Honored as Denver’s Face of Private Education
We’re BEYOND honored to be featured as THE "Face of Private Education” in Denver by Faces & Places 2026- a beautiful celebration of the people and institutions shaping our community.
Being included along-side these industry leaders is a testament to the standout work we do every day in education. This recognition fuels our mission to create an educational experience that is not only academically strong, but deeply connected to creativity, community, and humanity. A heartfelt thank you to Faces & Places for this honour and to our entire school community- our teachers, administrators, students, families, and supporters- for making this possible.
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Founded in 1974 as Colorado’s first Waldorf school, The Denver Waldorf School provides a Pre-K–12 education rooted in both tradition and forward-thinking pedagogy. Located in the heart of the city, DWS offers the rare combination of an urban campus with frequent access to nature—just steps from the 80 acres of fields, trees, and trails at Harvard Gulch Park. This blend allows students to learn in ways that engage both head and hands, whether studying earth science outdoors, composing and illustrating their own textbooks, or exploring literature through performance. Here, the world becomes their classroom, inviting students to observe, perceive, and connect more deeply with their environment.
At DWS, learning is alive. A holistic, arts-integrated curriculum nurtures intellectual curiosity while supporting emotional attunement and confidence. Movement, play, and experiential learning are foundational. Relationship-based teaching is strengthened through looping, where faculty progress with students over multiple years—deepening understanding, trust, and individualized support.
Kindergarteners learn through play, storytelling, and hands-on activities like baking and foraging as a group. In first grade, every child begins handwork through knitting—an exercise in patience, dexterity, and creativity. By eighth grade, students have practiced sewing, embroidery, and other practical crafts that build capability and artistry. All students engage in music, theater, and traditional STEM studies from kindergarten through twelfth grade, endowing them with a well-rounded sense of what it means to be fully human in the world.
We take the humanities literally. Our students are renaissance thinkers from the moment they arrive. And as Spartans—our mascot in spirit as well as athletics—they practice a robust range of subjects, developing resilience through challenge and versatility of skills. They learn not just information, but how to learn: how to observe, perceive, communicate, and navigate the world with clarity and empathy. These human capacities are increasingly essential in an automated age. With a 100% college acceptance rate, DWS graduates emerge as collaborative teammates, thoughtful innovators, and compassionate leaders.
A key principle of our philosophy is cultivating original thought by minimizing digital distraction in formative years. With a mindful, age-appropriate media and technology policy, students first build imagination, focus, and the capacity to reach their own conclusions by engaging with the depths and layers of the world—later pairing these strengths with technology from a grounded perspective.
More than ever, students need an education that fosters resilience, adaptability, compassion, and confidence. They need the intentional integration of academics, arts, music, and movement to educate the whole human. Welcome to The Denver Waldorf School.
2026 Niche Rankings
- #8 of 30 in Best Private K-12 Schools in Colorado
- #5 of 14 in Best High Schools for the Arts in Colorado
- #12 of 51 in Best Private High Schools in Colorado
The Light Within and With That We Share
It's the second Monday morning in December, which means the school will be gathering shortly in the Festival Hall for it's second Festival of Light Emerging assembly of the year. It is one of several holdings the students have a this time of year that allow them to live into the impusles that accompany the darkening days.
There is a busyness that’s easy to get enveloped in this time of year as parents and caregivers — a busyness driven by the desire to create joy for our loved ones and express our deepest gratitude. We can become swept up in the pressure to get it all 'right,' turning this busyness into overwhelm and making it difficult to find our own joy, which can feel elusive or lost altogether.
For our children, within these walls, things look quite different. This time of year is honored through a deepening practice of slowing down, quiet observation and reflection, and inward exploration. The darkening days provide the perfect canvas to journey inward, connect with the light that resides within, and bring it forward to illuminate the way for others. In this expression, we just might recognize the light in another as one we all share. This exploration of light begins with the Lantern Walk in the fall and continues through the Festival of Light Emerging, the Winter Spiral, and Santa Lucia.
Monday mornings in December begin with an all-school assembly honoring the Festival of Light Emerging. Our students join in a dimly lit Festival Hall where they are met with a familiar sequence of greetings, song, story, verse, and candle lighting — all wrapped in a dependable cloak of reverence. One student from each grade is tapped prior to the assembly to light a candle for their class. Starting with 12th and ending with 1st, they come to the stage one by one to light their candle from the same flame. This light then travels back to their classroom by way of their teacher, students following close behind.
This week, our students will walk the Winter Spiral. A pathway outlined in evergreens will form a spiral leading to a single candle lit at the center. Students will follow the spiral, unlit candle in hand, until they reach the light at the center, which they’ll use to light their own. On their path out — different from the one taken in — they will choose a place to set their now-lit candle, illuminating the way for those who follow. Although the spiral of carefully laid evergreens may appear unchanged, each individual’s journey within it will be distinctly different— inherently their own.
This Friday, each classroom will be visited by second graders, singing proudly and adorned in white tunics and handmade crowns. They'll bring Santa Lucia buns to share, a symbol of light and hope. They’ll carry a mood of reverence, extending a gesture of generosity, and be met with gratitude.
These are experiences aligned with the rhythm of the natural world, which call us to pause, to embrace the quiet moments, and to hold space for the light we carry within and the light we see in others. For our children, their education includes a foundation in the lifelong practice of journeying inward and an intrinsic desire to share their discoveries with others.
It makes me wonder for us as adults - in our busyness to share light with others, are we bypassing our journey inward? If so, what is it that we are truly sharing?
Unfolding these experiences, both within the school and within our homes, is not without effort. Maybe more so at this time of year, it can be difficult to decipher meaningful effort from the simple busyness that fills our days. A question to consider might be if our efforts are drawing us toward connection within ourselves and with one another or pulling us away. While everyone's journey is uniquely theirs to know, we can be respectful observers and provide one another grace for what cannot be seen. In the end, it's not doing it 'right' that brings us closer, but rather how we feel when we are together.
In this shared space of reflection and grace, we create a community that is deeply rooted in presence and understanding. May we continue to walk this path together, embracing the beauty of the season and the peace that comes when we allow ourselves to be led by its natural rhythm.
Shared with us by Alexandra Wheatlake, Community Liaison
Adult Winter Spiral
Walking the Winter Spiral is a Waldorf tradition that is celebrated as the days grow their darkest. Each person walks the Winter Spiral together, taking turns to quietly carry an unlit candle along a spiral evergreen pathway leading to a single lit candle at its center. As each candle is illuminated, it is brought outward and placed along the spiral- expanding the light and shining brightly together for those that follow. It is a reminder that within each of us is our own light and beauty- so that we may move forward in the darkest season ahead, radiating our gifts with one another, and contributing to make the light