High School
Our graduates are notable for their communication skills, comfort with collaboration, and ability to root intellectual thinking in real-life empirical observation.
Main Lesson and the Grades
The heart of Waldorf education is the main lesson. These honors-level seminars take place during the first two hours of the school day and each subject is taught intensively for 3-4 weeks by a teacher who specializes in the subject. In addition, weekly college-preparatory classes in each grade run through the academic year in English, Math, Foreign Language, Physical Education, Health, Chorus and Orchestra. Each student also participates in six arts blocks, has an opportunity to take electives of their choice, and participates in a practicum.
Learn more about our High School curriculum
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Senior Projects
Our high school journey culminates in the Senior Independent Project in which students take on a subject to study intensively and prepare a research paper on the topic as well delivering a presentation. Past projects have included everything from constructing and playing a Renaissance lute to renovating a van for outdoor travel, to starting an upcycle fashion business. Alumni often remark that this experience helped them find their path in life. Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School Class of 2005 alumnus Eliot Livingston Wilson, the founder and design lead for FUTUR, a firm developing regenerative affordable housing solutions, remarked, “The seed of what FUTUR is doing today was sown in my senior year at Hawthorne Valley in the context of my senior project. That is such an extraordinary opportunity that Waldorf education offers and something that I’ve been so grateful for, because it really did set a tone in many ways for my whole life. In 12th grade, I worked with a wonderful architect and he mentored me to design an ecological home for my mother, for my family. That seed really began to take roots and actually informed my passion and studies and work ever since.”
Extra Curricular Activities
Our Athletics ProgramWe participate in competitive sports including girls’ and boys’ basketball, girls’ volleyball, girls’ and boys’ soccer, and girls’ and boys’ cross-country. Clubs and activities vary annually, but may include student council, drama club, after-school art, yearbook, literary magazine, creative writing, LGTBQ Alliance, and Science Olympiad. Many students participate in our foreign exchange program, which has placed students in Waldorf schools in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Croatia, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Japan, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. To learn more about our Foreign Exchange Program, contact our High School Administrator.
College Guidance
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Our philosophy when it comes to the college process is to support the students in finding the best possible fit for their needs and interests. The students take the PSATs in 10th grade as a practice exercise. In grade 11 they take them for the PSAT/NMSQT testing. SAT preparation is offered for students during the enrichment blocks. Students in grades 11 and 12 meet with the college guidance counselor regularly and are provided with extensive support in planning for and applying to college or university.
They are also supported in making alternative choices as appropriate. Hawthorne Valley School has implemented a new college guidance management system called Scoir (pronounced “score”). This new, modern online system streamlines the process of requesting, processing, sending and tracking the electronic delivery of all application-related documents.
Evaluation System
Narrative reports are the primary form of evaluation in the High School, but grades are also assigned each trimester based on a 4.3 scale. Our transcripts include each semester’s main lesson blocks (intensive Honors seminars), midday College-Prep course work, electives, and Artistic and Practical Arts courses. Midday academic and arts classes are weighted equally in the calculation of the GPA while the intensive Honors courses have weighted grading.
Due to our small class sizes and the holistic nature of the Waldorf curriculum, students have fewer academic choices. They can request the opportunity to take on independent projects in most classes, but we choose not to offer AP coursework. The depth and difficulty of our classes, however, is comparable to the highest-level courses found at area high schools. We have also recently developed an innovative new January-term in which our normal programming is paused for two weeks so that our students and teachers across the grades can spend the entire day examining a theme from different disciplines and artistic angles.
Introduction to HVS Middle and High School
Our ultimate goal with our high school is to graduate students who have unlocked their own humanity and inner capacities to function successfully in the world. We hope that our graduates are able to step out of our school and meet the world with the creative thinking skills, the resiliency, and the flexibility that it’s going to take to be leaders in the world.
Never in any other experience that I’ve had has there been such emphasis on becoming confident in who you are and who you are in this world.
Our Students Matriculate to Top Universities
In the past 5 years, our college acceptance rate has been 100% for applicants. Our college enrollment rates have been between 80 and 91 percent. Some of our graduates have chosen to pursue artistic endeavors, artisanal training programs, and outdoor excursion work rather than a traditional academic path.
FAQs About our High School Program
Do you offer housing for students?
We offer a Home-Based Boarding Program for High School students. It is structured to provide adolescents with the support and independence that they need to develop into aware, confident, and capable adults. Wonderful boarding families open their hearts and homes to students who wish to continue their Waldorf journey at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, or those who wish to begin their journey with our High School and join us from anywhere in the United States or throughout the world. For more information about boarding, please contact the Admissions Office.
Do you have a foreign exchange program?
It is a key part of our school culture to encourage High School students to participate in an exchange program with Waldorf school in another country. While this is most often a means to deepen their foreign language work by spending time in German or Spanish-speaking countries, students in past years have also chosen to go on a cultural exchange with schools in Japan, England, Scandinavia, South African, and Switzerland among other places. The Waldorf movement is an international one and the similarity of our curricular offerings makes such exchanges easy to arrange. To learn more about the Foreign Exchange program, contact Eileen Lee.
Where do your students attend college?
While most of our graduates choose to enroll immediately in a more typical 4-year bachelor’s program, others join wilderness excursions, take up apprenticeship programs, or pursue artistic endeavors. In the past five years, among other schools, our graduates have matriculated into: Princeton University, Columbia University, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, American University, Bard College, Barnard College, Brandeis University, Bryn Mawr College, Butler University, Clark University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Franklin & Marshall College, Hampshire College, Marist College, Parsons—The New School for Design, Pratt Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, Savannah College Art & Design, Skidmore College, St. John’s College, Syracuse University, Wells College, Wheaton College and SUNY: Binghamton, New Paltz, Purchase, Geneseo, Oneonta, and Oswego.
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