How to Write a Vision and Values Statement for Your Waldorf-Inspired Co-op

A co-op's vision and values statement is a short page that says what your group is for and how it does things. For a Waldorf-inspired co-op, start with a picture of one real morning. Then write a line or two on each of five things: your rhythm, how you keep the festivals, screens and phones, food, and how the group makes decisions. Keep it to one page, write it together, and read it aloud once a term. The template near the end is ready to copy.

Why write it down at all?

When four families start meeting on a Tuesday, it can feel as if everyone already agrees. Then a new family arrives with a tablet in the car. Or a parent brings iced biscuits to the Michaelmas gathering. You find you never actually said what you meant.

HSLDA gives four reasons to settle your group's purpose. It brings the leaders together and guides decisions. It keeps you going through hard times. And it helps families understand why they should join. The Homeschool Mom's first question for a new co-op is the same one: what's it for? She adds that what you're looking for should become, and stay, central to the co-op you create.

Ten Minute Momentum makes the practical case. A family reading your handbook should be able to tell whether their values and yours line up. For a small Waldorf-inspired group, that one page does more to find the right families than any advert.

Start with a picture, not a slogan

HSLDA's own sample statements are one line long, such as "To make it easier for every family in our county to homeschool." That works for a large support group. A Waldorf-inspired co-op usually needs something warmer, because the thing you're offering is a feeling as much as a service.

So begin with a morning. Write three or four sentences a parent could picture:

We meet on Tuesday mornings in each other's homes. We light a candle, say a verse and sing together in a circle, then hear a story told from memory. After a shared snack the children paint or knit, and we finish outside, whatever the weather.

If you've already written something like this while starting your co-op, use it here. Everything else on the page hangs from it.

How other Waldorf-inspired co-ops put it

A few real groups show how short this can be. Grow With Me Learning Cooperative in Asheville, North Carolina, which has since closed, drew inspiration from the Waldorf model and named its values as "Reverence, Repetition, and Rhythm." 'Ohana Homeschool Cooperative in Kapa'au, Hawaii, names the same three. Then it lists what that looks like in practice, from finger plays and puppet shows to watercolor painting, beeswax modeling and baking.

Notice the move both make. They name the idea, then show the children doing it. Borrow that shape.

The five things to agree

These are the places where a new co-op can find out it didn't agree after all. For each one, pick the line that fits your group, or write your own.

1. Rhythm

Say how often you meet, how long a morning runs, and that it follows the same shape each time. A parent reading this learns that your co-op values a steady rhythm, and that children arriving late will join a circle already under way.

• "We meet every Tuesday, 9:30 to 12:30, and the morning follows the same order each week."
• "We meet twice a month and gather for each festival in between."

For a morning laid out hour by hour, see the Waldorf co-op day schedule.

2. The festivals

Say which festivals you keep and how. Families may come to your co-op from many faiths and none, so one honest line helps.

• "We keep the seasonal festivals of the Waldorf year (Michaelmas, Martinmas, Advent, Candlemas, Easter and St John's) with their traditional stories and songs."
• "We mark the turning of the seasons with a harvest gathering, a lantern walk, a winter spiral and a spring festival."

Add one practical line: who plans each festival, and whether families bring siblings and grandparents.

3. Screens and phones

WECAN, the Waldorf early childhood association in North America, notes in its guidance for parents that screen time reduces children's movement time and gives them ready-made pictures. Your families may share that view, but homes differ. So write about co-op mornings only.

• "No screens for children during co-op. Adults keep phones in bags unless there's an emergency."
• "Phones stay in the car. The host's landline or one named adult's phone is the contact for emergencies."

Our article on Waldorf screen time covers the question at home, if families want to talk it through.

4. Food

Food carries a lot of feeling, so keep this short and practical. Say what snack looks like, who brings it and how you handle allergies.

• "Snack is simple and shared: bread, fruit, cheese or soup. Families take turns bringing it."
• "Each family brings its own snack. We don't share food, because of allergies in the group."

If the children bake at co-op, kneading dough for Michaelmas bread or rolling oatcakes, say so here, so families with allergies know.

5. How decisions are made

The Homeschool Mom lists this among the first questions for a new co-op, and describes a range from one gentle leader working by consensus to a formal board that votes. Neither is right for everyone. What matters is that everyone knows how your group decides before the first disagreement.

• "We decide together at the end-of-term meeting. Where we can't agree, the coordinator decides and we look at it again next term."
• "Two coordinators make day-to-day decisions. Bigger changes (fees, new families, the meeting day) go to all parents."

Co-op leadership goes further into who holds the group together, and bylaws in plain words explains when a group needs something more formal.

Writing it together in one evening

A statement one parent writes alone often reads like one parent's wishes. Try this instead, with the adults only, in about an hour:

1. Ten minutes: each parent writes, on their own, the one thing they most want their children to have from the co-op.
2. Fifteen minutes: read them aloud. Listen for words that come up more than once.
3. Twenty minutes: go through the five things above. For each, choose a line or write one.
4. Ten minutes: one person reads the whole page aloud. Change anything that makes someone wince.
5. Five minutes: decide who types it up and when it goes out.

This fits neatly into your first co-op meeting if you haven't held it yet.

A template to copy

Change every line. It's a starting point, not a form.

[Co-op name]: who we are and how we do things

Our morning. [Three or four sentences picturing a co-op morning.]

Who we are. A parent-led, Waldorf-inspired group of [number] families with children aged [ages], meeting in [town or area].

Our rhythm. We meet [day, time, how often]. Every morning follows the same shape: [arrival, circle, story, snack, activity, outside, closing].

The festivals. We keep [festivals] by [how]. Families are welcome to bring [siblings, grandparents].

Screens and phones. During co-op, [your line].

Food. [Who brings snack, what it's like, how allergies are handled.]

How we decide. [Who decides day-to-day, what goes to all parents, when you meet to review.]

What we ask of each family. [A job, a turn leading, a share of costs.]

Last reviewed: [date]

Keep the practical rules (sickness, supervision, fees) in your co-op handbook and your co-op rules. This page is the why and the feel. The handbook is the how.

Using it once it's written

HSLDA suggests every group decide what new members are asked to agree to, such as a code of conduct. For a small co-op, the simplest use of your statement is to send it to any family who asks about joining, before they come for a trial morning. Families who see themselves in it will say so. Families who don't often step back on their own, which is kinder for everyone.

Read it aloud at the first meeting of each term. If a line no longer matches what you do, change the line or change what you do.

If you'd like the festival year and the main lesson stories planned for you, Starpath for co-ops is free to run. It gives the group a shared Waldorf-inspired program of blocks, stories, crafts and festivals. And if you're still looking for a group rather than starting one, the Waldorf Map lists Waldorf-inspired co-ops and parent-and-child groups near you.