|
Welcome to the Hereford Waldorf School |
 “It is important that we discover an educational method where people learn to learn, and go on learning from life throughout their whole lives.”
- Rudolf Steiner
Our warm & friendly school is located in rural Herefordshire about 6 miles south of the city of Hereford. We offer Steiner education to around 270 pupils from ages 3 to 16 years old (Early Years and Classes 1 - 10).
New to the Hereford Waldorf School?
|
|
 We've recently received the results for the Ofsted inspection carried out on the 17th/18th March.
The report is very positive, and we're particularly pleased with the following observation:
“The quality of provision for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. Pupils generally enjoy school greatly and this is reflected in their good attendance and enthusiastic attitudes. Their moral and social awareness is very good due to the exceptional care taken by teachers to show respect for pupils’ views and provide the space to discuss issues deeply.“
The Ofsted Inspection page can be found here, and a PDF of the full report can be downloaded here.
|
|
From September 2008, Hereford Waldorf School is set to become the
Hereford Steiner Academy – the first state-funded Steiner Waldorf
school in the UK.
There will be a number of new posts to fill, and at present we have vacancies for trained and/or experienced Waldorf teachers.
Click here for the current list of vacancies.
|
|
|
Academy Update (13th March) |
(Click here for previous Academy Updates)
On the 11th March we were informed that the appeal against the refusal of our planning application had been dismissed.
This is very disappointing news, but we have been assured by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) that we can still proceed with plans to build a new school hall (including classroom and administrative spaces) based on an existing planning permission granted in 2004 before we began the Academy Feasibilty Study in 2005.
We are therefore still on track and very excited about opening as the first publicly funded Steiner Academy in September 2008.
|
|
As part of her research project for the Emerson College course ‘Education as an Art’, Kate Robertson would like to invite past pupils to take part in a short survey.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
 The school Travel Plan is now complete and available to download.
The Hereford Waldorf School has been established in Much Dewchurch for
nearly a quarter of a century and currently provides Steiner education
for 270 pupils from 3-16. Like many rural schools in the county, pupils
come from a wide area and often have to travel a long way to get to
school.
The proposal to become an Academy will increase pupil places to 330.
This will lead to an associated increase in the amount of car trips to
the site, although the increase will be negligible compared to the
existing levels of flow on the B4348.
The objective of the Travel Plan is to reduce the number of car
journeys made by staff and parents to and from the school. The target
is to reduce the number of cars journeys to and from the school by 10%
over the next 3 years.
|
|
|
An Overview of the Hereford Steiner Academy Project |
 Each Steiner school is unique and yet shares core values and
inspirations. In the UK this commonality is expressed through a
national organisation – the Steiner/Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF) – which offers advice and support to its member schools.
For many years the UK Steiner schools movement has dreamt of achieving
better recognition and wider acceptance, and over the years various
attempts have been made to explore how Steiner schools might be State
funded.
When New Labour came to power in 1997, the moment
seemed right to begin a more focused lobbying effort for public
funding. The case received a sympathetic hearing and in March 2000 the
Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett, announced the
intention to look at how Steiner schools might join the maintained
sector. In the following July the then Minister for Schools, Estelle
Morris, instigated efforts to establish three pilot voluntary-aided
Steiner schools.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Eco-School Registration with ENCAMS |
 We are now registered as an Eco-school with Environmental Campaigns (ENCAMS).
The Eco-schools programme provides a simple framework to enable our school to look at how we work and how to become more sustainable.
They also run an award scheme and if we provide evidence of working towards a greener future we can apply for these. We already fulfil many of the requirements and it will not be long before we are awarded “the green flag” Considering the education we offer, this can only raise our profile and put us firmly on the international map of taking environmental issues seriously.
Following up a request from some of the teachers, we talked about the environmental impact of the school on our last inset day and some of the areas discussed were: recycling, energy , transport, pupil participation, school grounds, biodiversity, healthy living, water and litter.
|
|
Read more...
|
| |
|
 The STEINARt
exhibition was a great success this year; the work, when displayed together, truly was a celebration of
the talented members of our community.
A huge thank you to the
artists who donated their work, without them such an event is just not
possible. Thanks also to the organisers of the event, and all those who gave their time and energy to make this possible.
The website continues to live on, so if you missed out on the piece you
really wanted you can keep up to date with their next show.
Click here to visit the STEINARt website.
|
|
Additional Academy information is available to school parents in the Downloads and Discussion areas.
To access these areas please Register with the site.
Please note that, due to a recent deluge of inappropriate postings, submissions to the discussion forums have been suspended until further notice.
|
|
|
