Waldorf Schools are private, independently funded schools, offering education ranging from pre-kindergarten through Grade 12, covering an age range from 4 years to 18 or 19 years old. Waldorf Education was established from the educational research and insights of the Austrian educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He founded the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart in 1919 for the children of the factory workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in response to a request from Emil Mott on behalf of the children of the factory workers. Central to the philosophical beliefs of Rudolf Steiner is that each person consists of a body, soul and spirit. His overall body of work is called “Anthroposophy” or ‘wisdom of the human being’. Neither the word, "Anthroposophy," nor the philosophy, is taught to students, but it inspires and guides the teachers and the operational principles of the school.

Waldorf teachers strive to educate the human being through all three soul capacities of thinking, feeling and will. In each subject, whether it is history or language, math or science, painting, singing or movement, the teaching is essentially an artistic process. Students learn by encountering the world as experience. Waldorf Education is a developmentally appropriate, balanced education that integrates the arts and academics. Waldorf Education encourages the development of each child's sense of truth, beauty, and goodness; an antidote to violence, alienation, and cynicism. The aim of the education is to fully develop the capacities of each student and to inspire a love for lifelong learning.

In the language of mainstream education, Waldorf Schools may be termed multi-dimensional, integrated learning environments. Although the Waldorf approach to education was established by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, its fundamental principles and approaches to education have remained relevant throughout the twentieth century as evidenced by the ever growing number of Waldorf Schools world-wide.

One unique characteristic of Waldorf Education is that the Waldorf Class Teacher ideally remains with a single class from first grade through eighth grade. This sets up a relationship among the children, the parents and the teacher that grows and develops over the years. This approach allows the teacher detailed insight into the children as learners based on years of working together. At the same time, the teacher is known as a teacher in more depth and detail than often happens if the teacher moves on to a new group each school year. Waldorf Class Teachers not only build their relationship to the children year after year, but they also build a long-term relationship with the parents.

The Waldorf Curriculum is based on a set of interlinking principles and rhythms.  The curriculum evolves thematically through eight years.  Each school year has developmentally related themes, and the curriculum is grouped into blocks of lessons that are strategically organized through the school year to provide balanced delivery of each subject.  For example, math or science blocks will alternate with language or history blocks. Each block within the school year is organized over approximately four weeks to cover the content from several perspectives: the concepts in the lessons; the artistic and imaginative pictures in the content; the application of learning as it is expressed in the student’s work.

The Waldorf curriculum is delivered in the daily lessons using a three-day rhythm, especially in grades 1-8.  As a practical application of these primary principles, the thinking element is presented as new content, or new material, on the first day in the form of new information and concepts.  The next day the students are engaged in the feeling element with that content from a new perspective and it is reviewed via an artistic and/or kinaesthetic medium.  On the third day, the content is accessible as knowledge, and the new academic knowledge is written into the students’ Main Lesson books, which is their self-created textbook for the lesson. This three-day rhythm of learning through thinking, feeling and will activities brings learning into a direct, accessible experience for the child. 

Since the Class Teacher is with the same group of students for eight years, they have organized each year and each block to progress in a relational manner.  This puts the Class Teacher in an excellent position to work with the developmental nature of the curriculum.

Rudolf Steiner gave explicit indications for establishing pedagogy for the child based on discrete development stages. In the Steiner/Waldorf approach, students become ready to take on more and more individual responsibility for their learning as they mature.  The entire Waldorf Curriculum is organized in a spiral manner, continually building on previous lessons and previous stages of development.