Santa Cruz Waldorf School

We did a campus tour when our son was 2 years old. As we parked, we were simply, mesmerized! The campus is nestled into the redwood trees, with beautiful classrooms, several child friendly play areas, trees to climb, mud to stomp through, a small pond with tad poles and a bull frog, and what I would consider a small organic farm with chickens, ducks, geese and a turkey. Children were taking a math class in the gazebo in the garden, and others were practicing violin, cello outside.
The office administration, the faculty and support teachers, and volunteer parents guiding us through the tour were just amazing! Their collective experience, the level of thoughtfulness and kindness, the clarity of communication and the joy and purpose of what they were doing resonated for us.
We saw all our school options and Santa Cruz has many good options. But the Santa Cruz Waldorf School has something special and it’s impossible to describe in a way that does it justice.
Our son did 1 year of Parent Toddler, and Wow! The teachers are just wonderful! They all truly have a purpose and living it! My son loved going to the school and campus, he loved all his teachers. He loved playing with his new friends, sneaking apples into his shirt from the apple trees.
We continued into 3 years of Kindergarten. Teacher Richard and Teacher Aaryn were a part of our family and with an endless abundance of compassion, patience, kindness and humor necessary for raising, guiding, growing children, we were all ready for 1^st grade! Our son, more ready than his parents, and hungry for the challenges and excitement of «the grades».
The curriculum and development of our son’ capacity for math, science, art, music, performance arts and movement, language, and now a second language in the grades. He is challenged, never overwhelmed and the curiosity and hunger for learning and expressing knowledge, thoughts and feelings are extraordinary to us but very much the norm amongst his class mates.
This is our son’ 4^th year at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School with 90% of the kids from Kindergarten and now first grade. Our class families have been to just about every birthday, countless beach days, brunches and BBQs, traveled on vacations in California and Hawaii together. Aside from the extraordinary education, close community, amazing teachers we are grateful that our son is a happy child and we, and his teachers strive to create balances that support him as a whole person. All he knows is everything is possible!
But, the thing I love most is how well the kids play together, sharing jokes, puns, fun facts, their thoughts and feelings. They play hard on the basketball court, climb redwood trees to uncomfortable heights for most parents, hike 2 – 3 hours in the redwoods rain or shine, have a love of animals and nature. They create plays, make up songs, play math games, start bands called «the Music Boxes», they play elaborate tag games that I can not keep up with. They have melt downs, misunderstandings and all the normal life learning stuff but they work through it. They share their feelings. They encourage each other and through modeling at home and school have developed a beautiful sense of empathy, negotiation, compromise and most recently the idea that sometimes it doesn’t feel fair.
In summary, four years ago, we drove 3.5 miles (8 minutes if we hit both red lights by the UCSC) from our home on the Westside hoping to give our son the best education we could and we have by far exceeded all our hopes and expectations having chosen the Santa Cruz Waldorf School!

This school is tucked into a beautiful redwood forest where kids get to explore and learn about nature and our connection to it in a way that most other schools cannot teach. The faculty is experienced and outstanding. The community is nurturing and close knit. It is a Waldorf School like no other. Their literacy and math programs are strong as is their science program. These core subjects are rounded out by music, gardening, art, movement, games, foreign language and gardening and the classes are all interwoven to create a very well balanced curriculum. We couldn’t be happier.

This school does an excellent job of bringing out the natural curiosity about learning and challenging students to be their best. Brings an extremely well organized and comprehensive curriculum that meets children where they are with developmentally appropriate lessons and without forgetting how important both play and nature are to our well being. The lessons build a framework of learning that progress, build on the prior, and culminate in an impressive, comprehensive 8^th grade project which showcases the depth and sophistication that the students have adopted and internalized along the way.
Field trips bring learning outside the classroom and students closer to nature. Rather than follow along a standard textbook, students create their own main lesson books for each learning block. If you value that your children learn to be human as well as smart and creative, this is a great fit for them.
On the last year of attendance in 8^th grade, my child’s math and language/​reading test scores were above grade level and in most categories were at an 11^th grade level and above. This assured me that children are well prepared academically for the world at Waldorf in addition to all the social and emotional growth that happens here. Highly recommended for families with community-​minded values.
In short, our experience was outstanding.
¹⁰⁄₁₀ would send my kid here again.

We did not have a good experience at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School. It looks like they know what they are doing and the festivals and campus are creative and beautiful, but their view of childhood is archaic and narrow. The majority of children fall outside of this definition and are shamed and punished for doing so. Ninety percent of the children who started with the teacher my son had, had left the school by the end 4^th grade. The teachers’ training does not prepare them for current issues facing children. For example, my son’s teacher would pray to his angel — I would strongly suggest that instead she take some training in conflict resolution or how to meet children with different capacities for learning or take a class at the White Ally Learning Lab. The children at this school are overwhelmingly white and come from affluent families (sort of a throwback to Steiner’s Aryan influence). I found the teachers to be weak, insistent leaders and they were so ill-​equipped at dealing with children’s behavior that the classroom became mostly about the teachers. Their discipline methods were unsophisticated, subversively cruel and bigoted. The biggest regret I hear from parents who have left this school is that they didn’t pull their children out sooner.

I love this school! My children can’t wait to get here in the morning and beg me to stay after school. The education they are getting is absolutely the best ~ the teachers are amazing and completely dedicated to the children. I know that there are really good teachers everywhere, but there is nothing else like a waldorf education.

Santa Cruz Waldorf has be a wonderful and delightful experience for my daughter. She was totally embraced by the community and allowed to be an authentic expression of herself. The education is very broad and creative. They learn a foreign language earlier than most schools both private and public, they teach a string instrument early on and it is an incredibly creative curriculum. The heart, mind and hands are all put to good use. Their curriculum keeps the students up-​to-​date with requirements but the students don’t feel pressured to out perform. Recently my daughter took Standardized Testing and her average was 11 grade 4 month. She is in 6^th grade. Most of the test showed her at 13+ grade average. Amazing education.
Coming in as a homeschooler we were concerned about negative, bullying influences and that simply does not exsist at this Waldorf. In order to solve problems they have Social Justice circles where everyone gets to feel heard and accepted. It is the best possible education for our family and we are so appreciative that we have it in our lives.

Haha, rate your school. I went here for a couple years. Some good things, some weird things. This educational foundation lets the child set their own pace, its a little separated from the real world. I remember no shoes in the classroom, a little lunch basket with a cloth napkin, gnomes, drawing with pastels and no clothing with characters. I remember there was a girl in my class that had never watched TV. I think Waldorf is great… they have an amazing Halloween festival there, and I think a May Day one too. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am the Waldorf type… but I also learned how to knit and I remember a lot of good times being imaginative there.