Waldorf Academy, an independent, co-educational and non-sectarian organization, opened its doors in September 1987, with a combined junior and senior kindergarten. Since then, the school has enjoyed steady growth and the present facility at 250 Madison Avenue and Spadina Road now encompasses a Childcare, Parent & Child, Playschool, Nursery, three Kindergartens and Grades One to Eight. The school is a member of the Ontario Association of Waldorf Schools (WSAO) and a full member of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). Waldorf Academy is approved by the Ministry of Education and registered as a non-profit organization.

In September 2010 Alan Howard Waldorf School changed its name to Waldorf Academy.
“Ever since Plato’s time, a true academy has been a place where learning and teaching are treated as an art and wisdom is understood to be the deeper purpose of knowledge.”

The school was founded in 1986 by a small group of parents who came together inspired by a vision of a new kind of school for their children – a Waldorf school. The founding parents named the school to commemorate the gifts of clarity of thinking, warm-hearted humanity and moral courage which Alan Howard, a long-time Waldorf teacher from England, brought to the birth of Waldorf Education in Canada. As a founding teacher of the Toronto Waldorf School in 1968, he continued to be a source of wisdom and inspiration to the growing movement of Waldorf Education in this country until his death in 1996.

The Childcare Centre was opened in the fall of 2008 supported by the groundbreaking work of American child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan and York University Professor Stuart Shanker. Their research highlights the importance of positive emotional development to later cognitive and life success, supporting the work Waldorf Pedagogy has been nurturing for 80 years.
Complete with parental coaching and community support, the Waldorf Childcare Centre represents an opportunity to bring the best of human development to those early years for families who require childcare.
The Childcare Centre Advisory Board:
Dr. Devin Casenhiser- Head of Research, Milton & Ethel Harris Research Initiative, York University.
Professor Karen Chandler- George Brown College
Marilyn Gradniski- Director, Little Lions Waldorf Daycare and Kindergarten.
Diana Hughes- Former Director of Waldorf Teacher Education, Rudolf Steiner Centre.
Carol Page Heyding- Former Director, Ontario Board of Directors of the Association of Early Childhood Educators, retired professor Seneca College