Welcome to Waikato Waldorf Primary

Educating the whole child

“Our highest endeavour must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and meaning to their lives.”

Rudolf Steiner

It is important that we discover an educational method where people learn to learn and go on learning their whole lives.

Rudolf Steiner

If humanity is to live in the future in a socially right way, humanity must educate its children in a socially right way.

Rudolf Steiner

Educating the whole child – head, heart and hands – within the special corner of the world that is Aotearoa New Zealand, Waikato Waldorf School seeks to develop free human beings, who are able to reflect upon themselves, embrace a love for learning and develop meaningful purpose and directions in their lives. The community, staff and students of the school value goodness, beauty, truth and reverence.

We invite you to explore Waldorf Education, one of the largest and fastest growing independent education movements in the world. Attend a Journey Through the School (click here for more information).

PRIMARY CURRICULUM

Classes 1 to 5 (Years 2-6)

Class One

“I am”

The developmental aspect may be referred to as ‘Dreaming and Earthing’. Not yet fully aware of themselves as separate individualities, or that others are separate and unique individuals, the child relates to the world as it affects them. Their immediate response will come from their own sense of comfort or discomfort – ease or unease. The seven‑year‑old wishes to know that the word is beautiful, that the adults know what is right and good and will look after their needs. Children of this age can love easily and will wish to please those they love.

The Task

Learning to become social, to ‘do’ with others, to experience themselves as part of a group, to take turns and to respect others’ needs and abilities. To look into their immediate environment and, through imaginative pictures, begin to develop a respect for, and understanding of, the world of nature. Through the imagination to make a feeling connection with the more abstract concepts that accompany our daily lives – beginning with writing, early reading skills and number recognition and computation.

Fairy Tales are pre‑earth history, human psychology, human development and a bridge between heaven and earth. All lessons are linked with these stories and the children are encouraged to live and learn imaginatively.

Story Curriculum	Fairy Tales
Main Lessons	Form drawing Speaking, Writing, Reading Mathematics Home Surroundings Festivals
Other Lessons	Visual Art – Drawing, Painting, and Crafts Music – Singing, Recorders, Rhythm making Drama – Puppets, Plays Movement – Ring Games, Skipping, Ball Skills, Balance Eurythmy – Circle Exercises Handwork – Finger Knitting, Knitting Maori – Waiata, Te Reo

Class Two

“I am – You are”

The children will be turning eight years old during this year. Their development is moving towards self identity and encompasses a growing awareness of others as different identities with their own needs and abilities.

The world as it affects them is still the basis of the children’s primary social response. The eight year olds are now in the final stages of imitation; they will still be influenced by others actions however and adults must continue to be worthy role‑models and to set the standards for all social interactions.

The will is still predominant and the healthy eight‑year‑old will wish to act out all experiences. The children wish to please those they love and to know the world as a good and beautiful piece and they implicitly trust that adults know what is right and good for them.

The Task

To deepen awareness of their own needs and abilities and those of others. To integrate the children’s movement between heaven and earth, to allow them opportunities to heighten their understanding of themselves and others and to inspire them to look towards, and experience a feeling for, their higher purpose. We must also continue to encourage the children’s sense for the beauty of the world, and their reverence for all life.

The first three school years have a similar character due to the nature of the child between the ages of six and nine. The contents of the first school year should be continued and deepened, encouraging the students to find their way into a living relationship with each subject.

Story Curriculum	Fables (Maori and Aesop’s), King of Ireland’s Son & The Saints
Main Lessons	Form drawing Speaking, Writing, Reading Mathematics Science Festivals
Supporting Lessons	Visual Art – Form arising out of colour Music – Songs within the compass of the octave Drama – Puppets, plays Movement – Ring games, ball skills, skipping, balance Eurythmy – Sense of symmetry; stepping rhythms Handwork – Knitting, purl stitch, crochet Maori – Waiata, Te Reo, connected to ML

Class Three

“I am – Who are you?”

The children will turn nine in this year, and the developmental stage known as the ‘nine‑year‑old crisis’ occurs around this time.

The children find they are now ‘on the earth’, there is a perception of individuality and ‘aloneness’, and they no longer experience themselves as one with the world. The children will question those things that previously went unquestioned: “Who are you to tell me?”, “What is my real name?”, “Am I adopted?” They will push boundaries, venture forth fearlessly when you wish they wouldn’t and shrivel up fearfully where once they were confident.

With the ninth year there comes an important stage in the development of the growing child, and this should be carefully watched and considered in teaching and education. It is the age when the child first really feels separate from the surroundings, which formerly were taken so much for granted.

Self-consciousness becomes noticeably stronger and the soul‑life more inward and independent. All the child’s powers of consciousness stir to life, and a wish to learn to know both teacher and world from a new angle.

The nine‑year‑old wants to revere consciously what was formerly loved in a childlike way, but needs to feel that reverence is justified. This age makes great claims on the wisdom and tact of the teacher. The children need to be protected from a feeling of disappointment with themselves or the world, which they can so easily fall into at this age, especially in the presence of world‑weary or cynical adults.

