The Hibernian School

The Hibernian School was originally a factory Training unit for apprentices in a nitrogen factory, training youths as fitters, mechanics, lathe-operators and electricians.

It was found that the essentially task focussed training as very limiting, actively discouraging initiative and creativity. It was felt that an artistic element in the training in the form of certain crafts would enhance the training. The insights gained from the initial experiment led to further additions, in terms of artistic and general educational sessions.

It was found over time that the practical artistic and academic elements supported each other and were mutually beneficial.

The apprentices thinking ability was fostered, then their artistic sensitivity and expression were stimulated. That enhanced their physical activity.

Over time the factory-training unit involved, through experiment and observation into a comprehensive school.

While, in the early stages, the Hibernian School did not use the Steiner approach as a model, it found through its own observation and experiment that the principles it discovered tallied very closely with those that Steiner advocated! So out of their own processes the teachers of the Hibernian School developed a pedagogy that evolved into a Waldorf style education.

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The Hiram Trust

- Hiram was Solomon’s architect on the Temple of Jerusalem-

The Hiram Trust was founded in England at Ruskin Mill in 1993, with the intention of bringing to teenagers an experience of working holistically with the environment, landscape, trough the medium of craft and practical skill. The teenagers would have a direct experience of working with the plant, animal and mineral kingdom, using the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. So through such crafts as pottery and metal work, woodwork and…, and basket work, leatherwork, felting and weaving, the students would first observe and then practice such crafts, learning how water, air, fire and earth are used in either processing the materials or in the transformation of the end product e.g. In willow-basketwork, pottery, metal work and so on.

The students would grow the willow for baskets, dig the clay for pottery, make the charcoal for the kiln and the forge and make the pole-lathers for the turning and so on.

Through these craft activities the teenagers learn to “think with their hands” the will of the students is lifted out of the instinctual ……. Conscious activity and mediated through an artistic sense, thinking, feeling and willing purpose are developed in concert…….

The adolescents confrontation with the real world; his/her “decent into matter” is guided, facilitated, through practical work so the adolescent recognises his/her potential to transform matter / the real world. She/he gains both a sense of confidence and relationship, preparing them for adulthood.

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Steiner-Waldorf schooling

Steiner-Waldorf schooling aims to provide a child centred, rather than target-led, integrated, balanced – with equal emphasis on academic, artistic and practical approaches of the curriculum- experience-related holistic education, that would stimulated and develop the child in the thinking, feeling sense and the sense of purpose.

In a nutshell, the two guiding principles are rhythm – in the lesson, the week, the seasons and festivals- and relationship or respect or reverence, for each other, their work and the world.

In the kindergarten years – up to the age of 7, an atmosphere of “goodness” is fostered, where the child learns, through imitation and play to relate to others in a secure and positive environment.

At seven, with the loss of the first teeth, formed learning begins. The emphasis in the years up to 13-14, and puberty, is on “beauty“.

Stories, songs, poetry, instrumental music, painting and drawing, and simple drama all play an essential part in bringing all the usual subjects to the children in a strongly artistic and rhythmical manner, underpinned by the authority of the class-teacher. Crafts and handwork also start in class 1; not just as an introduction to manual or practical skill, but also as an important enhancement of the child’s academic work, developing dexterity and confidence.

As puberty approaches, gradually more abstract concepts and themes are introduces to the class-work, and the class-teacher or guardian changes. There is more discussion and negotiation. There are opportunities to take initiatives and devise individual solutions, and explore personal approaches and attitudes to questions and situations and topics, in short, post-puberty, the student is encouraged to begin to exercise thought and judgement in dealing with questions, problems and relationships. This can help to provide some element of prospective in what is for some, the emotional turmoil of adolescence.