Ensemble Leader

This onsite position for the 2024-25 academic year will lead the following classes (approximately 6-7 hours/week): fifth grade winds (beginner level), sixth grade winds, and a seventh/eighth grade winds ensemble. Class sizes range from 5-10 students, with the most common instruments being the flute, clarinet, and trumpet. In addition to instructional hours, this position will require participation in parent-teacher conferences (2x per year), progress reports, and occasional staff meetings.

Music is central to the WSL experience. Every student plays an instrument and receives a deep and well-rounded musical education. Performances take place regularly through recitals, school assemblies, and seasonal celebrations. Instrumental music instruction begins in first grade with simple flutes. By third grade, all children are playing recorder with their class teacher and continue to do so until graduation. Starting in third grade, each student learns to play the violin, cello or viola and participates in group lessons. In fifth grade, students may switch to a wind or brass instrument, and the class is divided into a string ensemble and a wind ensemble. Seventh and eighth graders play together in an orchestra.

**Preferred qualifications include**:

- Basic knowledge of brass and woodwinds (required)
- Creativity in building arrangements for unique combinations of instruments (keyboard, percussion, ukulele, and winds)
- Bachelor’s degree
- 2+ years of teaching experience
- Commitment and energy for working with elementary-aged children
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate with colleagues
- Interest in evolving the Waldorf curriculum for the 21st-century
- Commitment to advancing the work of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice

**To Apply**

**Setting**

WSL is situated 12 miles west of Boston in historic Lexington, Massachusetts—an area rich with culture, historical significance, and natural beauty. Abutting our campus is a 185-acre nature preserve that features a sports field, several play gardens, a vegetable garden, and beehives.

**Pedagogy and Program**

WSL provides an arts-integrated academic education. We offer a curriculum rich in the humanities and sciences as well as practical and fine arts, grounded in the pedagogical principles and methods of Rudolf Steiner. Cultivating critical thinking, creativity, and perseverance in our students, we strive to instill an enthusiasm for learning, skills in collaboration, and the confidence to engage in a changing world.

WSL serves nearly 200 students from preschool through grade 8. The school offers a challenging academic program, provided by faculty who understand students' cognitive, emotional, and physical developmental stages. Our educational philosophy and culture instill in students respect for themselves, for each other, and the living world around them. WSL prepares students for a lifetime of engaged, self-directed learning.

**Diversity**

Waldorf School of Lexington is committed to an ongoing process of learning, listening and deepening our understanding of equity, inclusion, and justice. With reverence, we strive to create, embrace and support a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just community where everyone is respected, connected and valued. We welcome students, families, faculty, and staff of all races, ethnicities, cultural and religious heritages, socioeconomic backgrounds, geographic origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, and family structures. We reject discrimination in all forms and embrace the principles of common humanity expressed by the founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner. WSL has adopted the position statement of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA).

**Accreditation**

The Waldorf School of Lexington is accredited by AWSNA and NEASC (the New England Association of Schools and Colleges), a member of AISNE (Association of Independent Schools of New England), and NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools).