A three-year, EU-funded, Comenius Project to design a programme of study at Masters level for colleagues in Steiner Waldorf schools in Europe has completed its work. In early September, representatives of the five partner-institutions – from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK – and the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education met in Devon for their last meeting. Practical details relevant to UK teachers and staff are outlined below.
As the Project comes to an end, the hope and intention is to give birth to a Programme – a programme that is flexible, accessible and suited to working teachers and school staff who are interested in exploring their work with fresh and enquiring minds, with their pens or keyboards at the ready.
As Project members gathered in Exmouth in the late summer sun, we experienced a sense of friendship and achievement that we had accomplioshed our task, and an expectation that a new Programme is ready to be launched under its own sails. As the meeting progressed, we were informed that the University of Plymouth has appointed a European Masters Project Manager - an indication of the potential which the University recognises in this work. A highlight of the meeting came when the University’s Academic Committee approved two new modules in special educational needs, presented by Nico de Bruin, our Dutch colleague from Helicon Hogeschool. The members of the academic committee were treated to a profound and inspiring presentation of the four-fold picture of the human being, which offers a pathway for medical practitioners and the three-fold picture of the human being, which provides a basis for educational work and practice. It was stressed that these pictures offer fundamental perspectives which contribute to a living knowledge and understanding of children who face difficulties in their health and development.
Shortly after the presentation and with the modules having received formal University approval, Nico de Bruin was taken ill and rushed to hospital in Exeter. To our great sadness and dismay, our Dutch friend and colleague, a man who showed a tender and warm heart in everything he did, died of heart failure two days later.
On the final day of our meeting, Project members travelled into Cornwall. In thick mist and heavy clouds, we made our way to the very edge of the country.
As the grey evening light faded, we came to Merlin’s cave at Tintagel, where we able to walk on the shore and watch the waves crashing into the rocks as we tried to grasp the precious qualities of life and friendship, in the midst of the natural power of the elements and the majesty of life’s rhythms. And so, this first part of a European Waldorf endeavour ended at one of the mystery centres of Western Europe and we said our farewells to each other across more divides than any of us had imagined at the week’s beginning.
Trevor Mepham
(Project Coordinator)
