Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School

Sydney Private Schools introduces Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School in Middle Cove, for all your education and learning needs.

A vision for a Steiner school in Australia emerged first in the 1930s from a group in Castlecrag founded by the designer of Canberra, architect Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion. The group included Eric and May Nicholls, Lute Drummond, Alice Crowther, all of whose names now grace major school buildings. They were pioneers in Australia of the path developed by Dr Rudolf Steiner and known as 'Anthroposophy', which literally translated from the Greek means "the wisdom of humanity'', a non-denominational path of knowledge leading from the spiritual in the individual human being to the spiritual in the universe.

From this artistic and spiritually inspired group came the vision for the first Steiner school in Australia, a school that was to exemplify this "wisdom of humanity" but teach no dogma. It would use Steiner's educational methodology to develop a creative individualism balanced with a sense of community responsibility, all within an ethical framework.

This educational methodology was ahead of its time, especially in Australia. Today it is a commonplace for schools to foster values, the arts, a connection with Nature, and to educate the "whole child". In the early part of the 20th Century schools tended to be, with some distinguished and humane exceptions, unidimensional places of instruction in the 3 R's and sport. As a result, establishing an independent school with such a broad and over-arching vision of education was a long and arduous task.