CHILD-CENTRED EDUCATION
OUR MISSION
The South Shore Waldorf School Association is a resource for Waldorf education in Atlantic Canada.
OUR VISION
We are a multi-generational community that cultivates social renewal by providing resources for Waldorf Education in Atlantic Canada.
We do this in the following ways:
- We offer a comprehensive Waldorf education learning community devoted to peacefully educating children within a non-competitive, arts-enriched, academically rigorous pre-K through Grade 9 curriculum.
- We offer a teacher resource library and house a portion of the Nova Scotia Anthroposophical Library (the other half resides in Bear River, NS).
- We collaborate with teacher education programs at Universities and training institutes offering practicum placements and observations.
- We offer community meeting spaces and workshops.
- We host events and festivals.
- We offer parent resource programs and support.
- We provide consulting services to independent school initiatives across the Maritimes.
- We fundraise and provide support for our sister school – The Madagascar School Project.
- We host a large conference on Waldorf education and child development called Waldorf East, which draws educators from across the Maritimes (and beyond).
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Respect For Self And Others
Cultural & Faith Inclusive
Non-Profit
Independent
Financially Accessible
MISSION OF THE FACULTY OF THE SOUTH SHORE WALDORF SCHOOL
In everything we do, we nurture the healthy, holistic development of each individual child.
We create an education grounded in nurturing, uplifting, and healing.
As teachers, we personally guide our students’ interest in and knowledge of the world.
Entrusted with this task, we freely commit in gratitude.
Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
In our work, we are committed to the ideals upon which Waldorf/Steiner education was founded. These include respect for the dignity of each individual child and family in honoring diverse races, cultures, religions, national origins, socioeconomic situations, gender identity and sexual orientations, family composition, and individual ability which form the backgrounds of their lives.
We are committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion as a pathway to social justice and to rectifying the explicit and implicit biases that undermine the creation of healthy social life in our society.
Waldorf education was founded in 1919 upon the insights of Rudolf Steiner, whose indications provide the foundations for a truly humanized education that recognizes the individuality of each person and the universal spirit living within every human being. We affirm this educational and social truth. Any statements attributed to Rudolf Steiner which imply or suggest discrimination or judgment toward any race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexuality, or socio-economic group, are rejected. Such attitudes are contradictory and undermine the goals of this education.
Recognizing and celebrating the differences that make us uniquely individual fosters healing and the creation of new social life. We strive to create conscious, collaborative communities of parents, teachers, and children which strengthen the children in our care to meet future challenges with optimism, confidence, resilience, and tolerance and experience their lives as filled with purpose and meaning.
“If I had a child of school age, I would send them to one of the Waldorf Schools.”
Saul Bellow, Nobel Laureate
OUR STORY
In 1996 the South Shore Waldorf School & Kindergarten first opened its doors on an organic family farm in Conquerall Mills, NS. Five years later, the school and kindergarten moved to a century old school house in Blockhouse, NS, carefully and lovingly renovated by the families and friends of the School.
The School was founded by a handful of families looking for ‘something more’ for their children. Our program spans early childhood to grade 8, with plans to add Grade 9 in 2021/22.
The Waldorf curriculum promotes well-rounded development in children by exposing them to a wide variety of subjects using an interdisciplinary approach that complements the students natural abilities. Waldorf education allows for a meaningful learning process by engaging the whole child. The children develop their thinking and feeling, and a sense of purpose.
“The beauty of the Waldorf school is that it is designed entirely to keep children intact until they are ready to move out into the world as whole individuals.”
Joseph Chilton Pearce, Author