At Byens Steinerskole, we believe in a developmentally-appropriate, a holistic approach to education, which centers the needs of our students, offering them the chance to overcome the right obstacles exactly when they’re ready. Whether it’s learning to tie their shoes, knitting their own clothing, or presenting an astrophysics thesis.
The content of the Waldorf curriculum ensures a learning journey where your child will be challenged at the right time.
The child comes to school full of expectations and confidence, and it is the school’s responsibility to maintain this confidence and love for learning.
The overall focus for the first year of school is to make the children feel comfortable in their new environment. We create a space where each child develops the courage to take small and big steps and nurtures the desire to participate in all school activities.
At school, learning is organized to provide the best basis for development, growth, and well-being, adapted to the age of the children. We believe that happy children who thrive learn best!
Well-being, practice, and mastery
The class teacher follows the class throughout the day. In this way, the children and the teacher build a good and close relationship. The children learn to listen to each other, to wait their turn and to work quietly and with concentration. Children practise being brave by testing new boundaries. They learn to be part of a group while being seen as individuals who respect each other’s differences.
The classroom teacher focuses on practising different skills, where the results often emerge over time. The process is important for the child’s learning. The sense of mastery grows as the child makes an effort and tries again and again.
Continuous rhythms and a framework for learning
The school day is structured with a continuous rhythm that is repeated every day, while tasks and exercises evolve as children develop new skills. The school day alternates between free play, concentrated work, and shared activities, indoors and outdoors. Physical activity and development are important. Jumping, throwing, catching, sliding, pulling, balancing, lifting, running, carrying, and spinning. When the child is physically active, the body can relax when reassembling in the classroom. Nail hammering, cutting, sewing, washing, baking, drawing, and painting give the pupil good body control and develop fine motor skills. Knowing your body and being able to use it for both small and large movements is important for all further learning.
At Waldorf International School, the school day in the kindergarten class is not divided into different subjects. We try to create a holistic approach to the day and to the different subjects that the day contains. Through play, independent exploration, and joint activities, the different subject areas are practiced. The children get a solid foundation for further learning and meet their subjects in a practical and sensory way.
Language comprehension
Words are associated with actions, feelings, and objects. Songs, poems, and verses in English, Danish and other languages develop language awareness and language skills. Daily storytelling, conversation, and play strengthen vocabulary and language comprehension.
Maths is all around us
The pupils use numbers in practical situations, and through both work and play, they become familiar with sizes and quantities. Counting, subtracting and adding, dividing and multiplying.
Science
Walking in the neighborhood, tree climbing, school gardening, earthworms in raised beds, beehives and insects, bird seed on feeders, “compost captains” and life in the compost, flames, and embers in the fire, fermentation processes in bread and baking.
Technology through observation and practice
Water running, wheels turning, building projects in the sand. Understanding technical tools is linked to understanding the body and its function. Seeing and experiencing what you can do generates admiration and interest in what technology can do for us. This forms the basis for later using technical tools in a sensible way. We don’t have computers.
Learning through play
Playing freely is practicing life; interaction, social movement, dialogue, and negotiation. Play is creative, challenging, and stimulating. Through play, children explore new situations, digest things they have heard or experienced, and learn from each other. They explore, challenge, discuss, and adapt. Play is the child’s own method of learning and therefore play is important at Waldorf International School. By providing students with a rich and lively first year of school, we lay the foundation for the development of lifelong learning. We offer a unique kindergarten education. We emphasize the child’s sense of achievement, thereby ensuring a lasting desire to learn. We do not learn for school, but for life!
Play is learning for life!
In the Kindergarten classroom, teaching is centered around seven areas of competence, which are trained through play, interaction, and pedagogical activities during the school day:
Now classroom teaching begins in earnest, with several different subjects, all linked together by the class teacher. One of the teacher’s tasks is to organize the lessons so that all the different subjects and topics are presented as a whole. The world is interconnected and all things are equal.
In the first grade, the pupils have subjects such as:
singing, music, movement, and flute playing every day. All pupils have their own flute which they play every day – it challenges a mastery of breathing – a good thing to learn.
German and Danish as foreign languages begin now, mainly through singing and playing games.
