Curriculum Subjects

Eurythmy

Eurythmy is an art of movement that came into being early last centure. Movement through gesture and dance has played a vital part in every culturre and community. Eurythmy is a movement form that uses the whole body to express speech and tone visually. It improves coordination, listening, expression, and powers of observation. When performed in groups, Eurythmy develops understanding and cooperation among the participants. Movement expresses people's experience of the workly, their interpretation of the beautiful and the true. Eurtyhmy is practiced with a specialist teacher in the kindergarten and all levels of school.

Handwork / Craft

Handwork harmonises and balances the intellectual work undertaken by the students, developing qualities such as perseverance and determination, concertration, motor skills and encourages care and respect for the hand work process. Hands need to become skilful, sensitive, and strong so they can accomplish many wonderful deeds. Through knitting, cross-stitch, crochet, weaving, sewing, and embroidery the children become aware of their hand and the great gifts they can create. Through beauty, colour and form the activity of the fingers stirs the senses that connect the child to the world. Her whole world of thought begins to move. Handwork is imaginatively and artistically taught, encouraging original designs in cotton, wool, and silk.

Music

Music is a highly important and daily role in the Steiner curriculum. The reasons are manifold. Through studying and making music, we learn about the world and ourselves. The elements of music teach us about time, space, order and sequence. The words and sounds help us to experience our feelings and thoughts in deeper ways. When we work together to create music, we are challenged to learn the social graces of expressing ourselves thoughtfully, sensitively and with the right timing. The practice of music may not always bring instant inspiration, but music can take us beyond ourselves, enriching the soul and rekindling the spirit. There is a classroom music program and a specialist stringed intrument program. In the classroom all students learn recorder and singing. The stringed instrument music program is introduced in Class Three when each child commences violin or cello. In the School , children start the day with singing and recorder playing, bringing the children together in a focused activity that requires all to listen and tune into themselves and the group. Music also plays a central role in many of the class plays and school assemblies. Classes often work to master something they will share as a performance.

Gardening

Through gardening the children learn to see the human being having a true relationship with the earth. In our gardening curriculum the students learn the importance of working in harmony with nature and their environment.

In the art of the gardener it is the human being who gives every plant “its place” and who is dependent at the same time on all the enlivening forces of nature.

The pupils are made familiar with the school garden at first through simple tasks:: “Our flower bed, our compost heap…” No act is without its effect in the garden, but also no omission is without its consequence. In the sequence of seed-sprouting-growth-cultivation-harvest there are causes and effects for the children to experience and to understand. Proper handling of tools is practiced from the very beginning. Unlike other activities, it is not only the fingers that are active, but rather all the limbs.

Foreign Languages

“What is more quickening than light?

A conversation

-an encounter through words.”
Goethe

The purpose of the study of languages is to develop the ability to communicate. Through the art of communication, we confront the essence of the other person. This process raises one's social conscience and fosters an important objective of Steiner education: to cultivate an interest in others, which will inspire students to share their knowledge, abilities, and experiences. Those who are touched by such an interest will contribute to global understanding and to the progress of humanity.

Studying languages is a window into the soul of a culture, into its genius, individuality, and musicality. The manner in which we think is expressed through the language that we speak, and it is well known that learning another language expands one's thoughts and ability to penetrate the feelings and the soul of the other culture. In capturing the spirit of the language that moulds human beings, one begins not only to understand other cultures, but also to change one's way of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Although language expresses the thinking of an individual or a culture, it arises from the life of feeling. The language is internalized in the child's feelings, a realm of interplay between sympathy and antipathy, and this process works on the growth of imaginative thinking and the development of the human being.

Each language, with its particular music and rhythm of intonation and articulation, and the structure of its parts, offers a special experience to the child. It is up to each school to determine, in accordance with local circumstances and needs, the languages that are taught.

"Through the inner flexibility of their speech organ, the children find their way to a flexibility of soul and an openness that has an effect on their entire later life and especially on their social abilities. The foreign language lesson is suited like practically no other lesson to encourage openness and awaken interest for what is foreign to oneself-and in our time of widespread racism and social conflict on both a small and large scale this is a pedagogical mission of the first order.”

Sport and Games

Sports and games are planned to correspond with the child’s developmental needs. Sports and games develop children as co-operative individuals, rather than forcing children into one-sided competitive positions.

Outdoor Education – Excursions and Camps

Camps and excursions are not optional as they are seen as an important part of the child’s social development, and are most often integrated with the curriculum and main lesson work. A note advising details and costs of camps and excursions is sent home to parents in advance. Any outstanding money is added to your invoice at the beginning of the next term. Permission notes must be signed for all camps and excursions.

Special Needs

Increasingly in our times children come to school with special learning needs, developmental needs, behavioral or social skill needs, with many of these needs being met within the classroom. It is essential that assessment of children’s special learning needs is discussed during the enrolment application procedure

When the sun sends down his glow,
Children and animals and flowers do grow;
And they joyfully receive
Light and Strength and Warmth to live.

My own heart is like the sun,
Giving warmth to everyone;
Lovingly it shall unfold,
Opening out its shining gold.