The Ballarat Steiner School has been founded as a  response to families, teachers an friends in the local region seeking an alternative education for thier children.  The school is non-denominational, co-educational and welcomes students of any race, ethnic or religious background. We are accepting and inclusive of varying cultural practices. The development of moral values has a strong basis in the rich and creative curriculum and arises from the relationship between teachers and the children.

Ballarat Steiner School is based on the work of Austrian educationalist, scientist, artist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner.  From an expansive picture of the human being and our relationship to the world and universe, a Steiner teacher’s knowledge of child development embraces a new approach to growth, to learning, to the individual and to community. It is with a ‘threefold’ picture of what it means to be a human being that Steiner teachers work.  They see the child as a being of body, soul and spirit with capacities of thinking, feeling and willing.  Our knowledge is made up of science, art and moral/spiritual values.  We live in a society that has social, economic and cultural spheres in relation to the earth, plants and animals.  To be fully human is to have each of these areas of our lives awakened in balance and harmony within the whole.

Together with the aim of developing the full potential of each child, goes the aim of building an integrated community necessitating much common purpose and interest between teachers, students and parents.  This community also aims to be closely involved with the surrounding community, sharing its rich cultural life of art and drama and music and movement, festivals and celebrations, biodynamic food and quality goods. 

Our school offers a new dimension to the vibrant life of the Ballarat region. Steiner education is based firmly on the needs of children, preparing them to be adults of the future.  At the start of the 20th century, Steiner saw the signs of present-day dilemmas at the individual, interpersonal, community, national and global levels.  The present approaches and world views appear unable to resolve these inner and outer conflicts. 

Steiner education aims, through its balanced ‘threefold’ approach, to ‘lead out’ healthier children, who will, in turn, create a healthier society. Ballarat Steiner School considers a summary of the purposes of education to be:

• Training in intellectual and manipulative skills
• An awakening of social conscience
• Cultivation of the means of self-expression
• The ability to find and develop oneself as an individual

Ballarat Steiner School believes that Steiner education, in its style, structure and curriculum, seeks to do justice to the whole human being. Steiner education teaches skills without destroying initiative and allows self-expression without impinging on the rights of the community.

Our vision is to set the individual in the world as a free moral person, able to give purpose and direction to his/her life. The total school experience and individual subjects are planned with these aims in mind. Steiner Schools have a positive spiritual intent which they pass on by example. This is to encourage respect for all races and religions, and reverence for nature. The task of education aims to develop a sense of purpose in the children’s lives and confidence in themselves as well as a caring attitude to the world and to humanity.  

Steiner schools aim to help students develop creativity and flexibility in their thinking and to draw upon their inner resources, so that they may meet whatever changes or challenges the future may bring  in a positive and creative way.

The liberal use of arts in the learning of all subjects captivates the children’s interest, imagination and enthusiasm throughout their school life.

There are Main Lesson periods of up to two hours duration, in which subjects are interwoven over a 3 to 4 week block and are explored in depth. The natural cycles of the day and the yearly seasons have great importance in the curriculum.

Foreign languages and the playing of musical instruments begin in class 1.

Parents are asked to minimise the children’s contact with television.

Computers are  introduced in class six, under the premise that older students are much more psychologically and developmentally prepared to use this technology to their advantage.

About Steiner

 Dr. Rudolph Steiner (1861 – 1925) was an eminent Austrian scientist, author and philosopher. His profound teachings attracted wide interest, resulting in a broad social role for the world view he developed. Best known are his teachings on education, agriculture (Biodynamics), medicine, the arts, architecture, economics, as well as spiritual and social studies he called Anthroposophy (wisdom of man).

Steiner set out instructions for a curriculum and approach to teaching that truly recognised the totality of the child’s threefold nature of thinking, willing and feeling. Its stages were adapted to follow the natural course of the child’s growth and development. While the curriculum has evolved with time, and is adapted to local conditions in the various countries where Steiner schools are found, Steiner or Waldorf education has consolidated the wisdom expressed by its founder.