[Priority Listing] LEAD WALDORF KINDERGARTEN TEACHER 2027/2028

Sunrise School of Ormond Beach

Ormond Beach, Florida, Tuesday–Friday, 28.5 paid hours per week

36-week school-year position, $36,000 school-year salary

Equivalent to approximately $35/hour, Relocation assistance available, Complete tuition remission for teachers’ children

COME HOLD THE HEART OF OUR KINDERGARTEN

Sunrise School of Ormond Beach is seeking a deeply grounded, experienced, trained Waldorf Early Childhood educator to lead our Kindergarten program.

This is not a position for someone who is simply curious about Waldorf education or hoping to learn it on the job.

We are searching for a teacher who already understands this work, loves this work, and feels called to the profound responsibility of holding early childhood well.

Our Kindergarten children are five and six years old. Their days are rooted in rhythm, imaginative play, meaningful work, story, song, movement, artistic activity, nature, beauty, and the living experience of the seasons.

We believe the Kindergarten teacher holds something foundational not only for the children in their care, but for the health and life of the entire school.

At Sunrise, the Kindergarten truly is the heart and spine of the school.

We are committed to finding the right person.

THIS IS TRULY AN OUTDOOR KINDERGARTEN.

Sunrise is a Waldorf-inspired school located on a beautiful eight-acre farm campus in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Our children spend the majority of their school days outdoors.

The trees are our walls. The natural world is part of the classroom. The seasons shape our days.

Our children experience Florida as it truly is: chilly winter mornings, warm autumn afternoons, spring breezes, heat, humidity, rain, mud, gardens, insects, birds, frogs, lizards, and the countless discoveries that emerge when children are given the time and freedom to form a relationship with the living world.

We are not looking for a teacher who is merely willing to teach outside.

We are looking for someone who genuinely loves outdoor life.

Someone who feels at home beneath the trees.

The natural environment is part of the curriculum.

THE TEACHER WE ARE SEEKING

We are looking for a trained Waldorf Early Childhood educator who understands how to create and hold a nourishing rhythm without rigidity.

Someone whose presence brings warmth, steadiness, reverence, and calm into the environment.

Someone who understands the importance of imitation in the first seven years and continually strives to become worthy of imitation.

You should love to sing.

You should love stories, verses, seasonal celebrations, and beautiful language.

You should enjoy working artistically with your hands.

Painting, drawing, handwork, crafts, natural materials, food preparation, gardening, and other practical and creative arts should feel natural and meaningful to you.

Musical ability is strongly valued. Playing an instrument is wonderful, but at minimum, you should feel comfortable carrying song throughout the day and working with simple instruments.

You should understand that the work of the Waldorf Kindergarten teacher is not primarily about delivering activities to children.

It is about who the teacher is. How the teacher moves. How the teacher speaks. How the teacher works. How the teacher holds time. How the children experience the teacher’s presence.

Beautiful Waldorf Kindergarten teaching has a particular quality to it. The teacher holds the rhythm firmly without creating hurry. She works purposefully without creating busyness. She notices everything without needing to control everything. She creates a feeling of spaciousness and safety around the children.

That quality matters deeply to us.

INNER WORK MATTERS HERE.

We believe that working on ourselves is inseparable from working with children.

We are seeking someone who is actively engaged in their own growth and development.

Someone interested in expanding self-awareness, consciousness, and understanding.

Someone who is continuing to grow intellectually, emotionally, creatively, and spiritually.

You do not need to subscribe to a particular spiritual or religious belief system.

You do need to understand that education concerns more than the intellect and that the adult’s inner life profoundly influences the environment created around young children.

Emotional maturity is essential.

Our ideal teacher can communicate directly and kindly, receive feedback thoughtfully, examine their own contribution when difficulties arise, repair relationships when necessary, and approach challenges with personal responsibility and a desire to find solutions.

We value warmth without fragility. Confidence without ego. Conviction without rigidity. And a genuine willingness to continue becoming.

RHYTHM, TIME & PROFESSIONALISM

A beautiful Kindergarten rhythm depends upon the teacher’s ability to hold time almost invisibly. For that reason, punctuality and time management are particularly important at Sunrise. We are looking for someone who respects time. Someone who prepares ahead. Someone who manages transitions gracefully. Someone who follows through.

Someone who can organize their work so the children experience spaciousness rather than adult hurry.

Strong organization, dependability, punctuality, and time-management skills are essential for this position. The children should experience ease.

The teacher is responsible for creating the conditions that make that possible.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

• Completed Waldorf Early Childhood teacher training, Waldorf Early Childhood certification, LifeWays Early Childhood Certificate training, or another substantial Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood training we determine to be equivalent

• Demonstrated understanding of Rudolf Steiner’s developmental picture of the young child

• Experience working with young children in a Waldorf, Steiner, LifeWays, or closely aligned early-childhood environment

• Experience creating and holding daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms

• Strong singing, storytelling, artistic, and practical-life capacities

• Excellent organization and time-management skills

• Emotional maturity, reliability, punctuality, and strong communication skills

• Genuine love of nature and outdoor living

• Ability and willingness to spend the majority of the school day outdoors in Florida weather

For this particular position, Waldorf/LifeWays Early Childhood training is a genuine requirement.

THE WEEKLY RHYTHM

This is a four-day position, Tuesday through Friday, averaging 28.5 paid hours per week.

Tuesday–Thursday | 8:30 AM–4:00 PM

Our Kindergarten children’s school day ends at 3:00 PM.

The Lead Kindergarten Teacher remains on campus until 4:00 PM, providing one hour of dedicated paid planning and preparation time each afternoon.

We intentionally protect this time.

Waldorf Early Childhood teaching requires far more than the hours spent directly with children.

