Brussels, 5 March 2026

Leaving a mark on the European Commission’s work on schools

Our pedagogical advisor, Prof. Dr Martyn Rawson represented ECSWE in the European Commission working group on Pathways to School Success for the full four-year mandate, from 2021 to 2025.

Presenting our take on social and emotional learning in school

Prof. Dr Mar­tyn Raw­son was asked by the group’s coor­di­na­tors Annal­isa Can­noni and Oana Fele­can to give a pre­sen­ta­tion on social and emo­tion­al learn­ing in Stein­er Wal­dorf schools to the mem­bers of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Work­ing group on Path­ways to School Suc­cess, that com­pris­es main­ly of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from edu­ca­tion min­istries of EU mem­ber coun­tries. In the pre­sen­ta­tion, held on 10 March 2025, Prof. Raw­son explained the val­ue of direct expe­ri­ences, the pow­er of nar­ra­tives sur­round­ing indi­vid­ual and group expe­ri­ences, the impor­tance of devel­op­ing inner strength and a sense of coher­ence, and the role of didac­tics in enabling social and emo­tion­al learn­ing in schools. Fol­low­ing this the­mat­ic pre­sen­ta­tion, mem­bers of the group draft­ed and pub­lished a brochure on Social and emo­tion­al learning.

Participating in peer-learning activities of the European Commission

In May 2025, the work­ing group on Path­ways to School Suc­cess took part in a the­mat­ic peer-learn­ing activ­i­ty in Ire­land. Host­ed by the Irish edu­ca­tion min­istry, mem­bers of the work­ing group expe­ri­enced and dis­cussed the impor­tance of parental and learn­er involve­ment in deci­sion mak­ing and school com­mu­ni­ty build­ing. Our rep­re­sen­ta­tive in this meet­ing was Christi­na Lærke Vil­helm­sen who became the direc­tor of the Dan­ish Stein­er school asso­ci­a­tion through her involve­ment as a par­ent. In June, our sus­tain­abil­i­ty coor­di­na­tor Haj­na Tijssen par­tic­i­pat­ed in anoth­er peer-learn­ing activ­i­ty, organ­ised by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion work­ing group on Learn­ing for sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The activ­i­ty took place in Slove­nia and focused on out­door education.

Publishing policy briefs on pathways to school success

The Euro­pean Com­mis­sion work­ing group on schools fin­ished its four-year man­date in Decem­ber 2025. Fol­low­ing the end of its activ­i­ty, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion col­lect­ed and pub­lished pol­i­cy briefs on nine top­ics relat­ed to the work­ing group’s aims: Whole-school and whole-sys­tem approach­es to school suc­cess, Ear­ly iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of learn­er needs, Ped­a­gog­i­cal approach­es for inclu­sion, Social and emo­tion­al learn­ing, Nur­tur­ing edu­ca­tion­al excel­lence, Local gov­er­nance for inclu­sion, Authen­tic learn­er engage­ment, Key role of par­ents, and A sys­temic approach to teacher well­be­ing. These resources aim to sup­port edu­ca­tion min­istries and their agen­cies in ensur­ing that every pupil in the EU can find the best way for them­selves to learn and grow. Stein­er Wal­dorf schools are sup­port­ive of this aim and com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing exact­ly this kind of envi­ron­ment for their pupils.

Further reading