Moray Steiner School
In the early 1980s many young children in the community were approaching school age and parents began earnestly exploring education options, including a Steiner-inspired kindergarten that ran for several years.

By 1984 Foundation parents, joined by local community friends, organised weekly meetings to discuss creating a community school. After researching many approaches, the group representing around 15 families, felt a strong resonance with the Steiner Waldorf curriculum. The Findhorn Foundation’s roots, as beneficent and beneficial as they are, do not provide expertise on child development. Rudolf Steiner’s insights have the spiritual depth and clarity we appreciated, and enabled us to network with another strong spiritual movement. Coincidently, a new community member had a deep understanding of anthroposophy and Steiner inspired education. We could (and did!) draw on her knowledge and experience. There were in residence, primary school teachers interested to study Steiner’s approach and begin the school with us. We were even able to recruit a fully qualified and experienced Waldorf teacher to support our fledgling enterprise.

These weekly gatherings led to the Moray Steiner School opening in September 1985 in the Family House at The Park. By Spring 1987 classes one, two and three moved into Drumduan House. The following autumn the kindergartens were established in the Drumduan basement.

Drumduan House, gifted to the Foundation in 1978, is conveniently located. Our intent was to create a school for the region, and the property on the edge of Forres is easily accessible from all directions.

The Moray Steiner School functioned for the first five years under a charter the Foundation already had to operate a school. The Foundation housed the first teachers and gave the school favourable rent rates. Without this support, the Moray Steiner School would not have arrived or survived. However, from the outset it was clear the school would need to become independent and we worked diligently toward that goal. All agreements were made as if the school was a separate entity and gradually it became responsible for its own affairs.

Many families have moved to the Moray region for the school, as there are few Steiner Schools in the UK in a rural setting. Not all Foundation community families send their children to the Steiner School as it requires committed parental involvement and significant fees. The Foundation, for many years, supported co-worker families with bursaries to part-pay the fees. In 2000 the Moray Steiner School purchased its home, Drumduan House, from the Foundation.

Mari Hollander