Letter from the Principal

Thank you for visiting Golden Valley Orchard School, offering TK-8 Public Waldorf education. We offer an education that meets children at their developmental stage in a manner that will inspire a love for learning by educating the head, heart and hand. The goal is to help students develop to their highest potential, so they will one day actively create and participate in a vibrant, healthy society that serves the good of all.

Educating the Head, Heart and Hand 

The head: As a Public Waldorf school, we follow Common Core state standards and blend these standards with the Core Principals of Waldorf Education. Instruction is delivered in an artistic manner and learning is embedded in storytelling, movement, arts, music, and direct experience of natural phenomena. Creative and critical thinking blossom through this three-fold method. 

The heart is nurtured through building relationship to our classmates, teachers and the greater world. Each class begins the day with a morning handshake. Class meetings, daily focus on the virtues living within each other through the Virtues Project and following the positive system of Nurtured Heart develop our community and enhance our love of learning.

The hand is developed through an education that allows for movement, creativity and experiential learning. Students garden, sing, play instruments such as the recorder and wooden flute, knit, crochet, sew, paint and learn Spanish and German. Each of these subjects help to meet the will of the child and are taught by a teacher who is a specialist in the field.