Colleagues at The St Michael Steiner School have been attending the Teachers’ Refresher Course in Kassel for several years, and some of us went to the Summer Course in Oslo in August 2017. These annual conferences provide an opportunity for teachers from schools across Europe to meet and work together to renew and enliven their practice.

The Kassel course focuses on one Upper School class each year, and the Oslo course offers workshops for teachers of each class, from Kindergarten to Class 8. Both include lectures on themes from Waldorf Education.

We have found these conferences thought-provoking and inspiring; every year, hundreds of Waldorf teachers go back to their schools full of enthusiasm and practical ideas for the coming year. In particular, the experience of having worked with their own colleagues from across the school, alongside those from other schools, means that they can collectively share and carry a fresh impulse, and this can only strengthen their schools.

It is this experience, and the awareness of what something similar could do for us in the UK, that has led to the realisation of this conference. We hope as many practising and student teachers as possible will join us to make this an enriching experience for everyone.

“Teachers must feel themselves supported by the whole breadth of modern society and how this interacts with the future ... we should work out of what speaks loudly and clearly to us as necessary for the development of present and future humanity. What in human developmental progress we see as necessary for our time should enter and strengthen our teaching.” RUDOLF STEINER

A theme will be addressed in a presentation at the beginning of each day, after which participants will work in groups. Workshops will be led by experienced Class Teachers and Upper School Teachers and each will focus on study of the characteristics of a particular age and the related Main Lesson themes.

Morning Presentation ThemesMonday 16th July: Amanda Bell: The Value of Normality

Tuesday 17th July: Josie Alwyn: Narrative in Waldorf Education

Wednesday 18th July: TBC: How can Waldorf Education work in the 21st Century?

Class WorkshopsWorkshop sessions will include, depending on relevance in each class:

• Child Study and Curriculum Development • Characteristics and Aims of a Curriculum for a class • Block and Lesson planning • The importance and possibilities of Recall • Stories, Storytelling and Literature • Recitation, Music and Movement as part of the Main Lesson • Form Drawing, Drawing and Painting • Crafts and Handwork • Developing Number work, Arithmetic, Mathematics and Geometry

• Writing and Reading

• Upper School groups will be focused by experienced teachers in each subject and will include human development as well as a sharing of practical, subject-specific experience and material.

• Foreign language, handwork, craft, music and movement teachers will work with all age groups and participants who are interested in learning how these subjects can be developed will be able to follow them through the classes.

Summer Preparation ConferencesProgramme