About Us
Our History
Pilisborosjenő, where we are founding our school, is a picturesque village situated in the hilly area of Pilis, northwest of Budapest (15 km). The area is a nature reserve rich in forest, hills and plain. The population of the village in 2019 was around 3000 and it dynamically grows year by year. According to estimations the population is going to expand in the next few years. The active part of the population established a civic association with the aim to build a local community that could live in harmony with the surrounding natural environment while preserving the authentic rustic character of the village.
Five years ago our Association founded a kindergarten (Gyöngyharmat Waldorf Kindergarten) with 25 families and their children. In 2017 we purchased our own building and moved the kindergarten from the previous rented spaces. The renovation and restructuring works on the building required a considerable amount of financial and material effort of all of us. Two years ago, the Association and its members, families and teachers, embraced the idea to continue the work by founding a school. The principal idea behind our motivation is the beautiful natural environment that surrounds our village and the thought that this environment could provide a nurturing context to Waldorf pedagogy.
Also, acknowledging and honoring Rudolf Steiner’s approach to threefold structure of society built with spiritual freedom, equality in the legal and social world and economic cooperation and brotherhood, we understand that the school as an institution needs today to be more than a mere pedagogical organization. Schools need to be seen as institutions that actively shape and help improve the wider society.
In 2019 March, our first founders’ meeting took place and since then, every two weeks we meet to discuss work and tasks. This also involves anthroposophy-based spiritual work. As part of this, last year we completed reading Dieter Brüll’s work Waldorf Schools and Threefold Structure. This year we continue with the book of Michael Spence, Freeing the Human Spirit on how to build and manage institutions while integrating the idea of threefold structure. We believe that this spiritual work is important as it sets the bases for our everyday work on the material and physical level.
In April 2020, we completed the preparative work for the application and permission process and submitted all the necessary documents to the Ministry of Education and to the Waldorf Association in Hungary. We hope to receive all permission by the end of July.
As for the premises, we rented out from the village the old unused school building that is located in the heart of the village. It is here that we would like to realize our dream to build a school that could function as an integral part of the local social context and at the same time, that would contribute to our world in a responsible and positive way.
Our Intention
„We would like to establish a school that is based on Waldorf pedagogy and at the same time, that brings fresh approach to it. It is important that both the institution and pedagogy maintain the capacity to refresh themselves on a regular basis as a living organism. We would like to create a school that has the threefold institutional structure developed by Rudolf Steiner standing on firm principles and supported by all people involved.”
„All this would be embraced in a warm-hearted environment in symbiosis with the wider natural and social context, including people, animals and plants. Our children should be able to experience and learn the world in an environment that reminds their homes.”
„I dream about a school that offers a warm, familiar and loving ambient for children as well as adults. I imagine a community loud of laughter and singing and that is firmly based on mutual trust and loving respect towards each other.”
„Be a school that lives and works in synergy with the natural ambient and that relies on local sources when possible.”
„Our aim is to create a peaceful island where our children can remain children and where all adults work towards common objectives.”
„Motivated and honoured teachers are one of our most important scopes. Our teachers should receive an adequate income for their passion and work.”
„In distant future we would like to have created an innovative institutional model that teaches children as well as adults a new way to cooperate for the society with the aim to move our world towards a better future.”