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The Willunga Waldorf school opened in 1988 as a playgroup and is now a fully comprehensive Kindergarten to Year 12 school. We provide a complete South Australian education curriculum based on the Waldorf Steiner philosophy.
Steiner education encourages imagination, empathy and a rich emotional appreciation of the natural and social worlds as well as educating the intellect. At Willunga Waldorf School, the inner life of the child is paramount. The head, heart and hand all learn in harmony within an environment that is aesthetically pleasing.
Consequently children learn in a way that is enjoyable and interesting and which promotes a love of learning. |
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A Steiner education introduces students to all the key learning areas or branches of knowledge. At Willunga Waldorf School, children are provided with a rich learning experience covering English, mathematics, sciences, history, foreign languages, art, music and physical education. Class camps connected to specific areas of the curriculum, are held each year from class 2 to class 11.
Subjects at Willunga Waldorf School are introduced and developed in a sequence that mirrors the inner developmental changes of the growing child.
By using a rich curriculum and innovative teaching methods, teachers at Willunga Waldorf School nurture the whole child. Teaching methods engage a wide variety of senses, allowing children to learn by listening, seeing and doing. In this way, academic learning is supported by artistic and hands-on experiences that deepen understanding and generate enthusiasm for learning.
In High School, the curriculum remains comprehensive. All students continue to study all stubjects, from Physics to P.E., Drama to Blacksmithing, History to Astronomy, through to class 12. The internally assessed score achieved in class 12 is accepted by South Australian Universities as equivalent to the ATAR score. |
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Willunga Waldorf School recognises and honours diversity. We acknowledge that everyone learns differently and each student has their own talents and gifts.
Teachers stimulate academically gifted learners by providing differentiated tasks that require more sophisticated responses.
Some individual students require short or long-term remedial assistance. Willunga Waldorf School provides a learning support faculty to meet assessed needs, supporting students individually, or in small groups. |
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Primary teachers at Willunga Waldorf School remain with their class for most of the primary school years, drawing on specialists for music, Japanese, movement, physical education, craft, woodwork and gardening classes.
Teachers are responsible for forming a close bond with each child and family in their class. The continuity of teacher brings unity to the curriculum, linking the various disciplines and gives teachers a long-term perspective on how each child responds to the curriculum.
This ongoing relationship allows children to feel secure within the social group of their classroom.
During high school years at Willunga Waldorf School, a class guardian is responsible for pastoral care of students, with enthusiastic and dedicated teachers supplementing and extending the students’ education in a broad range of specialist subject areas.
The comprehensiveness of the curriculum requires each student to tackle areas they would normally ‘choose’ to avoid. Skills and understandings emerge that might otherwise remain undiscovered or lost.
There is no streaming at Willunga Waldorf School: students learn with others who are more capable and less capable in any given area. They learn to support each other, make allowances for each other and celebrate their gifts and the diversity of the class community.
The inclusion of practical and artistic subjects right through the school builds a ‘can do’ mentality. Students learn to feel capable of working in the world, transforming the world and serving others. |
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