We asked some of our past and current parents to share their experiences of our school.
“We’d been of a tour of local Early Years settings, and were shellshocked at how formal and demanding they seemed. Calder Valley Steiner was our last school to visit, and the second we stepped inside the kindergarten, we knew that we’d found the right place.
My daughter has been transformed from an anxious, under-confident wallflower to a girl who climbs trees, chats happily to new people and overflows with observations about the world. She comes home singing seasonal nature rhymes, telling tales of building fairy houses in the forest and making mud pies with her friends, and her teacher Angie is her favourite person in the world. She complains at the weekends because she still wants to go in!
The staff know her almost as well as we do, and at every stage have been able to offer personalised, child-centred care and education to help her develop in her own time and to her own strengths.
If we’d chosen one of those mainstream provisions back then, she’d be sitting in uniform at a desk each day now and missing out on all this creative and social learning. Calder Valley Steiner School makes childhood rich, nurturing and magical – and even my headteacher-and-OFTSED inspector Mother-in-Law agrees!”
“My eldest son was at Calder Valley Steiner School between the ages of 3 (kindergarten) and 11. I couldn’t have imagined a more nurturing and fulfilling environment for him to be in; there was not a single day when he did not want to go into school.
I firmly believe it was a fundamental ingredient in him becoming the healthy, happy, confident and considerate boy that he is now. His transition at 11 into secondary school was entirely smooth and easy. He was immediately valued by his teachers for his ability to think for himself (rather than simply repeat what he had been taught) and consequently in his first year was placed in the AMA (‘Academically Most Able” a debating society comprising the top five academic pupils in each year).
His younger brother has been at Calder Valley Steiner School for the last 5 years and is showing a similar level of confidence and ability, a great deal of which I attribute to his school. I would highly recommend the Calder Valley Steiner School to any parent wanting to offer their child a healthy, loving and fulfilling education.”
“My eldest daughter started at the school when she was 4 years old, she was one of the pioneering class and still remains in the Waldorf Hub at present. She has stayed with the same teacher throughout her education which has been amazing.
My daughter has developed into a strong, inciteful, educated teenager who enjoys and is confident in her life and in her current schooling. My daughter’s teacher has been an integral part of her life and development, she is an amazing person and teacher and is an inspiration to the children she teaches (and indeed the parents). From an academic perspective, my daughter is secure in her learning and is of an appropriate educational level for her age. I would highly recommend Steiner education and Calder Valley Steiner School as a place to educate your child and support them in becoming an inspired confident child.”