There is only one independent Steiner Waldorf school in Edinburgh but it fulfills an important role in the local educational landscape by offering an unusual approach to education.
The main aspiration of a SW school is to develop responsible, creative and freethinking young people, who will contribute to society and a sustainable environment with vision and purpose. Rudolf Steiner’s (1861-1925) ideal was a comprehensive education for every child regardless of background. He laid the basis for an ‘art of education’ based on his deep insights and understanding of the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of the developing human being. Seeing the human being essentially as a spiritual being, Steiner developed a curriculum and an approach to teaching that goes beyond purely instrumental purposes of education and is intended also to be healing. In our current era, with our ever-increasing reliance on technology and decreasing appreciation of the sanctity of life, SW offers children a developmental path that allows them to be children and develop gradually and that protects them from early exposure to technologies.
From Kindergarten to the final year (Class 12) all subject matter is linked to the young person’s developmental stage. Teachers teach to the whole child and each lesson is shaped in a three-fold manner to foster the development of thinking, feeling, and ‘willing’ (that is the ability to act morally and with purpose in the world). This happens primarily through a curriculum that is mirrored on a spiritual understanding of the evolution of human consciousness and which is infused with the creative, artistic, and aesthetic dimensions of human experience.
In this way, the school attempts to:
-Foster a Love of Learning: Desk based learning is delayed until the age of six or seven. allowing pupils to develop literacy, numeracy and social skills initially through play-based learning in the Kindergarten.
-Empower a healthy relationship to technology: SW education prioritizes healthy development and the slow and intentional introduction of technology so that students become mentally and emotionally mature enough to work with it consciously and responsibly.
-Build community across the full age range (age 4-18): Through a ‘spiral curriculum’ approach, topics that were taught more experientially in the lower (age 6-14) school are revisited in a more academic manner at secondary (15-19) level. The school is located in the beautiful grounds of one single campus, so the transition between the Lower School and Upper School is seamless.
-Develop skills for the 21st Century: analytical, logical, reasoning, artistic and practical skills. Imagination, creativity, memory and flexible thinking.
-Foster a loving understanding of the world: Main Lesson blocks of two hours daily over 2-4 weeks create a deep, rich and broad appreciation for a wide range of topics that together form a foundation for a broad and positive understanding of our world.
-Be international: French and German are taught from the age of six. At 14 pupils take part in an exchange programme with Steiner Schools in France and Germany.
Teacher Development Course
A new two-year part-time Steiner-Waldorf Teacher Education Course is launching in September in Edinburgh. We have had a long history at the school of developing SW Teachers and many of our current teachers at the Edinburgh Steiner School have passed through previous versions of the course. Others have gone on to work in schools elsewhere in the UK and around the world. With the same emphasis on building creativity through courses in painting, drawing, clay modelling, crafts, Creative Speech, singing and Eurythmy, this new course will provide an immersive experience of the transformative quality of the arts, and through discussion of key texts students will be supported in developing an understanding of Steiner’s ideas of child and human development which underpin the education. One key factor in becoming a SW teacher is a willingness to keep learning throughout life, especially at an artistic and practical level. The new course is part time and face-to-face. We strongly feel the need, post-covid, to offer a course that takes place in ‘real space and time’, where we can truly build community with each other by working, making, singing, creating and discussing together within a shared space that is real, rather than virtual. Classes are held during nine weekends, roughly one a month during term time. This format allows time in the few weeks between the weekends for students to integrate what they are learning and to work in their own time on arts and crafts, course reading and reflective writing. Every weekend there is a session where students share their work and give feedback to one another. Additionally, there are two five-day intensives at Easter and in the summer.where we’ll further deepen and extend our learning and sense of community. The first year of the course has been designed for students to explore, find out what inspires them, discover what they find challenging and why, and to get to know themselves better. The first year is open to anyone wanting to develop and (re-)discover an holistic sense of self through a wide-ranging and rich diversity of experiences. The second year includes deeper study of the curriculum and the principles behind it, classroom observation and practice. The second year is only for students who are already fully qualified to teach in Scotland and registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland.
A personal experience from a student teacher
“When I was a student on the SW teacher development course I experienced many profound transformations. I remember as clearly as if it were last week the weight of the hammer as I raised it and let it fall on the red hot iron rod resting on the anvil. It was a job that required real muscle but it was satisfying too as blow after blow I transformed that most obdurate of metals into a hook with a french twist. There was no way I could have made that hook on my own. My fellow student teacher was holding the rod with long tongs so that I could lift the hammer with two hands. It took two others to work the hand bellows and keep the fire stocked with wood. Making that iron hook took persistence and trust in the process and we experienced how the best learning often happens outside the confines of a conventional classroom and in community with others. Those of us who teach in Steiner Schools today look back on our student teacher years as a time of discovery and what we learnt then still inspires us in our work with children and young people today. The course ignited for many of us a lifelong dedication to the vocation of teaching. “
Iddo Oberski (MSc PhD) is a retired academic who has taught and conducted research on education across the lifespan. He has published a number of articles on Steiner-Waldorf Education and is a tutor on the new Teacher Development Course. For more information about SW education, please see https://waldorfeducation.uk/.
Please email teacherdevelopment@edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk or visit https://edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk/teacher-development/ for more information about the Edinburgh Teacher Development Course.
