High School Roundtable: College After Covid
In February, we kicked off our High School Roundtable with DWHS faculty and staff and independent Education Counselor Carolyn Francis to discuss the post-Covid college application process, taking a gap year, and more. Watch both recordings of College After Covid below.
To see what’s coming up next in our lineup, check our Events page.
College-Prep Checklist
Common questions that surface for high school students and parents include everything from when to take the ACT or SAT and how to search for schools. Download our 10-step checklist to help stay on track.
Recordings for the February Sessions of the DWS High School Roundtable
Part 1 — February 5, 2021
Part 2 — February 5, 2021
About the High School Roundtable
The High School Roundtable is a monthly webinar series serving DWS families. The aim is to bring guidance on navigating high school to the table.
Enrollment & In-Person Tours
The Denver Waldorf School is a Denver-based independent school that is currently enrolling preschool through high school students. Schedule an in-person to learn more on our curriculum, admissions process, financial aid, and more.
Spartan Senior Night
Celebrating Kobi McMillen, Alex Reynolds, and Jack Carr
It is with gratitude, excitement, and joy that we honor our beloved 12th graders on Senior Night — a DWS tradition taking place during the varsity boys basketball game on March 4th. About these incredible students, Coach Quinn reflected the following.
Kobi McMillen
Kobi is a four-year varsity player who has started the past two years. He was an integral part of two consecutive runs to the Regional tournament. His hard work and determination on the court were second to none!
Alex Reynolds-Scheel
Jack Carr
Denver Waldorf High School Roundtable: Minding Mental Health
Trends and Tips on Maintaining Mental Wellness
This month on the DWS High School Roundtable, we are joined by School Counselor Jenny Thompson who will discuss mental health for both students and parents. All DWS families are welcome to attend!
Date: March 5, 2021
Time: 12pm MST
Location: Online via Zoom
During the meeting, Jenny will discuss:
- Mental health trends she’s seeing related to how COVID is affecting students, specifically around increased rates of suicide and depression
- Tips to parents about how we can be one step ahead of these problems
- Ways parents might engage in self care
If you have already registered to attend any of our High School Roundtables, there is no need to register again. Otherwise, please register to attend.
About Jenny Thompson, MA, LPC
Jenny is a Licensed Professional Counselor who grew up in Goshen, Indiana, and attended Indiana University for her undergraduate degree in Sociology. After graduating from IU, she received her MA in counseling psychology from Arcadia University. Jenny worked as a school counselor in Brighton before turning her emphasis to individual therapy. She then worked for People House in their affordable counseling program and then segued into working at Highlands Behavioral Health before joining The Denver Waldorf School as our beloved mental health counselor. Jenny lives with her partner and two children, Charley, and Amelia, and enjoys reading, hiking, playing music, and hanging out with her cat Cosmo.
About the High School Roundtable
The High School Roundtable is a monthly webinar series serving DWS families. The aim is to bring guidance on navigating high school to the table.
If you missed our 2-part series College After Covid, you can watch the recording and download the 10-step checklist.
About The Denver Waldorf School
Founded in 1974 on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, DWS believes education should foster what it is to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire a love for the world. Want to learn more about the benefits of Waldorf education? Join us online during one of our many virtual events.
Register to Reserve a Spot
Register once for all DWS High School Roundtable online webinars.
Why We All Play
How do we develop confident, creative, and joyful student-athletes who champion teamwork, participation, and growth? That is the question that drives our athletics program at The Denver Waldorf School.
This ethos begins with a simple no-cut commitment: any DWS student who wishes to play a sport will have that chance. Whether it’s cross country, volleyball, basketball, or ultimate frisbee, our coaches embrace the opportunity to help each and every student grow and develop their talents and work ethic.
Too often, however, youth athletics are plagued by a very different ethos—one that values that domination, recognition, and exclusivity above all else. In Beyond Winning, Waldorf educator and author, Kim John Payne, laid bare the pitfalls of this mindset:
“[T]he obsession with early success in a win-at-all costs culture has created a pressure chamber in which top prospects, even at the age of five or six, are funneled into elite programs while the majority of kids . . . are robbed of the opportunity to discover and develop their talents . . . The result is a youth sports landscape pockmarked with children who end up—at age eleven or twelve—with fractured egos, low self-esteem, and, in some cases, severe physical injuries. It’s why millions of American kids quit organized sports just as they become teenagers.”– Kim John Payne, Luis Fernando Llosa & Scott Lancaster, Beyond Winning: Smart Parenting in a Toxic Sports Environment (2013).
As a school committed to developing the whole child (head, heart, and hands), we believe athletics should boost our students’ understanding of self-worth, increase their self-esteem, and promote health and wellbeing. In short, we believe physical activity through sports is an opportunity for healthful growth.
It’s also the smart tactic to nurture joyful love of sport. As Payne points out, almost three-quarters of America’s youth quit organized sports by age thirteen — precisely at the age when sports can be taken more seriously and occupy a more central role in healthy development.
Imagine a sports culture where our teenage athletes experience joy instead of burnout, embrace team success over individual glory, and value participation over exclusion. By creating a healthy sports culture within DWS, we make these goals into our reality.
We create a culture that nourishes the hearts, souls, bodies, and minds of every student-athlete. It begins with a commitment to let everyone participate, and this is why we all play.
