Brussels, 15 December 2025

Offering our members tools for further development

ECSWE continues to grow its members’ network by investing in collaboration, organisational development, and practical capacity of national Steiner Waldorf associations across Europe.

Rethinking quality development of schools and school associations

Capac­i­ty build­ing activ­i­ties in 2025 focused on equip­ping our mem­bers with prac­ti­cal and adapt­able tools. The ECSWE qual­i­ty devel­op­ment work­ing group began devel­op­ing an online toolk­it to sup­port schools and fed­er­a­tions in strength­en­ing their own qual­i­ty process­es. In par­al­lel, the struc­tur­al sup­port work­ing group gath­ered small­er nation­al asso­ci­a­tions to pilot an asso­ci­a­tion man­age­ment tool­box, cov­er­ing strate­gic direc­tion, annu­al plan­ning, and finan­cial man­age­ment and ground­ing these tools in peer exchange and real-life contexts.

Seeking shared understanding between teachers and parents

Through col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Euro­pean Net­work of Stein­er Wal­dorf Par­ents in joint online for­mats, we cre­at­ed spaces for dia­logue on shared respon­si­bil­i­ty for children’s edu­ca­tion and well­be­ing. The Decem­ber webi­nar It Takes a Vil­lage exem­pli­fied this approach, bring­ing togeth­er expe­ri­ences of par­ent-teacher col­lab­o­ra­tion from Nor­way, Italy, and the UK and rein­forc­ing the val­ue of long-term coop­er­a­tion between schools, par­ents, and associations.

Preparing members for policy engagement and change

ECSWE also invest­ed in build­ing mem­bers’ con­fi­dence in pub­lic and pol­i­cy engage­ment. Pub­lic affairs train­ing mod­ules in 2025 com­bined struc­tured input with prac­ti­cal exer­cis­es based on cur­rent Euro­pean pol­i­cy files. By work­ing through real exam­ples, par­tic­i­pants gained insight into pol­i­cy process­es and prac­ti­cal tools that can sup­port informed engage­ment at both Euro­pean and nation­al lev­el. Togeth­er, these activ­i­ties helped pre­pare the net­work for future chal­lenges and opportunities.