Brussels, 6 February 2026

Council meetings 2025: Building bridges and strengthening practice

In 2025, the ECSWE council met twice in person and once online, bringing together member representatives, the board and team, and guests to strengthen cooperation and shape the future of Waldorf education in Europe.

Belgium: Advancing projects, advocacy, and the 2025 workplan

The year 2025 start­ed with a coun­cil meet­ing in Leu­ven in Bel­gium from 21 to 23 Feb­ru­ary. The gath­ered 40 mem­bers and guests reflect­ed on the HERMMES project on media edu­ca­tion and were intro­duced to the HERMMES train­ings for teach­ers and par­ents. As part of the UPSWE project on sec­ondary schools, the meet­ing was joined by stu­dents of the sec­ondary Stein­er­school Leu­ven to share their thoughts on sus­tain­abil­i­ty, dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy, and oth­er top­ics rel­e­vant for young peo­ple. The coun­cil also looked ahead by launch­ing the advo­ca­cy strat­e­gy group, review­ing the 2025 work plan and oppor­tu­ni­ties for mem­ber involve­ment, and by con­tin­u­ing con­sul­ta­tion on the Com­mon Core Cur­ricu­lum Frame­work (CCCF).

Online: Reviewing progress and taking governance decisions

Meet­ing online on 9 and 10 May 2025, the coun­cil turned its atten­tion to the cur­rent state of the Wal­dorf move­ment across mem­ber coun­tries through an open exchange of expe­ri­ences. The meet­ing con­tin­ued with an infor­ma­tion ses­sion on cli­mate action and green edu­ca­tion for sus­tain­abil­i­ty and a reflec­tion on the impact of HERMMES after the launch of its results in Feb­ru­ary 2025. This coun­cil meet­ing also served as the reg­u­lar annu­al gen­er­al assem­bly, where mem­bers approved the annu­al report and accounts of 2024, con­firmed the 2025 bud­get and long-term finan­cial plan, dis­charged the board, and elect­ed new board mem­bers, ensur­ing strong foun­da­tions for the years ahead.

Latvia: Building bridges and advancing teacher training and advocacy

Host­ed by the Ādaži Wal­dorf School in Latvia, the third year­ly coun­cil meet­ing took place from 24 to 26 Octo­ber. ECSWE board and staff shared their impres­sions from host­ing an online con­fer­ence Our Green Sto­ries and the vis­it to SEKEM in Egypt, and marked our inten­tion for sus­tain­able edu­ca­tion by plant­i­ng a tree in the school yard. Pre­sen­ta­tions and work­shops at this meet­ing also includ­ed (a) new uni­ver­si­ty accred­i­ta­tion for Wal­dorf teacher train­ing devel­oped with Alanus Uni­ver­si­ty, (b) out­comes from the 2025 mem­ber calls, (c ) Euro­pean-lev­el chal­lenges of Stein­er Wal­dorf schools, (d) hands-on pol­i­cy train­ing and refine­ment of ECSWE’s advo­ca­cy strat­e­gy, (e) con­sul­ta­tion on the CCCF and its nation­al tai­lor­ing, (f) fund­ing and project plan­ning for 2026, (g) a brain­storm­ing ses­sion on the qual­i­ty of education.

Further reading