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Our School

AWS VISION

  • Protect the sanctity of childhood

  • Honor the distinct inner purpose of each child

  • Offer a proven and rigorous classical, academic curriculum, taught through the arts, movement and storytelling

  • Meet children’s needs at each stage of their physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development

  • Challenge children to discover the full range of their abilities

  • Nurture the child’s natural curiosity, joy and sense of wonder essential to learning

  • Instill respect and reverence for humanity and the Earth

  • Promote world peace and the renewal of human society

  • Produce creative thinkers and problem solvers

  • Foster deep, mutually supportive relationships between teachers and parents

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AWS MISSION

Asheville Waldorf School is dedicated to protecting the sanctity of childhood, igniting a lifelong love of learning, and instilling the strength to feel with compassion and act with moral purpose in the world.​

MEMBERSHIP

Asheville Waldorf School is an associate member of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) and the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN)

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OUR TEACHING

We value a progressive approach to Waldorf, in which new ideas, practices, and styles are incorporated to support and enrich the student experience from early childhood programming through the completion of grade eight. Our pedagogy is reflective, and responsive to the demands and expectations of today’s changing world, while maintaining our core vision — to weave together the arts, academics, and movement with a reverence for the developing child.

Now more than ever, we are committed to meeting our students with an openness to possibility, providing time and tools for developing resiliency, and teaching them skills that can be used to turn challenges into opportunities.​​

EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE

In September of 2019, Waldorf education celebrated 100 years. Across the globe, Waldorf schools are engaging in creative, social and environmental actions. With these initiatives, Waldorf communities are seeding the future. 100 years is only the beginning. Join the movement. Seed the future.​​​​​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​​​​The film “Learn to Change the World” shows people from around the world who work on the big pedagogical tasks of our time based on Waldorf/Steiner pedagogy. It is the first of more to come which aim to show concrete approaches to these tasks.

Our History

The first impulse to found a Waldorf school in Asheville began in the late 1990s, taking form in 2004 through a study group and the celebration of seasonal festivals. In 2009, a Board of Directors was established, the first Parent/Child class began, and a name was chosen: Azalea Mountain School. On May 26, 2010, the school was officially incorporated, and a Foundation Studies group was formed.

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In early 2011, the youth minister of Trinity United Methodist Church in West Asheville attended a visionary meeting and offered the church’s school building as a possible location. With community support and zoning challenges resolved, Azalea Mountain School opened its doors that fall with a Kindergarten, combined First/Second Grade, and combined Third/Fourth Grade.

 

In the early years, challenges were met with determination, and the school steadily grew as new families joined and faculty and staff expanded. The Site Committee, formed to address space limitations, explored several potential permanent locations—including participation in two agrihoods and the purchase of a church property.

 

In March 2018, AMS was selected from a group of nonprofits to occupy the vacated daycare space at Calvary Baptist Church, allowing the Early Childhood program to move into a second campus (Magnolia), while the Grades program remained at the original Azalea campus.

 

That June, Azalea Mountain School proudly became a certified Waldorf school and a Developing Member School of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. With this new designation, the school embraced a new name: Asheville Waldorf School.

 

When doors opened in fall 2018, enrollment had increased by 44%. The school continued to expand, adding a Middle School program and celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019. In June 2021, Asheville Waldorf School graduated its first eighth-grade class.

 

The future is bright and unfolding—one we joyfully share with our vibrant Waldorf community and with the families who are yet to join us.​

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OUR COMMUNITY GREW OUT OF THE SEEDS OF OUR COLLECTIVE ABILITY TO IMAGINE

  • An education that focuses on whole-brain stimulation through the arts, movement, and nature, taught within a caring, safe, and pressure-free environment.

  • A school that understands academic excellence and a lifelong love of learning result when a child’s senses, feelings, and thinking are actively engaged.

  • A curriculum that follows the developmental stages of childhood and mirrors the inner transformation of the child from year to year.

  • A faculty that incorporates academic, artistic, and practical elements into every subject, creating meaningful, engaging lessons and successful scholars.

  • A community of like-minded families who gather for study, music, handwork, festivals, and the shared support of a Waldorf-inspired way of life.

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