Lower School
For ages 6-14
If you are reading this you are probably already connected to our school and Waldorf Education. You may have been a former pupil of Elmfield or part of the extended Waldorf family across the world. Whatever your connection be that parent, grandparent or friend of the school we are all part of a wonderful education that should be considered a gift. However, this gift comes at a financial price which makes accessibility to Waldorf education difficult for some families, this we intend to change.
At Elmfield we offer:
Formal learning that begins at 6, with a teacher who will teach and care for the class for up to eight years
Learning brought with imaginative and powerful stories, appropriate for the age and learning tasks
Learning supported by art, rhythmic activities, singing and movement
Spanish and German taught from age 6, through conversation, games, songs and rhymes
Academic subjects developed to meet the child’s inner developmental needs and to support their growing awareness of the world around them
Teaching as an art, not a technique
Learning as an active process, involving observation and experience
The international Waldorf Curriculum
Our Main Lessons
Two hour morning blocks are taught in 3 or 4 week blocks of age appropriate subjects
Literacy and numeracy teaching are incorporated into these blocks
Learning is consolidated with recall and artistic work
Singing, music, painting, movement are used as learning tools not just skills
Children produce their own main lesson workbooks as they draw, write about and record their learning process
Science is introduced from observation and experience
This video gives an overview of life in our Lower School (ages 7 to 14). Topics covered include: our age-appropriate curriculum; Class Teachers; our approach to teaching reading and writing; an explanation of Main Lessons; what pupils need at different ages; discipline at Elmfield; our approach to teaching foreign languages; and a pupil’s experience of joining Elmfield aged 10.
More information about the Lower School is also available in our Lower School Curriculum Statement which can be found here.
Every Day is an Open Day at Elmfield
“The question to be asked is not: ‘What does an individual need to know and be capable of doing so as to fit into the existing social order?’ but rather: ‘What potential does an individual have and what can be developed in him or her?”