Dear All,
Welcome to our first newsletter of the school year. The school is now fully up and running and, in many ways, Michaelmas feels like the point at which we have all truly arrived and settled into the rhythm of the new year.
Thank you for everything you contributed to our Michaelmas celebrations, from plants and dragon breads to the harvest collection, as well as all the work on the day. It was a wonderful way to come together as a community to see the play and it sets our intentions for the year ahead with the will to work.
The summer already seems like a distant memory, but one of the main developments over the holidays was the installation of the new climbing frames in the Kindergarten. The equipment was largely funded by St Paul’s Community Group, which means that, through your support, you have all played a part in making it possible. The children’s play, which we know to be the work of childhood, has been wonderfully enriched by the new structures. We are now turning our attention to the Class I and II playground and beginning to imagine what a new climbing frame would mean for the youngest pupils in the school. Recently a mud kitchen has been built by class III and everyone has been busy planting and looking after the flower beds.
This year is also a particularly special one for our Kindergarten. The first Kindergarten at St Paul’s opened 30 years ago, and this autumn we are celebrating the centenary of Waldorf Kindergartens. We are honoured that the UK centenary conference will be held here at St Paul’s.
As part of this celebration, we are very pleased to invite all St Paul’s parents to a talk by Philipp Reubke, the conference’s keynote speaker, on Friday 13th at 4.30pm.
Philipp Reubke was a Waldorf pupil in Stuttgart and Berlin and studied philosophy, literature and education in Germany and France. He went on to work as a Waldorf teacher in France from 1995 until 2017 and has spent many years working with international Steiner Waldorf coordinating groups. Since 2021, he has been co-chair of the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, alongside Constanza Kaliks.
His talk, “How Waldorf Education Can Meet the Needs of the Children of Today”, is for all parents, across both the Kindergarten and School. It promises to be a valuable opportunity to reflect on what Waldorf education offers children growing up in the world today, and we very much hope you will be able to join us.
Both the School and Kindergarten were described in glowing terms in our recent ISI inspection report. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to read it, I warmly encourage you to do so. It offers a wonderful reflection of the distinctive education our children experience at St Paul’s and of the community that makes it possible.
Warm wishes, Anna
