Our Vision and Ethos – Statement of Common Purpose

Calder Valley Steiner Education seeks to enable children to find their own strengths, to provide them with the inner resources to overcome any educational challenges they face, and to develop in them faculties which will help them to live in the world as creative free thinking individuals.

Our vision statement is “Making Time for Childhood”. 

The aim of Calder Valley Steiner Education is to deliver fully accessible high quality Early Years education in a nurturing environment based on the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum and teaching principals.

Steiner-Waldorf education is informed by a deep understanding of child development, based on the philosophy and insights of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and contemporary research and innovation that has arisen from it.  The curriculum, teaching, and social structure of CVSE are underpinned by such knowledge, which Rudolf Steiner called, anthroposophy.

The Steiner-Waldorf principles upon which the Early Years are based take account of the growing child’s physical and emotional (feeling) needs, as well as their intellectual needs.  Every aspect of the teaching, whatever the subject, is aimed at balancing these needs at each stage of the child’s development.  At the same time, each child will be enabled to unfold at their own pace.

The essential aim of Steiner education is to establish good rhythm and balance in all aspects of the child’s development.  The Steiner-Waldorf curriculum provides the child with educational challenges at such a time that they can meet them in a way that their interest in the actual process of learning (whatever the subject) is continually renewed.  In the CVSE kindergarten this approach lays the foundation for subsequent formal education and life-long learning.