These afternoons provide space for:

• Planning and rhythm preparation

• Artistic work and handwork

• Seasonal preparation

• Parent communication

• Faculty collaboration

• Material preparation

• Reflection and preparation for the following day

We want the teacher’s time with the children to feel spacious, calm, and unhurried.

We believe providing adequate paid preparation time is an important part of making that possible.

Friday | 8:00 AM–2:00 PM

On Friday mornings, the Lead Kindergarten Teacher will hold our Honeysuckle Garden Parent & Child Program.

This program brings the warmth, rhythm, song, story, seasonal experience, practical work, and reverence of Waldorf Early Childhood education to our youngest children and their caregivers.

The Friday Parent & Child program concludes at 11:30 AM.

The remainder of Friday, from 11:30 AM–2:00 PM, is dedicated paid planning and preparation time.

This creates a weekly rhythm with substantial protected professional time built directly into the teacher’s paid schedule rather than expecting the majority of preparation to happen outside contracted hours.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

$36,000 salary for the 36-week school year

Because this is an intentionally reduced-hour teaching position, we want to be transparent about what that salary represents.

Approximately 28.5 paid hours per week

Equivalent to approximately $35/hour

Four-day Tuesday–Friday workweek

Approximately 32 instructional weeks within a 36-week annual commitment

The 36-week commitment includes instructional weeks, orientation, faculty training, professional development, and other required school days.

Importantly, not all 28.5 paid weekly hours are child-contact hours.

The Kindergarten day ends at 3:00 PM Tuesday–Thursday, leaving one paid hour each afternoon for preparation and professional responsibilities.

Friday’s Parent & Child program ends at 11:30 AM, with the remainder of the paid day reserved for planning and preparation.

We recognize the tremendous amount of unseen work that goes into creating a beautiful Waldorf Kindergarten environment, and we want that work to have real space within the teacher’s compensated week.

Sunrise also offers:

• Complete tuition remission for the teacher’s children enrolled at Sunrise

• Dedicated paid planning and preparation time

• A four-day workweek

• School holidays and breaks aligned with our academic calendar

• A high degree of pedagogical trust and creative freedom

• No state standardized testing or teaching to the test

• A small, relational school environment

• The opportunity to help shape and deepen a growing Steiner school community

• Relocation assistance available for the right candidate

We know the educator we are seeking may not currently live in Florida.

We warmly welcome applications from across the United States and are willing to help the right teacher make the transition to Ormond Beach.

LIFE AT SUNRISE

Sunrise School of Ormond Beach is a small, growing Waldorf-inspired educational community serving children from Kindergarten through Grade 8 on an eight-acre farm campus in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Our community is naturally drawn toward intentional living, whole foods, natural health, gardening, herbalism and traditional wellness practices, outdoor adventure, art, creativity, yoga, meditation, and personal and spiritual development.

These are not requirements for a particular personal belief system or lifestyle.

What matters is resonance with the spirit beneath them:

Reverence for life. Connection to nature. Thoughtful living. Creativity. Self-development. And respect for the whole human being.

Our school is small and deeply relational. Our teachers know their children and families.

Serious behavioral-management demands are relatively uncommon.

We want our teachers’ energy going primarily toward the children, their pedagogical work, and the creation of something beautiful.

We are still growing.

That means this position offers something that an established school cannot:

The opportunity for an experienced Waldorf educator to become a significant pedagogical voice in the continuing development of a young school.

We are not looking for someone simply to occupy the Kindergarten Teacher position.

We are looking for someone who understands why the Kindergarten teacher matters.

Someone who can hold the center. Someone who can bring warmth without chaos. Rhythm without rigidity. Beauty without performance. Spirituality without dogma.

And deep reverence for the mysterious work of childhood.

If you have been waiting for an opportunity to practice Waldorf Early Childhood Education to the earth, beneath the trees, within a small community where your work will genuinely matter, we would love to meet you.

A LITTLE ABOUT ORMOND BEACH

Ormond Beach is a sweet coastal community on Florida’s Atlantic coast, just north of Daytona Beach—a place where the ocean, rivers, live oaks, palms, trails, and wild Florida landscapes are woven into everyday life.

For someone who loves being outdoors, it is a beautiful place to build a life. You can begin the morning watching the sun rise over the Atlantic, surf before work, spend an afternoon paddling the Tomoka River, wander beneath old live oaks, camp at nearby state parks, bike the Ormond Scenic Loop, or simply end the day barefoot on the beach.

Ormond has the ease and personality of a smaller beach town while still offering art, local restaurants and cafés, community events, parks, gardens, and easy access to the larger Daytona Beach area.

There is something especially lovely about raising children here. Life can happen outside nearly year-round, and the ocean and natural world become part of the rhythm of family life rather than something reserved for vacations.

For the teacher who has been quietly dreaming of a different kind of life—one with more sunshine, more salt air, more time outside, and work that feels deeply connected to their values—this position may be an invitation to more than a new school.

It may be an invitation to a new chapter of life by the sea.

We know that the right Waldorf educator for Sunrise may currently be living hundreds or even thousands of miles away. That is why we warmly welcome applicants from across the country and are prepared to offer relocation assistance to help the right person make Ormond Beach home.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit:

• A résumé or curriculum vitae

• A letter of introduction

• Details of your Waldorf/Steiner or LifeWays training, including the program and year completed

• Your Waldorf or early-childhood teaching experience

• Three professional references

In your letter, we would especially love to hear about:

• Your relationship with Waldorf Early Childhood education

• Your experience holding a Kindergarten rhythm

• Your relationship with the natural world

• Your artistic and musical interests

• Your personal path of self-development or inner work

• What you are seeking in your next school community

• What draws you specifically to Sunrise School of Ormond Beach

Applications from outside Florida are warmly welcomed.

Relocation assistance is available for the right candidate.