EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT

Waldorf Education honors diverse learning styles and ways of being in the world. With a deep understanding of child development and Waldorf pedagogy, our teachers are keen observers who seek additional support when questions arise. Our multi-sensory approach to teaching interwoven with movement and artistic expression supports the needs of diverse learning styles and social inclusion.

The ability to perceive and respond to the individual student allows us to meet each child where they are and help them grow to reach their full potential. The Educational Support Circle is composed of the Educational Support teacher, Early Childhood teachers, and Grades teachers. Other faculty members participate as needed. The committee provides professional development opportunities to the faculty, observes classes and individual students, discusses and develops care plans for students with social, developmental or academic needs and collaborates with families to access resources that will enhance their educational journey. The Educational Support teacher works closely with families, teachers and students to assess, develop, and implement additional support. This can be implemented through classroom accommodations, Care Plans or Individual Learning Plans, small reading or math support groups or individual work with our ES teacher to support a child’s unique needs. The ES teacher works with class teachers to provide interventions and monitor students’ progress when necessary and then with the parents to prepare for Asheville City Schools referral process for children with learning challenges.

WHAT WE PROVIDE

• First Grade Readiness Screening
• Sensory Screenings in EC, Kindergarten and First Grade by teacher’s request
• Second Grade Developmental Screening
• Academic or developmental screening as requested by teachers
• Ongoing classroom observation as requested by teachers and families
• Reading fluency check-ins beginning in 3rds grade and as requested by teachers
  • Small group Orton Gillingham* tutoring for those needing extra support
• Fourth-grade math screening
• Recommendations to specialized professional
• Individual or small group Extra Lesson or Sensory sessions at the teacher’s request

Waldorf Education honors diverse learning styles and ways of being in the world. At AWS, we weave support into the life of the school, but there are times when outside support is needed for a student to fully develop their capacities. In some cases, outside support may be required to enroll or to work towards grade level skills.

Support includes:

• Team-based observation, assessment, and intervention
• Tailoring curriculum, methods of instruction, and learning environment to meet different learning styles and abilities
• Collaborating with outside professionals for further screening, assessment, therapies, and remediation
• Meeting with families to create support plans and to follow-up on progress

*Orton Gillingham: This instructional approach encourages students by seeing, saying, sounding, and writing letters to master decoding and encoding of words. The Orton-Gillingham approach emphasizes multisensory learning, which combines sight, hearing, touch, and movement which match well with the Waldorf Currilcum.