Early Years Open Afternoon
June 19 2020
The phase of early childhood encompasses birth to seven years. Come view the purpose-built Early Years building with its inspirational spaces designed to employ imagination, encourage meaningful play and develop creativity.
There will be a Stockmar watercolour painting activity indoors, as well as the rooms of the Kindergartens, Playgroup and Toddler Hut opened to prospective parents and children. Steiner Early Years Practitioners will be able to answer any pedagogical curiosities.
To Book: Places are limited, so it is essential to book prior to the event, by emailing:
Sarah Miller, Communications Coordinator: communications@edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk. Applications accepted all year round.
The Playgroup and Kindergartens are set within their own secure gardens, as part of a three-acres campus within a conservation area of Edinburgh. Offering a holistic co-educational education from aged 2 – 18, parents have the opportunity to choose an education, and a school, for their child’s whole school career. Parent & Child groups run every term-time morning and one afternoon, as well as a Baby Group, offering prospective parents an introduction to Steiner Early Years education.
With Early Years, Lower School and Upper School all situated on the one campus, and one class for each age group in the School (up to 25 pupils), the transition from a nursery setting to formal learning, and then again to the critical thinking and examinations years, are supported by a familiar environment in the conservation area grounds, child-firendly architecture (including C-listed buildings) and peers – both in their classmates and peers from classes above and below.
Playgroup welcomes up to ten children aged 2 and above; led by a Steiner trained Playgroup leader and assistant. Each Kindergarten group usually has between 10-16 children of mixed ages to rising seven, led by an experienced specially trained Steiner Kindergarten Teacher and Assistant. Unlike other nurseries attached to independent schools in Edinburgh, our Early Years provision welcomes children to attend less than five sessions a week, supporting the step away from home. Traditional Steiner ethos matches the age of the child to the number of sessions per week. Other children attend full-time. Older children from the three Kindergarten will begin to socialise together over their final transitioning year, building on the friendships with their soon-to-be Class 1 classmates. The pastoral teaching approach enriches the ethos of our community school. Parent(s) of a toddler have the opportunity to choose a holistic nursery setting that is far beyond childcare.
Both the Playgroup and Kindergarten are registered with the Care Inspectorate, with a Very Good rating (2019 report).
Play for young children is not recreational activity…it is thinking time. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organisation-of-ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.
James Hymes, Child Development Specialist.
It is the work of a child. Play time in a Steiner early years setting banks educational experiences that strive to instil an insatiable curiosity for learning, a consistent school life that can bridge changes in home routines and work, and friendships able to span many years of childhood, teenagehood (and beyond).
This Early Years Open Afternoon will give prospective parents the opportunity to look into the three Kindergarten rooms, taking in the abundance of natural light that floods each open space, with its homely feel, own kitchen, natural furnishings and undefined playthings. Children can explore the sandpits, swings, climbing trees and water play in the enclosed mature gardens; and explore the Playgroup space with all the natural treasures it has to offer. There will be a Stockmar watercolour painting activity indoors. Early Years practitioners will be on hand to answer any pedagogical curiosities.
Applications to the Playgroup and Kindergarten are accepted all year round. To sign up to a Parent & Child group, run every morning and one afternoon, contact toddlers@edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk to check availability.
Our early years environment is entirely nut and seed free. Other allergies are also catered for on an individual basis.
If you are scheduled to attend, please contact us in the event you cannot join us. Please note that children must be supervised at all times.
More than ever nowadays, where things are changing, where the way we interact with the world has become so much more indirect because of new technologies, where we need to cope with a completely different sensory environment, this type of education is more important than ever.”
Extract from Nobel Laureate (Neuroscience) & Waldorf graduate, Dr Thomas Sudhöf’s keynote speech, at Waldorf 100 celebrations in Silicon Valley. Still the largest and fastest growing educational movement globally, in its centenary year there are now over 1,200 Steiner Waldorf schools and almost 2,000 Kindergartens in some 80 countries based upon the principles of the internationally recognised Steiner Waldorf curriculum. Our aim is to develop responsible, free-thinking young people who can contribute to society with initiative and purpose.