Receive the child in reverence

Educate the child in love,

Let each go forth in freedom.

(Rudolf Steiner quoted in Trostli, 2011, p. xiv)

​

Steiner Waldorf schools are founded on the anthroposophical understanding of each human being as a being of body, soul and spirit in a gradual and purposeful process of development, often described as the process of incarnation.

 

Anthroposophy, which can be translated through its etymological roots as “wisdom of the human being,” is the philosophy which inspires Waldorf education.

 

It is also known as Spiritual Science and described by Rudolf Steiner as a pathway of knowledge leading the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe. It is not to be understood as a body of fixed doctrine requiring belief, but rather a mode of inquiry initiated by Rudolf Steiner with every element in it subject to being weighed and evaluated by each individual using his or her own freedom of judgement.

 

The educational indications given by Rudolf Steiner form the basis for the Special Character of New Zealand

integrated Steiner Waldorf schools.

​

Steiner Waldorf education has the healthy development of the individual child as its central impulse and fundamental to this is the cultivation of human values. The curriculum supports and enhances the healthiest possible development.

​

The curriculum gives equal importance to nurturing the physical, emotional and intellectual aspects of

the child, requiring different learning experiences to be brought to students at specific ages and times

and in certain ways. Steiner Waldorf education aims to support the development of the whole child

and this principle guides teaching and learning in every class. The study and observation of children is

at the heart of teacher development and is, therefore, at the heart of curriculum development and

delivery.

​

Special Character is not confined to any single aspect of a school’s activity. It is expressed in

educational aims, curriculum content and delivery, teaching methods and organisational structures, as

well as in the social and physical environment of the school. It is essentially an integrated approach

with all aspects interconnected in a mutually supportive way. The education is open to all faiths or

none, free of dogma or sectarianism and includes the celebration of Christian, seasonal and relevant

cultural festivals.

 

Steiner Waldorf pedagogy is informed by anthroposophy in that it holds at its centre

the question of what it means to be human and strives out of this understanding to honour the unique

developmental pathway of each child. The insights and ethos of anthroposophy inform the curriculum

and provide teachers with a body of ideas from which they derive inspiration, with which they as

individuals work and from which they are asked to conduct their own research.

​​

​