Brussel, 17 April 2025

Coming together to learn, plan, and grow

Two in-person and one online Council meetings of the ECSWE members in 2024 served as spaces to reconnect, exchange opinions, and engage in joint activities.

Strengthening the role of member representatives in ECSWE

Online coun­cil meet­ing, 16–17 Feb­ru­ary, 2024

The first coun­cil meet­ing of the year focused on clar­i­fy­ing expec­ta­tions and respon­si­bil­i­ties of indi­vid­u­als who rep­re­sent their nation­al asso­ci­a­tion of Stein­er Wal­dorf schools in ECSWE. The rep­re­sen­ta­tives reflect­ed on their com­mit­ment to be the bridge between the schools in their coun­try and the joint Euro­pean-lev­el efforts to sup­port their schools, teach­ers, and pupils. They also explored how their role involved both lis­ten­ing to nation­al lev­el con­cerns and con­tribut­ing to shared solu­tions across the network.

Exploring funding models for Steiner Waldorf schools in Europe

Coun­cil meet­ing in Kla­gen­furt, 3–5 May, 2024

In Kla­gen­furt, mem­bers explored dif­fer­ent fund­ing mod­els for Stein­er Wal­dorf schools, start­ing from schools with sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic fund­ing, such as in Slove­nia, Nor­way, and Ger­many, coun­tries with mixed fund­ing, like Hun­gary, and pri­mar­i­ly par­ent-fund­ed approach­es, such as in Aus­tria and Italy. Next to that, our part­ner organ­i­sa­tion Friends of Wal­dorf Schools pro­vid­ed prac­ti­cal guid­ance on how nation­al asso­ci­a­tions can apply for a sub­li­cence of the Stein­er Wal­dorf trade­mark in their countries.

Promoting sustainability, diversity, and project design

Coun­cil meet­ing in Brus­sels, 12–13 Octo­ber, 2024

Fol­low­ing a joint meet­ing with INASTE on 11 Octo­ber, the coun­cil met in Brus­sels to advance work on sus­tain­abil­i­ty, diver­si­ty, and project design. CO2ero intro­duced cli­mate assess­ments in schools as a tool to pro­mote a whole-school approach to green edu­ca­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Mem­bers expressed their opin­ions on diver­si­ty as the basis for the review of ECSWE’s diver­si­ty state­ment and they co-cre­at­ed project ideas for future Eras­mus+ and foun­da­tion-fund­ed ini­tia­tives, con­tribut­ing active­ly to the devel­op­ment of ECSWE work plan for 2025.

Further reading