Where Special Means Extraordinary.
Camphill Special School consists of The Children’s Village and School at Beaver Run, The Transition Program at Beaver Farm, and The Camphill School of Curative Education and Social Therapy.
Camphill Special Schoolis the only Waldorf school in North America that exclusively serves children with special needs. Waldorf curriculum presents traditional scholastic subjects, both academically and experientially, stimulating young minds and nurturing healthy emotional development. School’s mission is to create wholeness for children and youth with developmental disabilities through education, extended family living, and therapy so that they may be better understood, they may more fully unfold their potential, and they may meaningfully participate in life.
The school offers residential and day academic and prevocational programs, as well as therapeutic care, for children in kindergarten through grade twelve. We also offer a Transition Program for young people ages eighteen to twenty-one.
Camphill Special School is a Waldorf school accredited by AWSNA and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Camphill school also is licensed by the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare and it is a Pennsylvania Approved Private School for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Camphill Special School was formed when Downingtown Special School and Donegal Springs, curative homes for children that began in 1954 and 1961 in Pennsylvania, merged. After an extensive search for a location to house an ever-growing number of children and volunteer coworkers, a beautiful fifty-seven acre farm in rural East Nantmeal, Pennsylvania, was purchased in October 1963.
When founded in 1963, Camphill Special School was based upon the idea that the new community not only would become a village for children, but a place that nurtured childhood itself. This was powerfully affirmed in 1967 when a foundation stone was laid at Rock Crystal, the village’s first purposely built house where volunteers, interns, and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities could share their lives.
Rock Crystal is named after a small book of the same name by Adalbert Stifter. First published in 1845 as a “Christmas tale,” Rock Crystal is a fable of two children, lost on Christmas Eve on a glacier separating two villages. The youngsters, protected by The Angel of Providence, are rescued the next day when residents of both villages overcome their prejudices towards each other and search together to find the lost ones.
In the same way, Rock Crystal embodied Camphill Special School’s new ideal of a “children’s village” — a collection of accepting and loving homes where children who have lost their way in the world can be found and, once found, lead lives with purpose and significance.
PHYSICAL THERAPY
Physical Therapy is part of a student’s educational program that helps with posture, balance, and safe independent mobility.
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Occupational therapy services address skill development in an activity-based setting. . Such skills include, but are not limited to: Sensory-motor processing, Visual motor and visual perceptual skills, Fine motor coordination, Activities of daily living
SPEECH THERAPY
Speech and language therapy is often multifaceted, involving language stimulation as well as the production of speech. Most speech/language therapy plans focus on improving some combination of the following skill areas: Receptive language, Expressive language, Pragmatic or social skills, Articulation, Oral motor skills, Fluency, Voice quality
HORSEBACK RIDING THERAPY
Horseback riding and animal care are therapies that promote physical and psychological well-being.
ARTISTIC AND ANTHROPOSOPHICAL THERAPIES
Art therapy works with color, form, light and darkness, and the imagination.
THERAPEUTIC EURYTHMY
Eurythmy is an art of expressive movement that can be described as visible speech and song.
MUSIC THERAPY
Music therapy helps initiate essential change in body integration, balance in breathing and movements, and the awakening of motivational direction.
The Transition Program at Beaver Farm is a pre-vocational program designed for students ages eighteen to twenty-one who have completed our twelfth grade. Located ten miles from Camphill Special School's main campus, it lies amidst beautiful rural countryside on a biodynamic farm bordering French Creek.
Designed specifically for students with developmental disabilities ages eighteen to twenty-one who have completed Camphill Special School’s twelfth grade, the Transition Program is a vocational program that completes the adapted Waldorf school program offered at our Beaver Run campus.
The program is situated ten miles away from our main campus, amidst the beautiful rural countryside of northern Chester County, on a biodynamic/organic farm bordering French Creek.
The Transition Program offers
The Transition Program guides students, through community work and living, from school into adult life. Our vision is to provide a safe place and an encouraging environment for students to explore this transition.
Social Activities
Attending festivals, plays, movies, concerts, and sporting events, Visiting museums and gardens, Swimming at the YMCA, Basketball, bowling, and other sports, Shopping, Music and visual arts, Home Life Skills, Biodynamic Agriculture
VOCATIONAL EXPERIENCES
Throughout the year, all students have opportunities to work in different morning and afternoon vocational placements.
They offer vocational crews in:
Biodynamic/organic farming and gardening, Land maintenance, Cooking, Pottery, Woodworking, Baking, Cleaning
ACADEMIC SUPPORT AND THERAPIES
Continued academic support is an integral part of the Transition Program.
Academic program includes: Language arts, Functional math, Current events, Social group work
Camphill Special School assigns students to classes according to chronological age. In this way, students participate in age-appropriate educational programming, together with small group and individualized instruction that addresses each child’s needs and abilities.
Utilizing adapted Waldorf curriculum, Camphill Special School’s teachers strive for a comprehensive understanding of each child through conscious and careful study. Students are regarded as whole human beings first and foremost, with intact spirits that are capable of learning, accomplishment, social interaction, and social relationships.
In a Waldorf classroom, such things as beautiful art, fresh flowers, and vibrant colors combine to create a warm and loving environment where learning occurs in a predictable and rhythmical manner. Literature, drama, art, music, and free play nurture young imaginations and bodies.
Students in the elementary and middle grades are active participants in the rich festival life of the Camphill Special School community, and they also enjoy trips to museums, concerts, or plays. Birthdays and special occasions are celebrated in houses and classrooms. Depending on individual interests and availability, some students become members of local Special Olympic teams, such as basketball, swimming, or softball.
High school students are grouped according to their chronological ages, enabling both age-appropriate educational experiences and, perhaps even more important, age-appropriate social interaction.
Students in grades nine through twelve, ages fourteen to eighteen, participate daily in a unique afternoon prevocational program designed to develop skills and attitudes that enhance their social development and allow them to participate in meaningful cooperative work. Working individually or in small groups, students rotate through various prevocational crews including the school store, household activities, gardening, landscaping, weaving, sewing, woodworking, maintenance, life skills, and stable and animal care.
Students receive small group and individualized instruction addressing their unique needs. In addition, however, they are permitted to choose from elective courses according to their interests and talents. Our elective courses have included: Photography, Auto Shop, German, Baking, Poetry, Book Club.
Friends and social relationships are of paramount importance to this age group. Trips to museums, plays, movies, or concerts enrich academic programming. Birthdays are hugely special occasions, especially the “big” ones such as sixteen and eighteen. Dances are perennial favorites and every spring the Student Council sponsors a Prom. Ski trips, swim programs, and own horse shows and recitals give students other avenues for interaction and growth.
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