In class 1, we introduce the letters through pictures and stories in preparation for reading. Some children can already read by the time they come to school, but a lot of effort is made to help pupils make connections with the letters and the written word – they are guided from picture to letter.
This is a general principle behind all teaching in the early years of schooling: that the pupil is the center of the world – this is where it begins, and then the pupil goes out into the world, first in the concrete and then in the abstract.
It is this idea that lies behind the expression “You must apprehend before you can comprehend”.
In arithmetic, pupils practice all four types of arithmetic from the beginning. Again, movement is at the center: the tables are jumped and stomped – the arithmetic operations are practiced with chestnuts and sticks.
The main theme for Class 1 is fairy tales. They deal with all aspects of human nature in archetypal images and convey wisdom without moralizing. The qualities are absolute, and the phenomena of the world are connected with inner logic and truth. The characters of fairy tales, with their unambiguous and unchanging expressions, create a simple and safe image of the world.
All activities are intended to provide a framework and form for the children’s social interaction. Anything that makes the day safe and predictable strengthens social life. Everything should help to create routines, good rhythms, and good habits so that the class can become a well-functioning group that cares for each other and trusts each other and the teacher. Creating a safe learning environment is essential.
At the beginning of the school year, each student is assigned a string instrument: violin, viola, or cello. The class will eventually form a class orchestra, which is the prelude to the later, larger orchestra, the symphony orchestra, which includes other types of instruments.
The alphabet
Form drawing
Arithmetic
Nature stories and fairy tales
German
Choral music
Handwork and craft
Drawing and Painting
Beeswax modeling
Drama
Danish
From Class 2 and onwards, the subjects are divided into two main streams: subjects that deal with or unfold in time, such as history and music, and spatial subjects such as geography and crafts.
Legends and fables, two genres that are very different in quality and form, are given to the children as oral stories that are retold and written in the main lesson book. Through the legends, children meet people who struggle with their own selfish forces but end up dedicating their lives to others. The legends can awaken the child’s ideals of what a human being can become.
The animal fables depict different spiritual qualities that are free from duties and constraints, where animals live out their instincts and care for no one but themselves. They represent spiritual one-sidedness and tendencies in a caricatured and humorous way. The animal fables are thus closer to our own everyday life, and students understand that it is human qualities that are expressed through the different peculiarities of animals.
At this level, the students work with the seasons, days of the week, months, and time to make temporality a practical tool for orientating in the world and building an understanding of today and tomorrow.
The students are now able to describe in their own words the topics they are working on, both orally and in writing.
The qualities of numbers and the four types of arithmetic are practiced in a variety of ways so that all students can master them. Working with the world of numbers requires seriousness and calmness, and this is emphasized through movement and play in the classroom.
Duty is a central motif in Class 2 and the key aspect of further socialization of the class is to teach children to observe the rules of social interaction.
Fables and animal stories from around the world
Language arts
Form drawing
Arithmetic
German
Choral music
Handwork and craft
Drawing and Painting
Beeswax modeling
Danish
Drama
Flute and String orchestral instrument
The students will now experience the world and themselves through practical subjects such as blacksmithing, wool carding, spinning, and weaving. All these crafts lead to a major building project where the class works together to construct a 1:1 building at the school. The practical life in the third grade is also a good opportunity to learn more about commercial arithmetic.
It’s about giving the students a beginning understanding that they can be self-sufficient and that they can learn what they need to create their own lives. The most important thing is the ability to play in and with nature and the will to create a sense of belonging and community with other people. These motifs are also found in the Old Testament as well as in the Nordic literary canon.
The first word classes are introduced through various exercises. Based on the Old Testament, all animals and plants are named. This is how the nouns are introduced. From there it is not far to the adjectives, which describe the different qualities of things. When people have to take responsibility for their own lives, there are many things to be done. This is where the verbs come in, which make the pupils aware that they have to distance themselves from things, qualities, and actions in order to be able to name them.
In arithmetic, everything must be measured and weighed. We start with what can be measured and weighed with the body based on the old units of measurement before we introduce today’s common units of measurement.
