School tárogató

"Our job is not to pass on beliefs to the rising generation. We have to help them to use their own judgement, their own perceptiveness. Learn to see the world through their own eyes. Our opinions and beliefs are only valid for us. We present them to the youth to say: this is how we see the world.
Now you can see for yourselves how he presents himself to you. Let us awaken abilities, not convey beliefs."

Rudolf Steiner

The Waldorf School is also known as the school of the heart, hands and head, because it treats children's physical, mental and spiritual development as a harmonious whole. It develops the child's intellectual, emotional and volitional capacities, expressed in action, in equal measure and in equal measure.

The Waldorf School:

school of the hand

Because it educates and strengthens the will of the child through the development of movement.

school of the heart

Because he sees the arts as playing a big role in developing children's emotional lives.

school of the head

In addition to learning the subject matter, it also aims to develop accurate observation, thinking and independent reasoning skills.

The main pedagogical objectives of the Waldorf School:

Create

the conditions necessary for children's healthy development.

Empower

to enable children to recognise their own life mission.

Unfold

skills that serve the building of society.

Epochal education

In Waldorf schools, the teaching of the general subjects is done in an epochal, cyclical system. This means that for three to four weeks, the same subject is taught continuously in the first two hours of the so-called main lesson. This allows for a thorough immersion in the subject and allows the children's individual pace of development to be taken into account. By consciously choosing the order of the epochs, the teacher can strive to establish the right rhythm of remembering and forgetting.

The teaching periods in the first grade are still long and not very differentiated. Shape drawing, stories about nature, the seasons, their immediate and wider environment, reading and writing, counting alternate according to the teacher's intuition. Later on, the three- to four-week teaching periods become increasingly separate and differentiated, with each period covering as much of the subject as the children need to feel they have achieved something: mother tongue, subject and environment are taught in succession. Each period is complemented by periods, exercises, oral and written compositions, which give the child a sense of satisfaction that he or she knows something - or they encourage him or her to be more diligent, to practise more.

This type of work schedule is beneficial for the child because it teaches him or her to be calm and disciplined, which is very important at an age when distractions and overstimulation are common.

Higher education

The rhythm, the internal order and the various activities of mainstream education are primarily geared towards children discovering knowledge on their own, rather than receiving it "off the shelf".

The main course is usually divided into three parts.

The first is the rhythmic part, where, after the rituals and conversation at the beginning of the day, the children's multidirectional development takes place through different movements, rhythms, poems, songs and instruments. These rhythmic games and discussions also help to develop listening skills. During the rhythmic part, children are also mentally "arriving at school" and preparing for more focused learning.

In the second part, learning in the everyday sense, notebooking takes place: repetition, practice, new knowledge, making epochs. The main lesson is rounded off with an age-appropriate story or tale.

Practising the arts

In the lower grades, all subjects include painting, drawing, clay, music, recitation and re-enactment. In most subjects - not even arithmetic, language or geography - a dramatised play can sometimes be presented to parents or to the whole community at the 'seasonal celebrations', where such plays always win the approval of the younger children and the more benignly patronising older ones.

Waldorf schools do not want to train ready-made professionals, but well-educated, interested people who will be able to stand and persevere in their chosen, one-sided profession.

Language teaching

In the first grade, children are already learning two foreign languages. There are several reasons for this early start. In the first three years of school, children are still in close contact with their environment, so imitation is still natural for them. And the direct method of language teaching builds on this very ability. The child's mind is highly receptive to the living word, which is the basis for thinking and learning, and a foreign language helps to awaken this. The speech organs are still so flexible (up to the age of 9 or 10) that they easily adapt to the pronunciation of foreign words and the melody of the language. Learning a language makes the child's inner world more colourful and powerful.

Textbooks

Traditionally and as a matter of principle, Waldorf schools do not use printed textbooks. For 8 years, pupils create their own "textbooks" under the guidance of the class teacher and then the epochal teachers.

Its physical form in lower grades is the large, smooth, relatively thick "epocha booklet".
There is no predetermined, "set in stone" "body of knowledge"; the content of the book is created by the teacher based on the age of the children, their needs, their own research and their work with the class. This makes it a more lively text than traditional textbooks. The children's ability to produce high-quality drawings and diagrams deepens their understanding of the subject and develops their artistic expression.

In the upper grades, the use of traditional textbooks is also discouraged.

Homework

Waldorf schools, especially in the lower grades, traditionally have no or less homework and different homework than other schools. The child, like the adult, needs periods of work and rest to alternate in a predictable way, in a daily, weekly, yearly rhythm, with relative constancy.

After a morning of intense work, the afternoon should be a time of rest, relaxation and mental processing of the morning's experiences. Depending on age, this means sleeping, playing, reading, doing chores, meeting friends, etc.

The other main aspect is that an afternoon of rest and a good night's sleep allows children to "process" the knowledge and experiences they have acquired in the morning, and to recall them the next day in a different quality, "as our own", with the help of their teacher. The next day's main lesson can build on this new quality of knowledge.

In the upper grades, we feel the need for homework more and more. Teachers and parents - already involving the children - need to make the best possible decisions about homework.

Invoicing

There are no examinations (tests, essays, etc.) in the lower grades in the traditional sense. If you do not complete your assignment, you will have to do it the next time.
From middle school onwards, children are given more and more independent tasks (e.g. research, small lectures, notebook work, learning activities). They demonstrate their knowledge and skills in different subjects through knowledge tests and small lectures.

At the end of Year 8, you will complete what is known as an 'annual project' - a presentation of quality work on a chosen topic.

Evaluation

Waldorf education sees assessment as a means of learning and understanding the child. The more accurate and comprehensive the teacher's observations, the more deeply he or she can understand the child.

There are no grades in Waldorf schools. The class teacher and the subject teachers report their observations of the child's development to the parents in the reception lesson and in the mid-term evaluation.

At the end of the year, the child receives a "Waldorf certificate" in which the teachers evaluate the child's work, development and personal character throughout the year. This gives parents the opportunity to give their child feedback in more depth and detail.

Holidays

The life of a Waldorf school is defined and permeated by the holidays. Keeping them is a fundamental pedagogical task, because if we talk about developing the right breathing in children, this may be one of the aspects: harmonising the child's rhythm with the great cosmic rhythms. The nature of the celebration of the four great feasts can also help to create this harmony: Michaelmas is celebrated "from the outside in", Christmas "inside", Easter "from the inside out" and St John's Day "outside".

The Waldorf School is an opportunity for children and adults alike to rediscover the joy and dignity of celebration, its independence from commerce and its increasingly intimate and conscious experience year after year.