Education that supports growth and change
In the structure of a Waldorf school, three broad and distinct developmental phases are recognized.
1. Kindergarten Reception
The Kindergarten provides an environment for children under seven years of age where natural beauty and reverence for life abounds. At this age, children learn to know the world through doing, and they are gifted with the ability to imitate and play creatively.
The teacher provides a warm, secure, homely environment that supports social development and physical development through constructive activity and exploration of the world through the senses. This fosters creative thinking, responsibility and independence in adult life.
Through the two years of the kindergarten program, children are able to make the step from home and family life into a wider community in a warm, healthy and supportive way.
2. Primary School
In the primary school, children of the ages around seven to thirteen are inspired by the imaginative and artistic presentation of lessons which fires their enthusiasm. Thinking, feeling and activity are involved in the learning process and the children develop a love of learning and a joy in giving of their best through the special relationship that is developed with their class teacher.
Throughout our education it is the teacher, primarily, who does the teaching. No text book or computer program can communicate the respect and reverence for another human being nor the depth of feeling about a subject that teachers with their own love for their task and experience of life can bring.
In the primary school a class teacher ideally accompanies their class for seven years, providing a stability and security that supports the growth and changing needs of the child. The child can experience veneration for a beloved authority figure and feel safe and secure in the social group of his or her own classroom, building confidence and trust which contributes to the social and academic climate of learning.
3. High School
From the age of around 14 years, students are taught by specialists in their field as they are challenged to awaken their capacity for discerning thinking and independent judgment. The curriculum, building on and extending the subjects covered in the primary school, unfolds a rich panorama of world and life through the sciences, arts, humanities and practical subjects.
Understanding arises through students wrestling with the questions they confront in the study of the different subjects. This calls upon their independent judgment and stimulates original thinking. With their inner activity aroused in this way, students find their place in the world as they learn to know and work into it. This is what gives them their ground for independence and frees them to follow a path into life that allows them to grasp and shape their future.