Hearthstone School educates children in a loving, enriching environment. We offer an in-depth curriculum that awakens the imagination, opens the heart, and engages the hands by developing each child's ability to think clearly, feel deeply and act purposefully. Hearthstone is an active partnership of students, teachers, families, and others in the surrounding community who create an atmosphere of safety, belonging, and mutual support.

Hearthstone's arts-based, integrated curriculum is based on a holistic vision of the child. Respectful regard for the sanctity of the individual is taught. Expectations for learning are developmentally appropriate. The program draws on many models of educational research and draws special inspiration from the Waldorf approach to learning.

Parents are encouraged and expected to be involved in their children's education and in the life of the school. Every family contributes at least eight hours per month towards the work of the school. This is an essential element of our students' success. Admissions are by application.

Hearthstone was founded in 1996 as a parent cooperative for nursery/kindergarten through 12th grades. The families of Hearthstone are deeply grateful to Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel and the Chateauville Foundation for their role in helping to establish Hearthstone.

Hearthstone moved to its current site in 2000 and is conducting a capital campaign to finance renovation of the larger of the two buildings then acquired.

Hearthstone is located in Sperryville, Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our students are drawn from the surrounding six-county area. Please call 540.987.9212 or email for more information or to arrange a visit.

Hearthstone welcomes students of every race, color, gender, religion, ethnicity or national origin.

At Hearthstone we are committed to:

Honoring each child's spirit while emphasizing responsibility and cooperation;

Fostering academic excellence through an integrated, Waldorf-based curriculum that reveals the interrelatedness of all knowledge, and which teaches children how to learn rather than merely how to memorize information;

An experiential approach that allows each subject to be explored through many modalities and hands-on activities including discussion, field investigations, drama, drawing, film, photography and music in addition to written material;

Periodically re-evaluating our curriculum and assessment strategies, incorporating new approaches where necessary while preserving the strength and stability of the existing programs;

Cultivating a spirit of ownership and community, where children see their parents involved regularly in the daily life of the school; and

Respect for others, reverence for nature, service to the wider community and a sense of unity with all life.