Housatonic Valley Waldorf Students

‘Bloom’ To Mark The New School Year

By Eliza Hallabeck

Students waited in line after the morning bell rang to mark the start of a new school year at Housatonic Valley Waldorf School on Wednesday, September 9, moments before the school held a rose ceremony to welcome new first grade students.

The rose ceremony is a traditional Waldorf welcome during which each first grade student receives a rose from an eighth grade student. For the ceremony, the students, faculty, staff, and parents gathered in the school’s new assembly room. When the eighth grade students graduate from the school in June, their first grade “buddies” will hand them a rose to mark their graduation.

Housatonic Valley Waldorf School teacher Marleen De Grande gave the welcoming remarks for the rose ceremony, and said the eighth grade students “will hopefully be their buddy for many years to come.”