Arithmetic and measurement
Farming
Building
Indigenous stories
Hebrew scriptures
Language arts
Grammar
Cursive writing
Gardening
German
Physical Education (Including swimming)
Choral music
Handwork and craft
Drawing and Painting
Modeling
Drama
Danish
Flute and String orchestral instrument
In Class 4, the lessons are divided into several subjects. Oral communication still appeals to the student’s imagination. The unknown world that surrounds us and the unknown within us must be conquered and mastered. On the one hand, it takes courage and ingenuity to go beyond oneself and explore the unknown. On the other hand, it requires restraint so that we can let the unknown meet us and speak for itself.
Norse mythology is an important narrative in Class 4 – an image of the students becoming ready to conquer a larger part of the world.
Learning and understanding are based on seeing and making connections between the phenomena of the world. The focus is on the natural world: plants and animals. There are new subjects such as geography and biology, where the themes are Denmark and the Nordic countries in geography lessons, while biology lessons are about humans through the study of animals. When we learn about animals, we also learn about ourselves and what distinguishes the animal’s specialized body and existence from universal human possibilities.
The phenomena in the world also tell us something about phenomena in our inner life, and by finding such relationships, we connect the new and unknown with the safe and familiar.
The new approach to the subjects stimulates a more enquiring attitude. We focus more and more on individual phenomena. The subject comes to the center and the teacher and the students study it together, working now in a more analytical and scientific way, where observing and distinguishing details from a larger whole develops into skills.
In all subject areas, both independence and productivity are required to a much greater extent than in the past.
Music activities continue with the class string orchestra and polyphonic choral singing is practiced. Music theory is integrated into music lessons. At the end of Class 4, there are individual conversations with the pupils about which instruments they wish to continue with after the summer holidays. Some of the students want to start on other instruments such as woodwind or brass instruments.
In arithmetic, the students work with fractions and decimals, calculating area, volume and density. In geometry, they draw freehand, and in English Literacy, they practice reading, spelling, writing, and grammar.
Local Geography and History
Fractions
Language arts
Grammar
Zoology
Sculpture
Danish language (including grammar)
Physical education (including swimming)
Choral music
Handwork, craft, and woodworking
Drawing and Painting
Modeling (Beeswax and Clay)
Drama
German language (including grammar)
The Greek expression “Man, know thyself!” is the guiding principle of this grade: finding processes and phenomena in the external world and discovering that they are recognizable in one’s own life and experiences is for many pupils a great “aha” experience. The joy of recognizing oneself in others gives peace of mind; the universal gives security.
The narrative focuses on the history of humanity, from ancient India, to the Persian and Egyptian cultures, and with a special focus on Greek culture – the cultural cradle of Europe. The glory of the different cultures was built on the pursuit of high ideals. By emphasizing the correspondence between ideals and achievements in the creation of cultures, we can reinforce the perception of history as a process of emancipation, with each culture leading to something new on the basis of the above.
At the same time, it is important to emphasize the basic ethical principle: inherent potential can be generated and realized through the motivation of ideals. These were the common ideals that resulted in widespread societal changes and have influenced people’s social formation right up to our times.
Through the study of plants, we can develop a greater awareness of the correspondences and relationships between life forms and their environment. The cyclical transformation of plants must be understood in the context of their environment. From the lower to the higher plants, there is a history of development that reflects the different phases also in human development: the finished plant idea, from the smallest herb to the tallest tree, is finished inside the seed.
In botany, we also find an image of the formation of society: plant life constitutes a whole with its different species and growth forms, and together they form a totality in which all are necessary, including parasites. This has transferred value to the human realm, where we see that all people are part of society and have the same rights, even if they contribute in different ways.
Geography of the Nordic Countries and Northern Europe
Ancient history and global cultures
Arithmetic (introducing factoring, decimals, and averages)
Freehand geometry
Botany
Language arts
Physical education
German
Choral music
Orchestra
Handwork, craft, and woodworking
Gardening
Drawing and Painting
Danish
Academic activities are now more purposeful and it is no longer enough to have skills, but also to know when and how to use them.
Science is at the centre of this year, with a strong emphasis on the relationship between causality and correlation. Students practise looking at phenomena in a new and very new and useful way. This means, among other things, being able to distinguish between their own ideas or feelings and the pure facts.
In physics, introduced this year, phenomena are illustrated through experiments in optics, acoustics, electricity and magnetism. Here, students face the challenge of describing their observations in an objective and accurate way. In the process of arriving at a law or conclusion, clear thinking is stimulated and practised.