The Task

The Expulsion from Paradise mirrors the soul feeling of the nine-year-olds who now experience themselves as truly on the earth; heaven is lost to them and who will care for them? Just as Jehovah watched over and guided the Hebrews, so the adults around the children must reassure them that they know what is right and good and will show them the way.

As the children now experience their bodies as ‘the house of my soul’, supporting lessons in the curriculum include ‘House‑Building’ which investigates the history and technology of house building and especially the different people, tasks and crafts involved in providing a home. ‘Farming and Gardening’ teaches the wonder and history of growing food and caring for the soil and the body.

Finally, in ‘People at Work’ the children experience the many different ways in which we all support each other with our particular contribution to society.

Story Curriculum	The Old Testament; Maori Creation Myths
Main Lessons	Form drawing Speaking, Writing, Reading Parts of Speech Reading Mathematics Practical Lessons – Farming, House Building, Traditional crafts and Food Preparation Festivals
Other Lessons	Visual Art – Drawing, painting, crafts Music – Introduction of rounds, beginning violin Movement – Add folk dances Eurythmy – Cassini curve; speech & music gestures Handwork – Knitting patterns with different colours, a hat Maori – Simple conversation; nouns and verbs

Class Four

“Who I am, Where I am”

The children turning ten experience a veiling of the connection with the spiritual world; they stand truly on the earth and are learning to walk in its ways. Experiencing themselves as separate from their surroundings, self‑consciousness becomes stronger and the soul life becomes more inward. There grows a soul‑wish to know and love the world consciously, yet this will be tested: is it justified that I revere this occurrence; that person; this phenomena?

The children must be protected from becoming disappointed, or cynical about the world, as now the faint beginnings of consequential behaviour stir to consciousness: “If I do this, then that might happen.”

The Task

To lead the students to discover themselves in time and place, and to an appreciation of the wonder of their world and how they arrived in it; to allow them an experience of consequences through story and to strengthen their social awareness.

The Norse Myths are full of wonderful personalities and stories that children of this age can relate to. Of paramount importance is the figure of Loki, who grows from naive mischief-maker to bearer of conscious ill‑will and who eventually brings about the battle of Ragnarok, which marks the final departure of the Gods from the immediate sphere of human‑kind.

Other lessons which support this year’s soul-wish to know themselves in time and place include ‘The Magic of Numbers’ which allows the children to experience the wonder and mystery of number puzzles and games; ‘Local Geography’ and “Local History’ places them in time and space and gives a background to this. ‘Fractions’ in Maths and ‘The Tenses’ in English grammar allow them to investigate further their contribution in time and space.

Story Curriculum	Norse Myths
Main Lessons	Form drawing English Mathematics Local Geography Local History History of Writing Human and Animal Festivals
Other Lessons	Art – Drawing, painting and crafts Music – Rounds continued, second year strings Drama – Individual speaking parts begin to develop Eurythmy Handwork – Cross-stitch Maori – Te Reo; Waiata; Karakia, Karakete

Class Five

“Where I stand in the world”

Children turning eleven years old can feel more at ease within themselves; the heart and lung ratio of 4:1 is attained and the keen observer can see that, for the normally developing child, the point of balance, the ‘crown of childhood’ is achieved.

The students need to be led to a deeper picture of the world they live, in and an experience of the ‘balance’ of the world.

The Task

To help the children attain the balance of body and soul that can come at this time as they stand strongly within themselves. To encourage movement that demands strong form and rhythm and allows the students to experience full control over their bodies and allows individuals to experience a sense of control and balance inwardly. In searching for this sense of balance, the student can experience that the world has many facets, many points where the microcosm and macrocosm meet. Without labouring the point, they will be led again and again to the experience of causality where the soul may experience an awakening to its role in the social life.

Having explored their immediate environment, we move them further back in time to study the ancient civilisations that contributed to the modern world. The students journey from myth and legend to recorded history. Ancient India is studied through The Ramayana or Bhagavad‑Gita; the life of Buddha may also be studied at this time; the stories of Gilgamesh and Eabani and Zarathustra may be told in brief before moving on through Ancient Egypt to Greece. The philosophers, poets and orators are met and often the story of Odysseus is told. The Greek epoch marks a time in the world’s evolution when human‑kind lived in balance between materialism and spirituality, the motto inscribed on the temple of Delphi ‘As within, so without’ reflects the ideal state of being for the Class Five student.

Story Curriculum	Selected stories from Ancient Civilisations
Main Lessons	History English Mathematics Geography Human and Animal Botany Festivals
Other Lessons	Form drawing – Celtic, Greek and Byzantine influenced patterns Art – Drawing, Painting, Crafts Music – Read notation, part-singing, third year strings Drama – Solo parts, Greek Chorus Eurythmy – Harmonious 8; forces within & without the circle Handwork – Read knitting patterns; slippers, socks, gloves Maori and French

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Special Character & School Charter

Guiding philosophy, mission, values and how these are implemented