At The Waldorf School of Philadelphia, our grade-school students are taught by a team of teachers, each of whom plays an important role in students’ lives.

The class teacher introduces students to all the major academic disciplines. This learning takes place in what we call morning lesson blocks. Each morning lesson runs for the first two hours of the school day. Through a wide range of learning modalities – listening, speaking, drawing, modeling, painting, recitation, singing, and fine and gross motor movement – the traditional academic disciplines are enlivened for the students and transformed into inner imaginative experiences. The class teacher, who teaches out of authority and soul warmth, ideally moves with a class from first through eighth grade.

After the main lesson is completed each day, special-subject teachers carry responsibility for a diverse range of other academic and artistic disciplines – choral and instrumental music, Spanish language, Eurythmy, clay modeling, woodworking, physical education, handwork and, in the middle-school years, fine arts. The specialized subject teachers have expertise in their respective disciplines as well as in the methods needed to teach at each grade level.

Through the work of their class teachers and special-subject teachers, our students develop the ability to express themselves intellectually and artistically in a wide range of subjects. Because the special-subjects complement the work carried by the class teacher, students receive a rich and diversified range of intellectual and artistic experiences. In each grade, the work is tailored to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the individual student and the social group of the class.