts, ecology, or modern languages, our Waldorf-trained faculty brings it with a love for teaching, children and youth.

75% of our high school teachers have advanced degrees.  Our faculty and staff are communities of learners themselves, advancing their own education through professional development, summer training intensives, regional Waldorf conferences, and pursuit of advanced degrees.

In early 2010, the National Association of Independent Schools’ “Schools of the Future” Committee selected our School as one of fewer than ten schools that incorporate on an institution-wide basis the seven essential capacities for the 21^st century.

Here are a few of the reasons why:

• A college-preparatory high school with a deeper, well-rounded and academically rigorous approach.

• A “culture of performance” from 1^st through 12^th grade with oral presentations, memorization skills, class plays, musical and eurythmy performances including culminating in student independent, interdisciplinary  research projects in 8^th and 12^th grades.

• “Project-based learning” that allows depth of learning, research and creativity from 1^st through 12^th grades through intensive blocks of study of core themes.

• Classrooms beyond the walls:  outdoor, experiential and environmental education through the entire curriculum that includes gardening, ecology, farming, forestry, geology, workplace internships, extensive field trips to Chaco Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, river rafting, mountain climbing, and canyon trekking.

• “Communities of learning” in the faculty and staff  (a key component in Waldorf school communities). Each week, five sectional meetings occur with an additional seven departmental meeting take place as well. Teachers study relevant pedagogical and cutting-edge themes together, fructifying their work with child, youth and curricular topics.

If your interest has been piqued, I encourage you to come for a visit and see our program, our campus, our students, and our teachers for yourself.

I look forward to meeting you during your visit to Santa Fe Waldorf School.

Barbara Booth, School Administrator

Please call us to arrange a visit or tour.

505-983-9727 Early Childhood/Elementary School
505-992-0566 High School