London Waldorf Teacher

Course

In Forest Row

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Location

    Forest row

  • Duration

    2 Years

Suitable for: Mostly mature students are attracted to the course. The majority intend to teach, or are already in the profession. However, many parents have also found the course enriching and helpful in their task of rearing children.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Forest Row (East Sussex)
See map
Kidbrooke Park, RH18 5JA

Start date

On request

About this course

Each Steiner Waldorf school in the UK has its own interview procedure, as Steiner Waldorf schools are categorised as Independent. Though it is an advantage in some cases, it is not a statutory requirement that teachers be State qualified.

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Course programme

Course Content

The London Waldorf Teacher Training Seminar (LWTTS; Registered Charity 801842) offers a two year course, at Rudolf Steiner House in London. It is part-time, enabling those who wish to train to do so, while still continuing to fulfil other domestic or professional obligations.

The whole-day sessions are on Saturdays, with an August holiday and short breaks at Christmas and Easter. Between the first and second years at the end of July there is an intensive eight-day summer school.

Artistic activities are balanced with curriculum studies, and have been evolved with a view to furthering qualities and faculties which will stand the teacher in good stead, however unpredictable the classroom situation proves to be. If the teacher can develop an awareness of the needs of a particular class as well as for each pupil in it, the teaching skills necessary for the immediate situation, which any teacher may need in any classroom situation, will more likely to be forthcoming and the education effective for the whole human being.

Those graduating from the course have gone on to teach successfully in all departments of Lower and Upper School as well as Kindergartens and Playgroups. This has been mostly in the UK and Ireland, though some have left to teach in other parts of Europe and in cultures even further field.

The course is recognised by the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship who determine the criteria that all the UK training courses fulfil in their several modes.

Course Components

Curriculum studies are approached in two complementary ways. In the first year there is a comprehensive study of child development in relation to the curriculum appropriate to it, in all its physiological, psychological and spiritual manifestations. In the second year each subject of the curriculum is surveyed as it develops from the elementary stages onwards, the emphasis being on anthroposophical background, resource material, teaching methods and classroom organisation and management. The study of Rudolf Steiner's educational lectures continues throughout both years.

Preparatory reading may be recommended at interview. Parallel reading during the course is also required, together with regular assignments. These, in addition to the 720 contact hours, call for the kind of commitment that is in any case an essential requisite for teaching.

During the long Saturdays (0900/1 800hrs), there are three short breaks for social exchange in the supportive atmosphere of Rudolf Steiner House. Wholefood snacks and meals are available. This gives time, too, to browse in the book shop or visit the library for borrowing resource material.

Schools with Upper School teaching vacancies usually require graduates in their respective subjects. Similarly, a good general academic background is assumed for those intending to teach in the Lower School.

In both cases, this enables all curriculum sessions to concentrate on what is specifically 'Waldorf' in teaching. Hence the student is prepared for a creative teaching career rather than being drilled in how to deliver a blueprint type curriculum.

Teaching Practice

Teaching Observation and Practice are in addition to the time specified for general seminar work. Observation can be spread out over a period. Teaching practice is normally in blocks of not less than three weeks. Both observation and practice are mandatory. They are arranged in recognised Steiner or Waldorf schools.

The teacher-training certificate stating that the course has been satisfactorily completed is endorsed after a successful year's Waldorf teaching, thereby becoming a full diploma. Course completion is recorded on the basis of attendance and partisipation. There are no written tests or examinations. The necessary faculties for good teaching are assessed mainly through practical assignments, week by week. These are designed to give the student practice in necessary skills, self-confidence, the right quality of sensitivity towards his or her own performance and an awareness of the all-important process of self-development, these being what remain in the classroom situation once the possibility of peer assessment and tutor appraisal (however helpful) has passed.

For most people, successful teaching requires much careful preparation. The above requirements are minimal. For each child, childhood only happens once, yet it is the springboard for the whole of life with all its responsibilities. To undertake to become a teacher is both joyful and challenging, though nothing could be quite as joyful and challenging as teaching itself.

The course does not constitute a training for teaching in Rudolf Steiner Special Schools, for which there are separate courses and seminars. There are also specialised trainings available for those who have completed a two-year training such as this, for example in spatial dynamics, Kindergarten or Upper School science.

London Waldorf Teacher

Price on request