A Rudolf Steiner Waldorf School founded in 1960
Botton Village School is founded upon the educational ideals of Rudolf Steiner. It is one small school in a worldwide movement that strives to help children mature into free independent adults. The first school was set up in 1919, in Stuttgart, Germany. There are now over seven hundred Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Schools established throughout the world that base their approach and curriculum on Steiner's ideas.
We are a full member of the Steiner Waldorf Schools' Fellowship
Protecting the right to childhood. Creating Abilities for Life
All children bring with them unique possibilities - hidden gifts that, given the chance to flourish, can help transform the world. Too often a narrow, overly intellectual education may stifle the more delicate human qualities. Of course education must prepare us to live in a society - a child needs to learn how to read, to write and to calculate - but skills should be gained as part of a larger process.
This larger process is the nourishment of the whole being of the developing child. As children grow their experience of the world changes. It is the teacher's responsibility to observe these changes closely and respectfully and to lead the child towards understanding the world in a manner appropriate to the child's age. The bond that grows between pupil and teacher over a number of years is the key element in the process of education. In this way education can be truly human-centred. Through human dialogue, and through the medium of art, the whole child can grow in a healthy way. The head, the heart and the hands are engaged, and the possibility is preserved that the growing child can evolve into a adult of independence and initiative.
