OUR CURRICULUM & PROGRAM

As a Waldorf grade school, we endeavor to teach the children through the “head, heart, and hands”, bringing each subject in a way that engages the children’s thinking, feelings, and will. The Waldorf curriculum integrates the arts and practical activities in the academic classes and instills the children with a living wisdom that awakens wonder and nurtures their natural joy of learning. Academic excellence, the visual and performing arts, social responsibility, and moral integrity are hallmarks of this time-tested education.

Class Teacher Continuity & Our Two-Teacher Model

Waldorf schools across the globe share certain features. One is that a class has the same class teacher for a period of years. Continuity allows class teachers to get to know their children deeply. This “seeing” serves the class teachers well in supporting their students develop their individual gifts and work through their challenges. Teacher continuity also provides predictability and a sense of security for the children, freeing them to develop at their own pace and enjoy childhood!

In some schools, class teachers stay with a class for eight years. At the Siskiyou School, we have a two-teacher model that ensures that a class of students will have two teachers over the course of their eight-year journey, with the change coming either after 4th or 5th. In our experience, children benefit from being seen by new eyes at one point in their eight-year journey, and the ideal moment for that is before they enter middle school.

OUR MIDDLE SCHOOL PROGRAM

While our middle school students remain part of the main campus during 6th-8th, their needs as adolescents are acknowledged through several programs specifically for their age group. In the late spring of 5th grade, 5th graders are welcomed into the middle school by the upper grades and their teachers in a special assembly.