Mount Barker Waldorf School

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Waldorf/Steiner Schools offer an education that is alive, full of wonder, and strives to awaken the young person's inner life. It develops the student's capacity to learn, be open to life, and develop a sense of meaning and purpose. Mount Barker Waldorf School is one of the leading Steiner schools in Australia and offers a full Waldorf curriculum from Kindergarten to Year 12. We are situated on expansive grounds in a peaceful, semi-rural environment on the outskirts of the Mt Barker township in the Adelaide Hills, just over half an hour's drive from the city.

Mt Barker Waldorf School has its primary aim to provide an outstanding education based on Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy philosophy. We consider that the tasks of education can be best accomplished in a community that:

• fosters healthy development in each child.
• Awakens' social awareness and respect for humanity
• help students develop their skills and values to fulfill their unique destiny and find their place in the world.

At Mt Barker Waldorf School, we aim to:

• provide an education of the highest quality so that our students become balanced adult individuals, having developed a clarity of thinking, sensitivity of feeling, and strength of will
• inspire within the students a love of learning, a morality which strives for goodness, an appreciation of beauty, and a pursuit of truth
• inspire in our students a sense of wonder at and a healthy, positive connection to the world, arising from a knowledge of and responsibility toward themselves and each other
• provide our students with values which will enable them to find meaning and purpose in their life
• provide our students with the knowledge, skills, and means to work competently in the world
• inspire a sense of the spiritual dimension of life as well as a healthy respect for the physical dimension

In 1919 Emil Molt, owner of the Waldorf Astoria factory, invited Rudolf Steiner to help establish a school in Stuttgart, Germany, for his employees' children. Steiner took this opportunity to demonstrate how a curriculum and teaching methods could address the growing child's needs. Such was the success of this venture that his ideas spread rapidly throughout Europe and have since radiated across the world. There are now over 900 Waldorf schools in more than 45 countries, and the number continues to grow.

More than ever, education faces the challenge of preparing young people for life in a complex and continually changing world. Waldorf Schools take up this challenge by offering an education that is alive and full of wonder and strives to awaken the young person's inner life. It develops the student's capacity to learn, be open to life, and develop a sense of meaning and purpose.

A non-competitive environment allows children to learn and develop at the pace they need and protects them from the pressure to enter the adult world too quickly. Being part of a class community that journey together through the school awakens individual capacities and social awareness. So not only is the individual's development fostered, but students are also encouraged to develop genuine regard and respect for humanity and service to others.

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