Thank you to Mark Phillips for his leadership over the past few weeks. It is much appreciated. 

Last week saw the end of the Steiner Teacher Training course. A graduation event was held for all the participants. Mark led that course which ran over the past 2 years. He coordinated a varied number of tutors and speakers as part of the comprehensive programme, which was academic, practical and spiritual. Graduates come away knowing about the nuts and bolts of the Steiner Curriculum, understanding more of anthroposophy and what lives behind the curriculum and they will have significantly developed capacities within themselves via the creative arts.

Thank you Mark for this vital work in ensuring there are evolving groups of people who understand and potentially will teach the curriculum to our children. Graduates of the teacher training courses that our school has run over the last three decades are teaching at schools across WA and further afield. It is a wonderful gift that we can offer to the world. 

Mark shares a few final thoughts, please see below.

Bruce Lee
School Administrator

From Mark

Steiner Education Australia – Annual Newsletter 2024

I was pleasantly surprised with the opening article of the recently arrived Annual Newsletter from Steiner Education Australia (SEA), written by Andrew Hill the CEO, it is titled:

“You Steiner people are the Aboriginals of the Universe.”

It’s a quote from the “late and great First Nation’s Elder Burnum Burnum” who “became involved with the Steiner movement in the 1990’s.”

Andrew describes beautifully how this remarkable man saw in Steiner Education something that resonated deeply with the spirituality of First Nation’s people; “the blending of matter and spirit, immersion in Nature with sustainable use of technology, and the inner wisdom of First Nations with an outer scientific understanding of the world.” He writes how Steiner Education honours different “ways of knowing” where the gifts of logical reasoning and abstract concepts are valued equally with imagination and creativity, underpinned with a reverence and wonder for the gifts of Nature.

Burnum Burnum came to Perth in the early 1990’s and visited a very new and growing Perth Waldorf School. Anne Williams, one of the pioneering founders of our school, remembers him wearing his possum shawl and sharing the cultural richness of stories to the school community in the Playgroup Room. With his erudite manner and a flowing white beard he brought the First Nations culture to the imagination of our community.

The SEA Annual Newsletter (available from the PSC office) is a great read and a delightful way of deepening your understanding of Steiner Education.

Mark Phillips