Photo: the current school building c1900.
30th ANNIVERSARY of the SOUTH SHORE WALDORF SCHOOL
Sunday September 13, 2-5pm.
The South Shore Waldorf School (SSWS) will mark 30 years since the first semester began. Join us as we celebrate 3 decades of education and community on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.
Come tour the school campus, meet families whose children are now, or were students of the school, meet faculty past and present, and enjoy a relaxed social event. There will be live music.
Refreshments and potluck light snacks will be available. An anniversary cake will be cut at 3:00pm.
Inside the school, a timeline of the school’s history will be in the main hallway, and guests are encouraged to add their own memories to the display (pens & post-it notes provided)
The SSWS welcomed its first students and families on a farm in Conquerall Mills in 1996, and in 2001 moved to its current location in Blockhouse. It is the only accredited Waldorf elementary school in Eastern Canada.
During three decades, the SSWS has provided educational choice for families in Nova Scotia, and attracted families from all over the globe.
SSWS is also proud and honoured to have had the opportunity to hold and teach all our remarkable alumni and current students.
We also celebrate our faculty and staff, past and present, for their enthusiasm and diligence in often challenging times as the school grew larger, and held more children, in more grade levels. What began as a kindergarten and one room school is now a multi-building campus with upper and lower kindergartens, and grades from 1 to 9. We celebrate all the teachers who made us part of their education career.
And the SSWS would not have been possible without the generosity of volunteers and partners in Canada, Nova Scotia and especially the South Shore. Our friends and neighbours are deeply appreciated.
Kindergarten with Judy King, Autumn1996
Construction, summer 1996.
During 1996-97 school year.
The school in 2026.
Memories
Judy King, Founding Teacher 1996 - 2010
Judy King was the first teacher at the South Shore Waldorf School beginning classes at its founding. Her teaching and presence became a cornerstone of the school's life and success.
I was hired for September 1996, having met the core group of parents on my way home (Cape Breton) from Waldorf teacher training at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto; I had met a small group of the actively homeschooling parents and others interested in establishing a Waldorf school, in Lunenburg, a few years earlier, when I was en route to a summer course at the Rudolf Steiner Institute in Maine. They prepared the ground both with their homeschooling activity and with a series of public lectures in Halifax and local talks.
When I started teaching 14 September 1996, on the Wolters' farm in Conquerall Mills near Bridgewater, there were 18 children/students: 9 of kindergarten age, 9 in grades 1-4. I taught kindergarten Mondays and Fridays, grades 1-4 Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays; I had parent help. The second year we hired a Waldorf-trained kindergarten teacher, Marianne Schwab, who lovingly established that class downstairs in the building. I was then teaching grades 1-5 five days a week, on the upper two floors, and then grades 1-6, where we decided to cap it. In the third year a part-time teacher was hired, Bobji (Bob Smith), who was a wonderful outdoors enthusiast and experiential teacher. When he left, Marieke Arnold, from New Brunswick, Waldorf-trained, was hired to be teacher for grades 4-6. I was then teaching grades 1-3, with 12 students in my class.
A full Waldorf curriculum was taught, to the best of our abilities! I always felt well supported by the board, the parent body and friends of the school in the closer and wider community! It was a pioneering adventure and steep learning curve requiring a lot of dedication from all of us!
In September 2001, after five years on the Wolters' farm, the school moved to Blockhouse, into the present building. Parents and friends of the school did a lot of work to prepare the building for the school. Enrolment took a bit of a dive, but was able to recover in a few years and then, in the years until 2010, to grow into what it was when I retired, with two kindergartens, grades 1-2-3 and grades 4-5-6 with enough enrolment to soon split into double instead of triple grades.
I am full of gratitude for the fourteen years I taught at the South Shore Waldorf School. It gave a lot of meaning to my life; was a structure created by caring people that inspired me to put my best efforts into my work on earth. I was so happy it was in my destiny to spend so much time with all those amazing children, inspiring me every day!
Judy King
Judy King with Kindergarten 1996.
Judy King still teaching at Waldorf East 2026.