Westchester Campus

Waldorf-Based Program

Ages 10-15 years
Tuesday & Thursdays, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm (both days are required)
$3498.00 for the Fall Semester (Please note that the fees for spring term are higher than fall because the spring term is four weeks longer.)

  • This two-day-a-week program is a comprehensive program, including Language Arts, Sciences, Math, History, and Arts, with a Holistic Waldorf-based methodology, and a distinctively child-led individualistic approach.
  • This “Village School” environment, welcomes students with mixed ages, backgrounds, interests, learning styles and speeds. We aim to create an environment in which students are excited about the discoveries they are making about themselves and the world.
  • Each student is encouraged to develop their own standards of excellence, themselves encouraging and appreciating the achievements of their peers. All evaluation is constructive, with self assessment and peer-evaluation fostered under the guidance of the teachers. “Objective standards” and measurement criteria are only of use in so far as they are personally meaningful to the student.
  • This is a rolling program with themes rotating over (something like) a three year period. Within this each semester and year may draw from an overall theme; Ancient & Classical Civilization; The Middle Ages & Renaissance; The Emergence of the Modern World.
  • Each semester features a range of topics drawn from the Humanities, Mathematics, Arts and Sciences as might be encountered in Waldorf Middle and High School programs. Particular topics are taken in intensive three to four week blocks. Each topic is presented in an integrated way, weaving together practical, artistic and academic approaches. Students are able to move between the projects on offer within each topic, and also to develop their own, selecting the formats that are most suitable to them. There may be peer presentations and review at the conclusion of each block. Themes are not selected according to textbook guidelines, but to allow us to meaningfully engage with the central questions: Where are we? How did we get here? What are our best paths forward?

Philip Guest has been a Waldorf teacher in Southern California for over fifteen years. He has graduated two classes, the Waldorf School of Orange County Class of 2005 (4th – 8th Grades) and the Westside Waldorf Class of 2012 (3rd – 8th Grades). More recently he has been offering classes and workshops based on his experience with the Waldorf Curriculum to home-schooled students in both group and individual settings. He also lectures and provides workshops at the Waldorf Institute of Southern California Teacher Training in both Northridge and San Diego.

Abby Polakow began her teaching career as a Waldorf teacher several years ago. After leaving Waldorf, she explored similar independent education environments that provided the freedom of creating lessons that could accommodate the individual students with whom she was working. Abby has a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA, where her primary focus was learning ancient Egyptian history and reading hieroglyphs. That interest has continued, as Abby returns to Egypt nearly every year. Before becoming a teacher, Abby spent over a decade as a costume designer. She hopes that her variety of experiences and adventures inspire her students to pursue their wildest dreams!