Variety Hour
Watch the virtual Variety Hour via Twitch!
Many Thanks to Our Class Acts
Thank you to all who submitted acts for this year’s Variety Hour. The lineup looks spectacular!
The Bridge: Poised for Success with Cynthia Bennett
Up Next on The Bridge: Poised for Success
How does Waldorf education prepare students for success in an unpredictable future? This week on The Bridge, Waldorf educator Cynthia Bennett discusses how the Waldorf curriculum develops the skills and capacities that will help our graduates find their way in work and life in that future.
Date: February 24, 2021
Time: 10am MST
Location: Online via Zoom
We will follow the presentation with a live Q&A. Please register to reserve a seat.
What You’ll Learn
In his book, A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink describes the new skills for the workers who will be needed in the future, skills that go beyond a traditional academic education:
- Design
- Story
- Symphony
- Empathy
- Play
- Meaning
Rudolf Steiner spoke of Waldorf education in a similar way. He said, “The heart of the Waldorf method is that education is an art, it must speak to the child’s experience. To educate the whole child, his heart and his will must be reached, as well as the mind.”
We integrate these skills into every lesson at The Denver Waldorf School. As the school’s mission statement reads, DWS awakens and inspires students’ critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and artistic expression, preparing them to bring relevant contributions to the world. The Waldorf school’s varied and integrated curriculum gives students the opportunity to develop, first and foremost, abilities and capacities. In our classes the ability to create, to think, and to do are paramount. Learning which builds toward understanding of the whole is the goal rather than the accumulation and memorization of facts themselves.
About Waldorf Educator Cynthia Bennett
Cynthia Bennett worked as a Waldorf high school educator teaching mathematics and science for 17 years at the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda, Maryland. Subsequently, she led the faculty there as College Chair for four years, before leaving to take up adult education. She spent another 12 years educating four cohorts of Waldorf teachers, and introducing numerous parents to Waldorf philosophy and education through the NOVA Institute.
She now works as a Waldorf educational consultant. Cynthia came to Denver in 2017, and since then has been active at The Denver Waldorf School leading parent and faculty studies, mentoring teachers, and supporting the school in many ways. She also is a grandparent of a DWS second grader.
About The Bridge
The Bridge is a monthly webinar series hosted by The Denver Waldorf School on the benefits of Waldorf education. By connecting one another, we aim to join in the worldwide effort to educate for humanity.
About The Denver Waldorf School
The Denver Waldorf School is an urban pre-K through 12 independent school in Colorado. Founded in 1974 on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, DWS believes education should foster what it is to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire a love for the world.
The Denver Waldorf High School offers a liberal arts education, consciously aimed to nurture and encourage adolescent ideals. The high school experience aims to balance the students’ academic needs with their longing to find meaning in the world.
We are currently enrolling for in-person learning:
Want to learn more about us? Schedule an in-person tour of our Denver campus or join us online during our virtual events.
The Denver Waldorf School Happenings - February 2021
The Denver Waldorf School is a k-12 independent school in Denver, Colorado
Faraway Family and Friends' Days
Thanks to all who joined us for this year’s Faraway Family and Friends’ Days in November. Please enjoy the recordings below as we stepped inside our 1st through 7th grade classrooms, and then sampled five high school elective classes including Water Research, Sculpting, 3D Cutting and Printing, Wind and Solar, and Mock Trials. Our students and faculty loved sharing their work with our extended community!
1st Grade Counting to 100
2nd Grade Morning Verse and Multiplication Tables
3rd Grade Singing in Rounds
4th Grade Singing A Mis Abuelos in Spanish
5th Grade Reciting The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
6th Grade Reporting on the Countries of South America
7th Grade Singing Todos Juntos, A Chilean Song By Los Jaivas
A Handful of High School Electives
New Family Orientation
If you missed our New Family Orientation at the beginning of the year, the recorded session below includes a brief presentation to help you navigate as new member of our community. Welcome!
New Family Orientation on January 12, 2021
With Admissions Manager Brooke Camfield, Main Office Manager & Parent Council Co-Chair Carrie Tentori, Health & Safety Manager Christa Gustafson, Enrichment Director Dawn Archer, and School Director Kelly Church.
Enrollment & In-Person Tours
We are currently enrolling preschool through high school students and offering in-person tours. Connect with Admissions Manager Brooke Camfield to learn more.
Denver Waldorf High School Roundtable: College After Covid Part 2
Part 2 of Our Discussion on College After Covid
Our conversation on college admissions was so rich on February 5th, we need a Part 2! Scribble down your questions and meet us back at the ‘Table with Independent Educational Counselor Carolyn Francis and Denver Waldorf High School faculty and staff. All DWS parents and students are welcome to pull up a chair!
Date: February 19, 2021
Time: 4pm MST
Location: Online via Zoom
If you registered for Part 1, there’s no need to register for Part 2. If you didn’t register for Part 1, please watch the recording and register for Part 2.
Watch the Recording of Part 1
During Part 1, we covered a 10-step college prep checklist that framed the larger discussion. If you plan on attending Part 2, we encourage you to watch beforehand.
About the High School Roundtable
The High School Roundtable is a monthly webinar series serving DWS families. The aim is to bring guidance on navigating high school to the table.