Orientation trip

At the beginning of each school year, the high school takes a trip that fosters teamwork, social bonding, and outdoor skills. The trip serves as a high school social experience while at the same time integrating and initiating the ninth grade students into the high school grades. Other outdoor education trips take place during the year and are planned by the sponsors of each class. These trips are required and counted as official school days.

Woring in the world

Each year regular academic classes are suspended for two weeks so that students from each grade can experience practical work projects.  Each grade works with a different theme and intention within the four year work sequence. 

Grade 9: Work Experience
Ninth grade students develop an on-campus project with their class sponsors and the work program coordinator.  Projects of past years have included building an amphitheater, a pond and wetland area, a Japanese-style courtyard, wooden fences, and benches for the school.

Grade 10: Service Work Experience
Tenth grade students leave the comfort of the school campus and forge into the larger community. The students participate in a service oriented building project.  Classes can travel as far as Mexico to provide support in a foreign community, or participate in ecological building projects within California.

Grade 11: Career Internship
Eleventh grade students choose a vocational or professional field that they would like to explore and experience more deeply. The students spend two weeks in internships and then follow up with written reports and presentations on their experiences.

Grade 12: Serving the World Internship
During the second half of their senior year, students offer the skills and knowledge they have gained throughout the course of their education to contribute to a community or project in the wider world. Students choose a two-week placement anywhere in the world where they can do individual community service in the field of human services, animal welfare, environmental/renewable energy, or sustainable agriculture.

Senior projects

All seniors must complete a major Senior Project as a requirement for graduation. Topics for Senior Projects are ideally determined in late spring of the junior year and the projects are to be completed by spring of the senior year. The Senior Projects are large in scope, and involve less direct guidance from faculty. For example, a Senior Project may result in a 20-page thesis or in the performance of a full eurythmy program choreographed by a student. Senior projects often involve a mentor from outside the school community, and may incorporate substantive experience which has been obtained outside of the school environment. Each student must find a faculty sponsor who advises them during the course of their independent project work, in addition to a mentor from the larger community. The faculty advisors will approve the scope and content of the project, and will be available for advice and assistance.  Some students may choose to utilize the summer between the junior and senior year to obtain hands-on experience in a field of particular interest to him or her, and then incorporate this work into his or her Senior Project. Senior Projects are presented to the entire school community near the end of the senior year.

Electives

Electives in science, art, and humanities are offered in 11th and 12th grades. Examples this year include African American Literature, Calculus, Chemistry, Environmental Land Art, Foreign Language V, Forestry, Filmmaking, and Philosophy. Elective blocks offered this year for 9th through 12th grade students include Brazilian Drumming, African Dance, West African Drum Making, and Poetry.

Publications

Students have an opportunity to participate in producing a yearbook for the entire school. An annual high school literary magazine is published, and in the future, we anticipate possibly a student newspaper. Student websites are created and periodically updated. Students occasionally produce videos related to school programs. 

Current Events

As part of the humanities curriculum, students study, give presentations, and discuss current world events. This work is integrated into the US History and English courses, and is a particular focus for the 10th grade. Speakers and issues surrounding current events are often brought to the whole high school community through the high school assembly.

Field Trips

Educational field trips take place during the year and are planned and organized by the faculty. Students visit art museums, laboratories, local geological and architectural sites, observatories, marine biology exhibits, tidepools, treks into the natural environment, and more.

Pedagogical Trips

Throughout the year the students participate in field studies to apply the concepts and ideas developed within the classroom into an experiential setting. A few examples of such trips are the ninth grade farm and gardening trip, the tenth grade surveying block, and the eleventh grade ecology camping trip.

Study Hall

Study hall provides a time for students to complete school work during school hours. Typically, seniors who do not opt to take a fourth year of foreign language may have the opportunity for study hall. Depending on school schedules, students may have the opportunity for one or more periods of study hall per week.

Foreign Exchange Program

A three-month foreign immersion program is offered in the tenth grade.  As well as providing an excellent opportunity for applying and deepening foreign language skills, the exposure to a different culture is an extremely valuable experience for an adolescent. The fact that Waldorf education is a worldwide movement enables us to offer an unique foreign exchange program. Sending a student to a sister Waldorf school in a Spanish-speaking country or Germany means sending them to a school and family environment that share basic values and educational goals. The collegial relationship among the participating schools enables us to avoid any exchange of tuition. For further information, please contact the High School Coordinator at ext. 2107.

High School Assemblies

The entire high school body (students and staff) meets regularly for high school assemblies. The meeting time provides an opportunity to communicate current issues and events of interest to the entire high school community. Sometimes the assembly is used as a vehicle of student government to discuss school-related issues, set policy, and make decisions. It is also a setting for student presentations, speeches, performances, and seasonal celebrations. The assembly is one of the school’s primary venues for bringing in speakers and discussing current events. Past events have focused on a broad array of topics, including:  world music, local ecological activism, drug abuse, Native American traditions, the affect of war on women, the recent war in Iraq, eating disorders, and a celebration of the winter holidays.