In history, causality and correlation is also an important aspect in years centred on the Roman Empire and Roman law. In the periods from antiquity to the Renaissance, processes take place where changes occur as a result of what has happened in the past. Empires fall, new ones arise, great world religions emerge and have consequences for people’s living conditions. Many of the historical events that students learn about in this school year shed light on individual doubts and the difficulties of choice. These doubts are particularly evident in situations where people are unable to consider the consequences of their choices. The fate of the individual is clearly expressed in the story and this opens up an exploration of ethical issues.
The introduction to algebra involves a leap into abstraction. The ability to think abstractly allows for greater freedom and openness in cognition and is an important step towards the liberation of thought from the concrete world of senses and experience.
Advanced grammar:
self-editing; expository, descriptive, and narrative writing; conditional sentences; Latin sayings and proverbs; report writing
Language and math skills
Business math including percentages
Exact geometry
Geology
Astronomy
Physics
World geography with an in-depth focus on Europe, Africa, Asia, and North, and South America
Physical education (including juggling, circus arts and Eurythmy)
German
Choral music
Orchestra
Handwork and crafts (including woodworking)
Gardening
Drama
Fine and practical arts, including sculptural arts
In Seventh Grade, curiosity is blossoming. The students’ intense physical and mental growth propels them toward new experiences. They’re yearning for independence, but still, need guidance and structure. As they build bridges between concepts and learn to use their growing powers of judgment and discernment, we dig deeper into history and explore the cultural significance of the European Renaissance: a lasting period of change that influenced centuries to come.
During the Renaissance, the authority-based ideas and cultural constraints of the European Middle Ages were challenged by new knowledge, new art, new economics, new technology, and new relationships between different peoples. Man’s view of the world had to be recreated as science realized that the impossible was possible. The boundaries that man had challenged had to be changed, and it was individuals who challenged the prevailing beliefs at great risk. History offers great perspectives on what man can achieve, both in his own development and for the world.
The great voyages of discovery are important themes in this school year. Thinking is the most important tool for breaking the boundaries of new knowledge.
The teaching is increasingly characterized by detailed knowledge and facts throughout upper secondary education. However, it is about putting everything in context and looking at the world from a wider perspective. Seeing the greatness of the world can sow the seeds of interest and love for the world. The task is to show that life is both interesting and meaningful and therefore worth exploring and being active in. Being able to recognize oneself as part of the world and to know the world in oneself gives a sense of being at home in life, which is not a matter of course for modern people.
We emphasize this by allowing subjects to invite new discoveries and to explore the boundless: we will study the sky, we will transcend the physical limits of matter in chemistry, and we will delve into the human body. At the same time, we maintain a holistic approach to matter – whether it is the geography of the globe, the movements of the stars, the chemistry of combustion, or the infinite transformations of the triangle – the holistic view is an essential realization to see the pattern that connects all the components.
History, geography, and astronomy are closely linked this year. The map of the world has been shaped by history, and the Earth as a globe is becoming a manageable reality. Global consciousness can wake up and provide an overview and a sense of belonging: I too have an impact on the world. What I do has consequences for others and for the planet. Once you realize this, it becomes possible to redefine your role in society.
The European Renaissance
The Reformation
The Age of Exploration
Chemistry
Physics
Physiology
Geography
Astronomy
Algebra
Creative writing and poetic structure
Woodworking
German
Drama
Handwork
Fine arts
Choral music
Orchestra
Physical education (including Eurythmy)
Eighth Graders are experiencing the end of childhood. This is the time for the class to come together and reflect on their eight-year odyssey of education and friendship. This includes a class trip crafted out of the unique Waldorf curriculum, with the developmental stage of the students in mind. The trip brings together curricular content, community, and challenge to allow students to use their knowledge, test their abilities, overcome their limits, and expand their perspectives.
This year, the focus is on how new inventions in many fields have revolutionized the world and people’s lives.
The links between the Industrial Revolution, colonization, and world trade are well-suited to illustrate key dynamics in the course of history. The cultural, historical, and technological developments from 1750 to the present day have brought both advantages and disadvantages. It can stimulate both reflection and engagement and provide visions for the future, not least in light of the major challenges facing humanity.
