About the Mary Francis Bachmann School

Opening in the fall of 2023, the Mary Francis Bachmann School was envisioned as a central part of CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health’s quest to re-imagine education. Our efforts strive to find balance in our educational approach for both children and their families. The Bachmann School welcomes students to a program tailored to their individual needs supported by a community of peers, families, teachers and staff dedicated to helping each student on their own journey of learning and individual discovery.

Recognizing the challenges faced by children and families in our community and the inability of our current educational system to respond to the changing needs of families, CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health began to imagine what might be possible.  We began the work of creating a new approach to learning. An approach that held at its core the development of its students as members of our community and as individuals. We envisioned a learning environment that embraced as its heart engagement with families and the cultivation of community.

Our explorations brought life to the concept of the Mary Francis Bachmann School. With clear vision, CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health set about bringing to fruition our goal to create a new learning experience that unlocks the possibility of each student, helping them discover their passions and themselves through meaningful learning and engagement.

We found a home for our school at the former Dominican Monastery (1824 Lititz Pike, Lancaster PA)  and began developing the means to make this unique opportunity available to children and families throughout the Lancaster, Pennsylvania region.

Building upon the best in education and child development practices, the Mary Francis Bachmann School offers students, and their families, the opportunity to engage in an experientially-based and arts infused learning environment from grades 1 through 12. Together, they participate in a robust curriculum that is inspired by Waldorf Educational Philosophies, the beauty, dignity and uniqueness of every human being, the joy and wonder of the world around us and the healing and transformational power of community.