Our Beginning
The Hermanus Waldorf school was established by a group of parents who recognized the lack of nursery facilities available to the local black and coloured communities called Zwellihle and Mount Pleasant. It was a single nursery classroom on shared premises in Hemel en Aarde in 1994. The vision was to strive for inclusion and accessibility where every young child’s needs would be met regardless of race, gender, religion, or economic circumstances.
They believed that the Waldorf way of education would provide the children of the surrounding communities the badly needed sense of self-confidence to bring purpose to their lives. The kind of self-confidence to action change within themselves, that would have the kind of momentum to inspire their communities with purpose and pride.
Over the years, with the help of sponsors and philanthropic people alike, and their generosity towards this same vision, the school grew. So much so that the once a small nursery was no longer adequate and by 1997 the school found itself bursting at the seams. Through the trials and tribulations of 1998 in trying to create more space, the school successfully found a suitable donor, one of the largest donors at that time, aswell as the space it needed to grow.
In 1999, with assistance from the municipality the school attained a 99-year lease, it had now a strong 82 pupils, with three classes on it where The Hermanus Waldorf School is situated to date. The Hermanus Waldorf school only grew stronger over the years.
In 2023 the school broke ground in its exciting new
phase by adding a high school to its diversity. The Hermanus Waldorf School celebrated its 30th birthday in 2024 and has 266 pupils ranging from classes kindergarten to Grade 9.
The way we teach
As we believe the needs of children are to be met as whole human beings in such we want to provide a holistic learning environment which places value on how our kids develop.
It is of the utmost importance to us that every boy and girl is equipped to master an instrument, learn specific woodworking skills, knit, crochet, grow vegetables, and learn Eurythmy.
As such and is represented in our first-drafted logo, our approach to teaching and learning has always been child-centered. However over the years, our logo has transformed to express this more by removing the star as depicted in the first few drafts and making the child the star of our final logo.