Raphael House - Rudolf Steiner School

The Raphael Class is a class of currently eight students with special needs who are cared for by a team of a teacher and three teacher aids. The students range in age from nine to nineteen.

From its inception, Raphael House welcomed students with special needs into the school, making this a distinctive feature of the school community.

After a few years the Raphael Class was formed in order to accommodate the students’ educational and curative needs in their own class. While still being at the core of the school community and part of day-to-day life in assemblies, breaks and festivals, individual needs are met in a specialised setting with an adopted curriculum, materials and teaching approaches.

Curative Education is the name given to the educational practice used in the Raphael Class. It is a specialisation of Waldorf education but actually embedded within the medical section of anthroposophical work.

So diagnosis and therapeutic intervention go hand in hand with pedagogy: they inform and compliment each other.

Our timetable includes a range of therapies and also subjects such as reading, writing, music, pre-maths /maths, gardening, outings for life-skill training and handwork.

The class is highly valued and appreciated within the school as much as we reciprocate being part of the school community.