What happens in a waldorf school?

A LOVE OF LEARNING THAT LASTS A LIFETIME

There are now more than 1,000 Steiner schools and 1,600 kindergartens worldwide. Many schools continue through to secondary level. In Ireland, there are currently at least 10 Steiner Waldorf Kindergartens, seven primary schools (three of which are supported by the Department of Education) and one secondary school. Schools are often called Steiner Waldorf because the first school was opened in 1919 in the Waldorf Astoria factory in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Waldorf educational approach, as delivered by Dublin Steiner School, addresses three key needs. Those are to ensure that children have:

  1. The confidence and communication skills to hold themselves in the world
  2. The creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to make a social contribution
  3. The conscience, ethical judgement and understanding to live sustainably in our natural environment

Steiner Waldorf educators are dedicated to generating an inner enthusiasm for learning within every child. This eliminates the need for competitive testing, academic placement, and behaviouristic rewards to motivate learning and allows motivation to arise from within. Most of all, it helps to engender the capacity for joyful life-long learning.

In our daily practice we:

  • Emphasise nature-based play and education, strengthening the child’s connection to nature
  • Take account of the needs of the whole child – academic, physical, emotional and spiritual
  • Deliver our academic curriculum, in a creative and integrated way
  • Prioritise age-appropriate learning, adapting its teaching methods to suit the developmental stage of its pupils, as well as their experience of the world
  • Honour and protect the wonder of childhood
  • Encourage creativity and enquiry
  • Create a genuine enjoyment of learning

The purpose of education is to enable the mind, to fire the imagination, to fortify the will, and to quicken the initiative for life.

- Rudolf Steiner

FESTIVALS

Festivals are an important part of the Waldorf school calendar. The academic year at Dublin Steiner School is anchored by a rhythm of celebrations which mark the passage of the seasons.

These run from the Harvest Festival in September - when families gather to share food and hear the story of Michael and the dragon - to the Midsummer Festival at the end of June. Through the year each child will also make, light and carry a lantern for the Lantern Festival; take their place in the Spiral Walk to mark the strength of community through dark winter days; and celebrate the new spring with songs and dancing on May Day.

Year on year, these festivals become cherished traditions for both students and their families. As children progress through the school, they take on bigger roles in the festivals, with each new year becoming an exciting rite of passage.

your child's journey

FROM KINDERGARTEN TO GRADUATION

Nurturing and creative, our two-year Kindergarten programme gives children freedom with crafts and play, building confidence in preparation for school.

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Our pre-academic Bridge programme provides the strong foundations required for academic learning with creative problem-solving alongside tuition in languages and music.

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An expansive curriculum that sets literacy, numeracy and the sciences along languages and music sparks lifelong curiosity and empowers students with skills for many years of education.

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ABOUT HOMEWORK

In Steiner Waldorf schools, the point of homework is not to have school work at home; when homework is called for, its purpose is to extend a meaningful experience from what was learned during the school day.

Daily homework at Steiner Waldorf schools does not start until the students are developmentally ready for it. Giving students regular homework when they are 7, 8, or 9 years old (as parents of children these ages can attest) is really just giving homework to the parents!

At Dublin Steiner School, daily homework begins in earnest in Grade 6, but the build-up is gradual:

Class 1: No daily homework

Class 2:  Read to parents, or, have parents read to you (Sometimes teachers will hold off on this until later in the year, or wait until Class 3)

Class 3:  Read, practice spelling words (second half of the school year)

Class 4:  Math, violin, and spelling practice, and reading

Class 5: Math, violin, and spelling practice, and reading, as well as finishing up Main Lesson Book (MLB) work

Class 6:  Working on MLBs, researching material for papers and essays, studying for tests, math practice/worksheets

Although not given daily homework, students in the younger classes are introduced to the concept of it with occasional assignments such as drawing a picture, finding something in nature, or being read to by a parent. During the Class 3 block on natural fibres, for example, a homework assignment might be to find clothing articles made of 100% wool or linen at home and bring one to show the class. Or, when learning the quality of the letters in Class 1, the teacher will ask the students to “think of something that begins with the letter ‘B’ for homework tonight.