Knowledge makes people independent of authority and gives them the tools to change their own lives and the lives of others. By communicating such values through the subjects, we want to stimulate students to shake off old authorities and seek new role models on the path to self-discovery. Students are increasingly encouraged to create and shape their own situations and to act in the world. Whether it is designing and making their own shoes or engaging in social issues, it is about finding their own direction and strength and using it to change the world for the better.
Industrial development can also be linked to the political sphere, to democratic ideals, human rights, multicultural society, etc. Schools must be clear in teaching tolerance with regard to religion, beliefs, history, art, culture, customs, and behavior. Hence we challenge our students to consider modern political and scientific history, and we put emphasis on the biographies of influential individuals and the impacts of their actions, and use them as a platform for students to consider the ways they’d like to contribute to society.
It is also a time for experimentation and young people must be given the opportunity to climb over the adult wall and run out into the world. However, learners still need ideals, characters, or imaginary figures to help them create goals that will give them ambition for their own future. The reason why ideals are so important is that they fulfill students’ need to seek a higher purpose in life. It is important to see the big picture. Life should be directed towards something worth striving for.
The students are challenged in a new way in conceptualization and conscious use of language. A deeper introduction to the different literary genres broadens the student’s understanding of what a text and a linguistic expression can be, how they can function, and what tools can be used.
This year, the aim is to get students to write, express, reason, discuss, and illustrate, in short, to learn to use the many nuances of language to convey thoughts and feelings or to evoke action.
Geometry includes Platonic solids and Euclidean geometry, while algebra focuses on quadratic equations.
French Russian, and Industrial Revolutions
European History (World War I & II to present day)
Shakespeare
Geography
Meteorology
Physiology
Chemistry
Geometry
Physics
Algebra
Grammar
Woodworking
German
Drama
Handwork
Fine arts
Choral music
Orchestra
Physical education (including Eurythmy)
It is time to bring together the threads from previous years to create a thematic overview and coherence.
We seek to stimulate the students to discover interdisciplinary perspectives and to see the whole picture. The move from an emotion-based to a thought-based judgment of the world’s cultural, religious, moral, and natural law phenomena requires that the students are given the opportunity to trust their own judgments. They can gain a new strength to express their own opinions.
This opens up conversations on difficult topics and problems, such as ethics and society, faith, and morality. In Class 9, ideas, motives, and motivations behind many historical impulses and ideologies are discussed. Ideologies such as Marxism, liberalism, Feminism, and Nationalism need to be understood in relation to their time, the ideals they sought to realize, and the problems they aimed to solve – by elaborating on such themes we can highlight the limits of the law and the moral responsibility of the individual. As there is no one-size-fits-all approach to all of life’s different situations, it requires vigilance and the ability to be solution-orientated and pay attention to detail.
This year’s theme is the history of English literature from fairy tales and folk poetry and its relationship to the major shifts in European cultural life, from the Enlightenment, through Romanticism and Idealism to Realism and Naturalism. Each of these epochs was strongly influenced by the intellectual struggles of the time, the course of history, and the political situation, but at the same time we can find traces of a gradual awakening of evidence. Both the literature itself and the biographies of the poets will inspire and awaken students to their own actions.
Art history provides not only a new insight into the passage of time and the development of humanity but also an overview and insight into how man shapes the world with his ideas.
“The capacity for forming judgments is blossoming at this time and should be directed toward world-interrelationships in every field. The world must become so all-engrossing to young people that they simply do not turn their attention away from it long enough to be constantly occupied with themselves. For, as everyone knows, as far as subjective feelings are concerned, pain only becomes greater the more we think about it.”
R. Steiner, Education for Adolescents, 1922
Modern History
History through Art
English (Tragedy & Comedy)
Geology (physical geology, Plate Tectonics etc)
Human Biology and Comparative Anatomy
Chemistry (Organic Chemistry)
Geometry (Euclidean Geometry)
Physics (fundamentals of thermodynamics)
Math: Algebra, Probability, and Statistics
Grammar
Woodworking
German
Drama
Handwork and crafts
Fine arts
Choral music
Orchestra
Physical education (including Eurythmy)