About VWS and Waldorf Education
About Vancouver Waldorf School
Vancouver Waldorf School is an independent, non-profit school serving children and families in North Vancouver. Our programs support children from infancy through the Grade School years, with care and education grounded in the principles of Waldorf education.
Our school is situated on the unceded ancestral territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We acknowledge this land with respect and gratitude.
Vancouver Waldorf School operates across two locations in North Vancouver. Our Lynn Valley campus is home to our Early Childhood programs – Parent & Tot, Preschool, and Kindergarten – as well as our Grade School, serving students in Grades 1–8. Our Moodyville location is home to Deer Fern Daycare, providing nurturing care for young children in a Waldorf-inspired setting. All programs are guided by a shared commitment to child-centred education, thoughtful rhythm, and relationship-based learning.
Waldorf education attends to the whole child – thinking, feeling, and willing – through an integrated curriculum that weaves together academic, artistic, practical, and social learning. In the early years, children learn through imitation, play, and rhythm. As students grow, this foundation supports the development of curiosity, critical thinking, responsibility, and a growing sense of connection to the world around them.
At Vancouver Waldorf School, close relationships between students, teachers, and families are central to school life. Learning is designed to be both meaningful and developmentally appropriate, encouraging children to meet new challenges with confidence, care, and resilience.
We welcome students of any race, colour, nationality, and ethnic origin and do not discriminate in the administration of our educational policies, admissions, tuition assistance program, or school-administered activities.
Vancouver Waldorf School is a registered charitable society (Registration no. 108167917RR0001) and a full member of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.
Respect – For ourselves, for each other, for the earth, for the education
Integrity – Act with authenticity, act with transparency, act with uprightness
Commitment – Have dedication, have courage, take responsibility
Reverence – For childhood, for rhythm, for wonder, for humanity, for our spiritual intentions
In carrying out the Vancouver Waldorf School’s mission, we endeavour in all circumstances to:
- Deliver Waldorf curriculum in alignment with the shared principles for schools, as set out by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA)
- Foster a lifelong love of learning
- Provide opportunities for learning and development for the faculty, staff and community
- Strive for a socially, physically and financially vibrant and sustainable environment that nurtures the students, supports the faculty and staff, and engages the alum and community
- Provide and maintain a beautiful and healthy environment that supports the education of the students
- Inspire a community where individuals participate and contribute to the school’s vision and mission while working out of our core values
- Embrace cultural, social and economic diversity within the life of the school
- Operate out of a recognition of the threefold principles of life, and create a school that is a living, evolving organism
What is Waldorf Education?
Waldorf schools offer a developmentally appropriate, experiential, and academically rigorous approach to education. To enhance and enrich learning, arts are integrated with all academic disciplines from preschool through twelfth grade. Waldorf education aims to inspire life-long learning in all students and enable them to fully develop their unique capacities. The principles of Waldorf education evolve from an understanding of human development that addresses the needs of the growing child.
The curriculum is not simply made up of subjects to be read about and tested—they are experienced. Through these experiences, Waldorf students cultivate their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities to be individuals certain of their paths and be of service to the world.
At the heart of the school is an innovative education, a 100-year-old, humanistic approach to learning taught at more than 1,200 schools worldwide. Waldorf teachers share the vision that education is transformative, and collectively, they strive to help students become free, resilient, creative human beings who lead lives of purpose and direction.
What is Anthroposophy?
Anthroposophy is a philosophy that denotes a method of inquiry and a path of research rather than a fixed set of ideas. Founded by Rudolf Steiner in the 20th century, anthroposophy is most often applied in formal education, therapeutic, and creative systems. Maintaining the principles central to Steiner’s early anthroposophical insights, specific Waldorf pedagogical methods continue to evolve to serve the modern age. Waldorf education and biodynamic farming are examples of applied anthroposophy—practices that bridge science, the arts, and ethics to nurture humanity’s physical, emotional, and social health while remaining connected to and in harmony with nature.
Our Affiliations
VWS is a full member of the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America (AWSNA), the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN), and an Associate Member Society of the Federation of Independent School Associations in British Columbia (AMS/FISA BC). VWS is accredited by both AWSNA and the BC Ministry of Education.
“The need for imagination, a sense of truth and a feeling of responsibility – these are the three forces which are the very nerve of education.” – Rudolf Steiner.
