Sunrise Waldorf School alive and well (and living in Cowichan)
In your recent article reporting on Cowichan standings in the Fraser Institute’s annual school rankings, you reported that the top-ranked school in the Cowichan Valley, Sunrise Waldorf School, is now closed. As the Head of School for SWS, I can assure you that this is certainly not the case.
Sunrise Waldorf School has been a fixture in the Valley since 1980 and currently has 187 students in our Pre-K through Grade 8 programs. Waldorf education emphasizes a developmentally appropriate, richly artistic education that naturally supports delivery of the new B.C. curriculum while integrating the intellectual, practical and artistic development of students.
Although our students generally score well in the mandatory foundation skills assessment tests that measure proficiency in basic math, reading and writing skills, we agree that ranking schools based on these results is misleading as they reflect a narrow view of the education being offered in many good schools in the Cowichan Valley.
In our case, we believe that the depth of the education we deliver cannot be understood based on this single yearly standardized test in Grades 4 and 7 and does not accurately measure what our students have learned nor the competencies they have developed in the areas of critical and creative thinking, communication, and personal and social responsibility. The goal of Waldorf education is to develop deep and life-long learning and that is the true measure of our success.
Sunrise Waldorf School will continue to offer Waldorf education in the Cowichan Valley for many years to come.
Kevin McDuff
Head of School
Sunrise Waldorf School