European Council of Steiner Waldorf Education

Annual Report 2022

The Euro­pean Coun­cil for Stein­er Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion is an inter­na­tion­al non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion (AISBL). It con­sists of 27 nation­al Stein­er Wal­dorf school asso­ci­a­tions, rep­re­sent­ing 802 Stein­er Wal­dorf schools across 29 Euro­pean coun­tries. Our mis­sion is to sup­port gen­uine Stein­er Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion and pro­mote free­dom in edu­ca­tion in Europe.

In 2022, our organ­i­sa­tion under­went sig­nif­i­cant struc­tur­al changes. Our Coun­cil elect­ed a new board and our office team almost dou­bled. We also relied more on our advi­sors and invest­ed more time in coop­er­at­ing with our part­ners. This enhanced our abil­i­ties to answer our mem­bers’ needs more effec­tive­ly and enabled us to boost our pro­fes­sion­al­ism in run­ning the organ­i­sa­tion. This annu­al report illus­trates these devel­op­ments with con­crete examples.

Many thanks to all our mem­bers, friends and part­ners for a suc­cess­ful and enrich­ing year.

Margareta Van Raemdonck

[email protected]
+32 2 644 00 43

Georg Jürgens

[email protected]
+32 2 644 00 43
+32 485 668 230

Highlights 2022

New board takes over the steering wheel

The reg­u­lar board elec­tions took place dur­ing the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing in Lis­bon on the 7th May 2022.

The UN recognises our contribution to the debate on digital media education

In her 2022 report, the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the right to edu­ca­tion refers to our inputs regard­ing age-appro­pri­ate media education.

Erasmus+: a three‑year project grant of €400.000 approved

By 2025, the HERMMES project part­ners will deliv­er prac­ti­cal and inter­na­tion­al­ly adapt­able mate­r­i­al for media education.

Supporting Ukrainian Waldorf schools and families in the midst of war

From the begin­ning of the war, togeth­er with the Friends of Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion, we col­lect­ed dona­tions and coor­di­nat­ed emer­gency accom­mo­da­tion for Ukrain­ian refugee chil­dren, teach­ers and families.

Association Report 2022

Launching the new strategy

New board takes over the steering wheel 

The reg­u­lar board elec­tions took place dur­ing the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing in Lis­bon on the 7th May 2022 .

ECSWE continues to deepen its international partnerships

In a series of struc­tured calls and in-per­son meet­ings, we learned more about our part­ners’ mis­sions and cur­rent challenges.

Growing team is joined by new advisors

ECSWE’s team now has five staff mem­bers and three advisors.

Financial report: €291.878 spent on projects and meetings

Due to a high­er lev­el of activ­i­ty and to the infla­tion in 2022, ECSWE clos­es the year with a neg­a­tive result of €41,908.

ECSWE applies for EU organisational grants

In Decem­ber 2022, ECSWE applied for a three-year grant of €175.000 per year by the Civ­il Soci­ety Coop­er­a­tion pro­gramme of the Euro­pean Commission.

Advocacy Report 2022

Proving to be a reliable partner

The UN recognises our contribution to the debate on digital media education

In her 2022 report, the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the right to edu­ca­tion refers to our inputs regard­ing age-appro­pri­ate media education.

The EU Working Group on Schools welcomes our expertise

As our ped­a­gog­i­cal advi­sor, Mar­tyn Raw­son gave pre­sen­ta­tions and pro­vid­ed ped­a­gog­i­cal exper­tise in the meet­ings of the Com­mis­sion’s Work­ing Group on Path­ways to School Success.

MEP Victor Negrescu hosts our policy event in Brussels

We con­tributed to the 2022 Life­long Learn­ing Week in Brus­sels with our pol­i­cy event on dig­i­tal media education.

Erasmus+: a 3‑year project grant of €400.000 approved

By 2025, HERMMES project part­ners will deliv­er prac­ti­cal and inter­na­tion­al­ly adapt­able mate­r­i­al for media education.

HERMMES partners meet in Stuttgart and form working groups

The four work­ing groups are ded­i­cat­ed to deliv­er a web­site, a frame­work cur­ricu­lum, school pol­i­cy guide­lines and train­ing cours­es for media edu­ca­tion in kinder­gartens, schools and at home.

Member Report 2022

Coordinating with 27 national associations

Three council meetings: raising member cooperation

After start­ing the year with an online meet­ing in Feb­ru­ary, the coun­cil met from 6–8 May in Lis­bon and from 14–16 Octo­ber in Brus­sels and Ghent.

Supporting Ukrainian Waldorf schools and families in the midst of war

From the begin­ning of the war, togeth­er with the Friends of Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion, we col­lect­ed dona­tions and coor­di­nat­ed emer­gency accom­mo­da­tion for Ukrain­ian refugee chil­dren, teach­ers and families.

Developing guidelines for schools on welcoming foreign students

Fol­low­ing the urgent need of Ukrain­ian pupils for a safe envi­ron­ment at our schools, ECSWE draft­ed rec­om­men­da­tions on what to keep in mind when wel­com­ing pupils who are flee­ing from war.

Supporting our members with their national level challenges

In 2022, ECSWE pro­vid­ed tai­lored sup­port to the advo­ca­cy cam­paigns in Croa­t­ia and France and pre­sent­ed its work at a teach­ers’ con­fer­ence in the Netherlands.

Curriculum colloquium brought together Europe-wide expertise

On the 15 Octo­ber 2022, ECSWE’s Cur­ricu­lum work­ing group gath­ered experts from our mem­ber coun­tries for a joint rethink­ing of a Stein­er Wal­dorf curriculum.

Erasmus+: our working group on upper schools applies for a project grant

Led by our Lat­vian mem­bers, the ECSWE work­ing group on upper schools applied for Eras­mus+ funds to form a net­work of Stein­er Wal­dorf upper school teach­ers in Europe.

Want more? Read previous annual reports!

Any questions?

Frans Ebskamp, Treasurer

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