School
THE WALDORF APPROACH
Throughout each year, children encounter a stimulating depth of experiences in the arts. This includes movement, Te Reo, handwork (knitting, stitch work, sewing), painting, modelling of wax or clay, music (recorder playing, singing, ensemble), drawing, games and drama. The arts are integrated into the entire academic curriculum including mathematics and sciences.
The Waldorf method of education through the arts awakens imaginative and creative powers in children, bringing vitality and wholeness to their learning. All classes from Class 3 have an outdoors camp experience.
OVERVIEW OF CLASSES
Main lessons include language and arts, science, maths, history and geography. Incorporated into the main lesson are music, poetry, movement and concentration activities while drawing and drama allow the child self expression.
Class 1 (7 years) Main Lessons
Fairy tales, folk tales and nature stories; pictorial introduction to letters; form drawing; preparation for reading through writing; qualities of numbers; introduction of the four processes in arithmetic; lower multiplication tables.
Class 2 (8 years) Main Lessons
Legends, animal fables, and stories of saints; continued work in writing, reading and arithmetic; cursive writing introduced; form drawing.
Class 3 (9 years) Main Lessons
Stories from Old Testament history; composition and grammar; study of practical life (farming, housing and associated industries); higher multiplication tables; weight, measure and money; learning to read music.
Class 4 (10 years) Main Lessons
Norse mythology and sagas, Maori mythology, letter writing, language arts (composition and spelling), local geography and map making, study of the animal kingdom, arithmetic and fractions.
Class 5 (11 years) Main Lessons
Ancient history and myths through Greek times (Indian, Persian, Egyptian); New Zealand geography related to vegetation, agriculture and economics, botany, decimals, ratio and proportion, language arts.
Class 6 (12 years) Main Lessons
Roman and medieval history; geography; physics (electricity, magnetism); elementary chemistry; physiology (blood and muscles); algebra; geometry; business maths (profit and loss); language arts.
Class 7 (13 years) Main Lessons
Renaissance, art & science (Fibonacci), the reformation of the church, world geography, health & nutrition, chemistry and painting
ENROLMENT
Eligibility for enrolment in the Tauranga Waldorf School, as with all NZ State Integrated Schools, occurs on the basis of a parent’s relationship to the school’s special character. Providing a process to establish this relationship is the responsibility of the school’s Proprietors, the Waldorf Schools (Bay of Plenty) Trust, who hold the school’s integration agreement with the Crown.
Read a summary statement about the school’s special character here and a description of what is involved here.
In providing processes for prospective parents to establish the required preferential enrolment status, the school’s proprietors acknowledge various pathways.
Read here if you are interested in exploring enrolment with prior exprience via a Waldorf/Steiner school or kindergarten, and particularly the Rose Ring Kindergartens.
Read here if you are interested in exploring enrolment from a mainstream or other educational setting.
NON-PREFERENCE ENROLMENT POLICY
- The early childhood and primary school sections of our school operate as an integrated unit with enrolment in the school routinely occurring in the last year of kindergarten on or around the age of six when children are legally required to be on a school roll.
- Before their child’s 6th birthday parents are required to complete a Special Character Preference process. This process is outlined in kindergarten and school policies. The children continue to be educated in the kindergarten setting as per a Ministry of Education Memorandum of Understanding.
- The school operates with a maximum roll of 225 students and one class at each year level. Should a place become available in any class, parents of children registered on the waiting list for that class – having established their priority as per the waiting list procedure – will be approached to undertake the Special Character preference process and after completion enrolment may proceed.
If your enquiry is for a school aged child (6-13)
- Please e-mail enrolmentofficer@waldorftga.nz. On receipt of your e-mail, we will forward to you an enrolment enquiry form.
- On receipt of your enrolment enquiry form, we will notify you if there is a place available in the relevant class.
- If a place is available, you will be invited to attend a meeting with senior staff, who will introduce you to the school.
- If, after this step, you wish to proceed with enrolment, you will be invited to interviews/meetings as needed/required to help you establish enrolment preference for your child.
- Upon advice from the school, and with input as to your intentions, the Waldorf Schools (Bay of Plenty) Trust will confirm or decline the enrolment preference for your child. If confirmed, a starting date will be agreed.
- Parent and child begin orientation process with teacher of relevant class or kindergarten.
The process can take several weeks and is subject to availability of parties involved as well as available class positions
HOURS OF ATTENDANCE FOR SCHOOL ARE 9.00am – 3.00pm
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
We welcome international students to our school and encourage anyone interested in enrolling from overseas to take a look at some of the Waldorf and Steiner School websites to find out more.
We are able to take any age of child accompanied by their parents/caregivers. The process for enrolment of international students may be sent to you on application. Please e-mail enrolmentofficer@waldorftga.nz for more details
POLICY AND PROCEDURE
School policies & procedures
