On 1 September 2009, a handful of enthusiastic parents started the Apáczai Waldorf School in Szombathely. They wanted their child to be in a good place, in an understanding and loving environment, and they did their best to create this. Thanks to the support of Fate and all our Helpers, the barracks on Huszár Road is full of children's cries, and we have found a home there.

Why was this school necessary?

Szombathely is perhaps the only county town where there was only one alternative school. We felt that the situation was ripe for parents to have more choice in the education of their children.

In today's world, we see a great need for schools that teach the importance of spiritual values rather than material ones, where the public interest is placed above individual interest, where children are taught to feel compassion and cooperation with others.

We are building an open, welcoming, accepting school, where warmth radiates from the walls and cheerfulness from the people. Where children can learn to embrace humanity above all else, and, with the support of their teachers, to understand their place in the world.

Why Apáczai?

Our aspiration met the vision of the Apáczai Foundation to establish a school in the renovated building of the Huszárlaktanya, which would be reminiscent of the Hungarian dormitory tradition, and which would try to help and educate children through the Waldorf alternative pedagogy, which has the longest history.

We ourselves consider Apáczai's work as a reformist educator and his sacrifice for the quality of school education and the culture of his country to be exemplary. We deeply identify with his words.

What have we been created for?

We believe, as Apáczai did, that school is a means for the betterment of the world, for the well-being of the nation. We therefore want to educate children of healthy physique, mind and spirit, who stand creatively on the Earth, recognizing the interconnectedness of the universe. As Albert Szent-Györgyi, a living figure in Hungarian intellectual life 300 years later, put it: 'what school must do is first of all to whet our appetite for knowledge, to teach us the joy of work well done and the excitement of creation, to teach us to love what we do and to help us find what we love to do. We don't need to learn, we need to experience. Dead knowledge dulls the spirit, fills the stomach without nourishing the body. With more vital teaching we can fill the spirit and reserve the spirit for the things that really matter.