The Lake Champlain Waldorf School is Vermont’s largest Pre-K through High School independent school. We are a republic of teachers, governed by a College of Teachers in partnership with a Head of School. Waldorf education is based on a developmental approach that addresses the needs of the growing child and maturing adolescent. Our mission is to prepare students to become creative, independent thinkers who meet others with compassion, live with purpose and direction, and have the courage to make change in the world.
In 1984 a handful of parents, looking for an inspiring experience for their young children, came together to study Waldorf education. The following year, the fledgling school welcomed a class of 24 young children. A year later, the school started a first grade and incorporated as a non-profit. Soon after, the school community worked to create a permanent home in Shelburne. A relationship was formed with the Nature Conservancy, and we became one of the few institutions to which the Vermont Nature Conservancy has ever sold land. For the next ten years, the school continued to develop the 22-acre Turtle Lane Campus, constructing an Early Childhood building with four classrooms, a first through eighth Grade School, gardens, playing fields and woodland educational areas. In 2001, we opened a High School. Today, in order to stabilize our organization to better weather the COVID-19 pandemic, we have consolidated our K-12 programming on our Turtle Lane campus.