Brussels, 20 February 2026

Ireland: ECSWE’s newest member

A great welcome to the Irish Waldorf Education Association into our European network! ECSWE now counts 28 national associations among its members.

The Irish Steiner Waldorf movement is now represented in Europe

Fol­low­ing the approval by its gen­er­al assem­bly on 25 Octo­ber 2025, the Euro­pean Coun­cil for Stein­er Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion is pleased to wel­come the Irish Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (IWEA) as a full mem­ber. Ire­land had been rep­re­sent­ed through Wal­dorf UK until their join­ing, through close coop­er­a­tion between Irish and UK Stein­er Wal­dorf schools. Estab­lish­ing their own nation­al Stein­er Wal­dorf asso­ci­a­tion and the ambi­tion of hav­ing their own rep­re­sen­ta­tion in ECSWE were the key devel­op­ments that brought about this very wel­come change.

The Irish association represents nine Steiner Waldorf schools

The Irish Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion is a non-prof­it asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sent­ing Stein­er Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion in Ire­land. It brings togeth­er twelve mem­bers, includ­ing nine schools, two teacher train­ing providers, and one gov­ern­ing body for state-recog­nised schools. IWEA is rep­re­sent­ed in ECSWE by its chair Jayne Enright and by a board mem­ber Alan Dick­ey, who serves as her substitute.

New national representatives from Hungary, Poland, and Spain

Ire­land’s full mem­ber­ship coin­cides with renewed engage­ment across ECSWE, with new nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives recent­ly join­ing the coun­cil. Ákos Kökéndy is the new rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Hun­gary suc­ceed­ing Andrea Soós, Agate Wejtko is now rep­re­sent­ing Poland after Krzysztof Kuśnierz’s man­date end­ed, and Tere­sa de Loren­zo is tak­ing over the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Spain after Olga de Jenaro. Togeth­er, these devel­op­ments reflect a strength­en­ing and evolv­ing Euro­pean net­work, unit­ed by a shared com­mit­ment to coop­er­a­tion and dia­logue across Stein­er Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion in Europe.

Further reading