Westside Waldorf School

Specialties

Established in 1989, the independent, not-​for-​profit Westside Waldorf School serves pre-​K through the elementary grades.

Waldorf education has been called «the world’s best-​kept educational secret.» From the moment you walk into a classroom at the Westside Waldorf School, you sense something special: beautiful student artwork adorning the walls, children playing musical instruments, reciting lyrical verses, or enacting dramatic portrayals of historic or mythical people. Most importantly, you see students who love learning, and a dedicated, Waldorf-​trained faculty teaching in a way that inspires each child to bring out his or her best.

The Westside Waldorf School is housed on two campuses: an Early Childhood Center in Santa Monica offers Parent-​Child, Nursery and Kindergarten classes, while the McComb Campus in the Pacific Palisades encompasses a full pre-​K through Eighth Grade program.

History

Established in 1989.

In 1988, a Santa Monica-​based mother with two sons attending a Waldorf school in the San Fernando Valley wished for her children to have a Waldorf education closer to home. She and a friend, also enthusiastic about the possibility, joined together and initiated a study group to assess the broader interest for Waldorf education in the area. With the financial backing of one of the grandmothers, a lease was signed with the Good Shepherd Baptist Church at 16^th Street and Pearl Street in Santa Monica, and in 1989 the Waldorf School of Santa Monica opened its first kindergarten.

Westside Waldorf School’s lead class — the first to complete Kindergarten through Sixth Grade — formed in 1995 and graduated in 2002 from the former 4^th Street campus, to which Westside Waldorf moved in 1998. In 2006, the school made the decision to add a Seventh Grade and begin a middle school program. Graduates of Westside Waldorf School currently attend many local high schools, private and public.

In May 200