Village Waldorf School

We offer a beautiful safe haven for children to develop their inner potential and their unique capacities. As a Waldorf School our approach to education is based on and appropriate for each developmental phase of childhood and encourages the child’s sense of truth, beauty and goodness. Our aim is to inspire a lifelong love of learning in our children and a secure sense of their place in our community.

We have an experienced committed teachers’ body that are dedicated to our children - working towards creating an inner enthusiasm for learning and encouraging motivation to naturally arise from within. Our teachers realise the importance of recognising that a child is essentially a spiritual being consisting of the three faculties of willing, feeling, and thinking. Our teachers strive to acknowledge and nurture every aspect of the child through a methodology and curriculum infused with artistic activities.

In the Waldorf classroom subject matter is introduced to children through stories and the arts. Through music
drama, drawingand painting, otherwise dry information becomes alive and is experienced deeply by the child. As a result Waldorf students develop a life long love for learning.Waldorf teachers strive to transform education into an art that educates the whole child. There are three levels of learning that take place during a lesson. First there is the cognitive level at which creative, critical and independent thinking is developed in a manner in harmony with the developmental phases of the learners.

Secondly the affective level at which more subjective, feeling-based learning is possible allowing the student to relate to the subject and others through sensitive interaction. Thirdly the student is engaged on a motivational/psycho-motor level at which the active, engaging will of the learner is stimulated and developed.

This approach results in students developing the necessary capacities in their thinking, feeling and willing in order to take their place as fully functional adults in this world and to lead a life which is deeply meaningful and fulfilling.

The young child learns through absorbing what is around him or her and imitating what he or she sees. The pre-school teacher strives to create a welcoming, harmonious environment in which the child can safely discover the world. As children learn through unconscious imitation, the teacher strives to permeate all her actions seen by the child with logic and kindness.

The pre-school child lives easily in the imagination, making this a good place from which to start learning. Free play gives the child an opportunity to develop social skills and act out fundamental life tasks. Here the teacher can step in and direct play to create healthy interaction as needed. Creative play is considered the best preparation for a self-realising adult life.

During the child’s first seven years, a lot of energy is spent on physically growing. Co-ordination and well-developed senses are the foundation for intellectual development. Children love to explore what their bodies are capable of: balancing on thin pieces of wood, swinging in a tree, playing with a beanbag etc. The morning circle gives children the opportunity to act out stories and rhymes and to improve their language.

The activities of the pre-school follow a strong daily and weekly rhythm. Hands are kept busy and senses nurtured through water-colour painting, drawing, doing simple crafts and modeling with beeswax, baking and walking in the beautiful nature that surrounds our school. The natural rhythm of the year, the seasons, influence all our activities and help to create a wonder in the child for the mysteries of the world… which in turn helps to inspire a life-long love of learning.

In Waldorf schools primary education may begin when the child is nearing or already seven years of age. The primary school centers around a multi-disciplinary arts- based curriculum that includes visual arts, drama, vocal and instrumental music, crafts, and when possible, artistic movement (eurhythmy).Throughout the primary years, concepts are first introduced through stories and images, and academic instruction is integrated with the visual and plastic arts (using materials that can be moulded in some way, usually bees wax), music and movement. There is little reliance on standardized textbooks; instead, each child creates his or her own illustrated summary of coursework in book form.

The school day generally starts with a two-hour academic lesson that focuses on a single theme over the course of about a month's time and generally begins with an introduction that may include singing, instrumental music, recitations of poetry, including a verse written by Steiner for the start of a school day, and practice in mathematics and language arts.An objective of most Waldorf schools is to have a single teacher remain with a class throughout the primary school years, teaching at least the principal academic lessons; Waldorf teachers have been cited for their level of personal commitment to their pupils.Waldorf teachers use the concept of the four temperaments to help interpret, understand and relate to the behaviour and personalities of children under their tutelage. The temperaments, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine, are thought to express four basic personality types, each possessing its own fundamental way of regarding and interacting with the world.