Mandulafa Waldorf Óvoda, Általános Iskola és AMI

Mandulafa Waldorf School is a Waldorf/Steiner school in Pécs, South-West Hungary. We are a small primary school with about 170 children (aged 6-14) in eight different classes. Our school building is situated in a valley in the outskirts of the city, with lots of nature around, and a good opportunity to explore the nearby hills and forests. Waldorf is a well-known system of alternative education, characterised by the love of nature and arts, a cooperative rather than competitive atmosphere, educational focus on the individual child in a supporting community, balanced development of intellectual, emotional and physical capacities. As all of the Waldorf school's the Mandulafa Waldorf School is also a methodological school. Its method is based on getting to know the human, and we would like to achieve with this method is to raise the child into a physically healthy and strong, spiritually free and pure person. It is not our task to transfer convictions to the rising generation. We need to help them in use their own judgments, their own perceptions, to learn to look at the world with their own eyes. We would like to awaken abilities and lead the children to the path of the seekers instead conveying beliefs and convictions. The children in our school comes from all part of the city of Pécs and from its neighnourhood (even from villages about 20-30 kilometres away). They learn two foreign languages from grade one on, English and Spanish. The basic idea of having foreign young people around as volunteers is to encourage our pupils to practise their English and Spanish in different everyday situations, as well as to get experience with people from other cultures. Therefore the main task of our volunteers will be to be part of our everyday life, take part in language and some other classes, excursions, afternoon activities, festivals and celebrations, talking and playing with the children. What we can offer to volunteers is a friendly, accepting, family-like atmosphere, a cooperative staff where most colleagues speak English and/or German, diverse activities you are engaged in with the children, an insight in the theory and practice of Waldorf/Steiner education.