Education and School

School is an important part of the community life for the young folks in Ballytobin. School takes place in our beautiful purpose built classrooms which nestle into our vegetable garden. In our school we work with Waldorf or Steiner methods of education which offer a rich curriculum giving equal emphasis to the work of hands, heart and head; or in other words the academic, artistic and practical realms are seen as not only of equal importance but that one supports the other in a holistic human development.

Another feature of our school is that in our younger classes children both with and without special needs are integrated, and over the years we have found this to be very beneficial for both groups of children. From adolescence onward more emphasis is placed upon the development of manual skills and an awareness of craft, so this age group in addition to their regular schooling attend what we call Training School. Of course education is for us a lifelong affair and may be either formal or informal, there are many other educational impulses at work in the community including training programmes for school-leavers, in community training for new co-workers and a state recognised course in Lifesharing.