Our Story
Hello and welcome to the Berkshires! We’re excited to invite you to Berkshire Waldorf School, a vibrant and established Waldorf School for Toddlers through Eighth Grade, located in the Muhhekunneauw (Muh-he-con-ok, or Mohican) homelands in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Berkshire Waldorf School
- Set in 32 acres of meadows, woods and biodynamic gardens alongside the Green River, with two Waldorf classroom buildings, Berkshire Waldorf School is a beautifully indoor/outdoor, four season campus, “just right” for children and families.
- Our sibling school, Berkshire Waldorf High School, in the neighboring town of Stockbridge, MA, deepens your child’s Waldorf Education for Ninth through Twelfth Grades.
- Most families commute to our schools from Northern Litchfield (CT), Southern Berkshire (MA) and Columbia (NY) counties. And since our schools are equidistant from both New York City and Boston, many families have relocated to the area to join our learning community.
We invite you to visit and experience for yourself holistic learning that appeals to your child’s imagination, curiosity and love of action, and the lifelong growth Waldorf Education nourishes in your child’s life and in your life as a family.
Go Bobcats!
Waldorf Education
Rudolf Steiner founded Waldorf education in 1919, built on his insights into human development. His perception of “education as an art” means that our teachers fit the curriculum to meet the children’s developmental readiness. Whether the subject is arithmetic, history, or physics, Berkshire Waldorf School teachers create lessons that resonate with their students’ imagination and experience.
The goal? To educate the whole child by appealing to mind, body and spirit. Berkshire Waldorf School teachers work together to engage, integrate and balance their students’ thinking, feeling and doing. For example, students learn math at Berkshire Waldorf School through academic skills and practice, movement, choral singing, playing an instrument, house building and knitting, among many other dynamic and practical applications.
Waldorf education is a proven means of lighting a fire for learning that lasts a lifetime.
BWS at a Glance
- Founded in 1971
- Two Buildings on 32 acres
- Independent Coeducational Day School
- Toddlers through Grade 8
- Governed by Board of Trustees, Pedagogical Director and Administrative Director
- Accredited by the Association of Independent Schools of New England (AISNE) and Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN)
- Associate Member School, Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA)
- Additional Programs: Parent-Child, After School Music, After Care (Grades), Middle School Sports, Summer Program
- Current enrollment: 176
- Part of the fastest-growing independent school movement of 1,000+ Waldorf schools worldwide.
BWS Mission Statement
Berkshire Waldorf School cultivates students’ academic, emotional and spiritual development through our unique curriculum. We provide students with the foundation to live up to their full human potential, creating lives of meaning and purpose that positively contribute to our world.
We accomplish our mission by:
- Instilling in students a love of learning, a sense of wonder, an appreciation of beauty, and a connection to the natural world.
- Following a curriculum based on the developmental stages of human beings as described by Rudolf Steiner.
- Attracting excellent teachers who are committed to their own professional and personal development, and giving each teacher the freedom to work creatively within the Waldorf curriculum.
- Working cooperatively with parents to facilitate continuity between school and home.
- Actively participating in the time-tested, world-wide tradition of Waldorf Education that integrates the humanities, sciences, and practical and fine arts.
Diversity & Inclusion
Berkshire Waldorf School welcomes and celebrates diversity. We believe cultural, economic, religious, racial, learning style, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, national and ethnic diversity make us stronger. We prize empathy and collaboration as means to change the world for the better. Our students, teachers, administrators, trustees and parents join in the active practice of inclusion, starting at the focal point of our unique Star Code. Berkshire Waldorf School intentionally works to build a diverse community where all children and families are cherished for their intrinsic value and potential.
