An Inspiring Education

Steiner Waldorf education (also known as Rudolf Steiner or simply Waldorf education) is one of the fastest growing educational movements in the world.

With a deep understanding of child development, a broad curriculum and creative methodology, Steiner Waldorf schools place the changing needs of the child at the centre of their work, demonstrating that this unique, holistic approach is adaptable to diverse social, cultural, geographic and economic contexts.

In the United Kingdom, there are now more than 30 Steiner Waldorf Schools, including the Hereford Steiner Academy, the first fully State-funded Steiner Waldorf School in the UK.

“Waldorf education places the development of the individual child in the focal point, convinced that the healthy individual is a prerequisite for a healthy society.”

The International Conference on Education of the United Nations Educational and Scientific Cultural Organization

The focus of Steiner/Waldorf education is to educate the whole child, based on the insights into child development by the Austrian scientist and philosopher, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). The emphasis is not only on the intellectual development of the child, but focuses equally on developing the child’s feeling life (artistic and emotional) and also its life of will (the ability to carry through ideas into a finished piece of work, incorporating all the steps in between). In this way we try to allow the child’s potential to unfold, allowing them to grow into a self-motivated, content adult.

In lower and upper school classes the main subjects, such as history, language, science and mathematics are taught in main lesson blocks of 2 hours per day, with each block lasting from 3 weeks. Within each main lesson block there is a 3 day rhythm. The ideas presented each day mature as the child sleeps at night, allowing the child to start with a fresh understanding the next day.

“The importance of storytelling, of the natural rhythms of daily life, of the evolutionary changes in the child, of art as the necessary underpinning of learning, and of the aesthetic environment as a whole…”

Paul Bayers

Learn more about the Waldorf Steiner Curriculum at different ages – Read more…