Welcome to Bright Water Waldorf School
Bright Water Waldorf School offers a developmentally appropriate, multidisciplinary, experiential, and academically rigorous approach to education. Bright Water Waldorf School is dedicated to continually deepening our understanding of each child’s gifts and needs within the evolving tradition of Waldorf education.
We prepare our students academically and practically, endowed with an enlivened capacity for original thinking, self-awareness, compassion for others, and the will and skills to work in the world. Children are met where they are and grow to be infused with understanding, resilience, a strong sense of their own capabilities, and a love of learning that will last a lifetime.
Bright Water Waldorf School offers a STEAM based curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), which includes an academically rigorous engagement with language arts, world and local history, the sciences, and mathematics. Every student’s learning experience is infused with music, movement, Aikido, world languages, and the arts.
At Bright Water Waldorf School, we prioritize uninterrupted, focused learning by maintaining a no-cell phone policy. This approach ensures that students engage fully in their education without distractions from media and technology. We are committed to providing an environment where analog teaching methods foster real-time, human-centered interactions, enriching the learning experience and supporting each student's growth.
Bright Water Waldorf School resides upon the traditional lands of the Duwamish people within the Cedar River Watershed in the City of Seattle. We are located in the International District within the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (commonly referred to as “The J”). The “J” has a solid place in Seattle’s history and future, offering a home to many throughout the years and providing ongoing Japanese language classes for more than a century. The “J” is nested within close access to parks and urban amenities. A few blocks away are Judkins Park and Playfield, Pratt Park, and Wisteria Park, which are enjoyed for movement, games, and festivals. Seattle Streetcar routes and Sound Transit’s International District Light Rail stops are just blocks away, making connection to museums and theaters easy and exciting!
As a Seattle-based Waldorf school, we are part of an active and growing Waldorf network in the Pacific Northwest. Students come from the entire metropolitan region. Our graduating eighth graders go on to a wide range of high schools—private, public, and parochial.
Bright Water Waldorf School is a Member of the Association for Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) and the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN), Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS), and Puget Sound Independent Schools (PSIS). Our Early Childhood program is Licensed by the Washington State Department of Child, Youth and Families.
What can you expect?
Students at Bright Water Waldorf School experience a deeply caring community of teachers and peers.
Bright Water Waldorf School’s balanced program of practical skills, movement, music, art, world languages, and academics addresses the whole child.
Faculty members work closely with students, helping them to learn academic discipline and responsibility, and teaching them how to work independently.
Most of all, the close relationships at our school help students develop a strong sense of themselves and a compassionate awareness of others.
Our Beginnings…
Bright Water Waldorf School began as an effort to meet the expanding demand for Waldorf education in Seattle.
The founding group had a clear vision of a school in a more urban environment that valued diversity, and focused on an education that would build the students’ capacities to thrive as adults.
In September 1998, Bright Water Waldorf School opened its doors with one kindergarten class of 14 children taught by Holly Koteen-Soulé in her home in North Seattle. The following year, BWWS’s first Grade One class was added in the house next door and taught by Michael Soulé. Bright Water Waldorf School then moved to the basement of Unity Church in South Lake Union where Michael and Holly were joined by Carole Street, who taught the Grade One Class of 2000.
Over the next four years, Bright Water added a preschool and expanded to Grade Four. Thanks to the hard work of many parents and faculty the school was able to move to the St. Nicholas building in the fall of 2003 and graduated its first eighth grade class in 2006. In 2021, thanks again to the hard work of parents, faculty and staff, we moved to our new location at the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Washington in Seattle’s International District.
