Family who've been at school for 50 years
FELIX LOWE
WATCHING your child start school for the first time is a special day for any parent.
But when little Michael Maclean walks through the school gates on Wednesday it will be a momentous occasion for the entire family.
The six-year-old will be the 24th Maclean to attend Rudolf Steiner School, in Morningside, continuing a family tradition that has stretched back 50 years.
Since 1956, not a year has passed when the name did not feature on one class register or another.
Michael will be joining six cousins, Sophia, Lisbeth, Christina, Herman, Olga and Brenda, and his step brother, Duncan, who are already at the school.
"I am very excited to be starting in Class One," said Michael. "The teachers are nice and I will be at school with my cousins, which will be fun. I am not nervous about Wednesday and am lucky as I live near to the school."
Michael is keeping alive a tradition started by his uncle Christian Maclean.
Christian, 56, was sent to the special independent school after his mother attended a Steiner school in Germany during her childhood. He said: "She loved it so much that she never doubted which school she would choose for us."
Christian became the first member of the Maclean Steiner dynasty at Edinburgh after he joined the school in 1956. He was soon joined by his six siblings, three of whom - including Michael's father Iain - decided their children should follow in their footsteps.
Christian, whose own three children attended the school too, added: "We all shared [my mother's] enthusiasm because the style of education that you receive at a Steiner school is unique."
Andrew Farquharson, head of management at the school, said: "We are looking forward to the next 50 years of the Maclean family."
This article: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1268482006
Last updated: 28-Aug-06 12:53 BST
Family who've been at school for 50 years
©2006 Scotsman.com contact
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Waldorf volunteers rescued from Lebanon
Waldorf volunteers rescued from Lebanon
KARLSRUHE (NNA) - Three German volunteers undertaking voluntary service at the Rudolf Steiner School in Beirut and on a social therapy farm in Baalbek were dramatically rescued from war-torn Lebanon earlier this month.
According to the Karlsruhe office of the international organisation Friends of Waldorf Education (“Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e.V.”), the three volunteers, Marie Pfister, Tabea von Verschuer and Matthias Galle, had at first been taken to various places of safety in Lebanon when the fighting began.
When a village close to the Rudolf Steiner School’s summer camp had been bombed, the Lebanese partner organisation of the Friends of Waldorf Education, FISTA, decided to move the two volunteers working there to the German Evangelical Church’s community centre in Beirut. From there they were taken by bus convoy organised by the German embassy to Damascus airport, where tens of thousands of refugees from many different countries were already waiting to leave.
The third volunteer working in Baalbek was taken to Damascus by secret routes by a FISTA member of staff after the roads and buildings in and around the town had been bombed and there was a risk that escape would no longer be possible.
After their 16-hour rescue, the three young people were received by the Friends of Waldorf Education team in Damascus and flown to Stuttgart via Italy on the next day.
In Stuttgart they met up with a group of Lebanese pupils from the Beirut Rudolf Steiner School who had attended the UNESCO Peace Festival in the city and had subsequently been given asylum in the Karl Schubert School in Stuttgart since it is currently too dangerous for the children to return to Lebanon.
The successful evacuation was planned and executed in close collaboration between Friends of Waldorf Education, the German foreign ministry, the German embassies in Beirut and Damascus and the Lebanese partner organisation FISTA.
Some 400 young people are currently undertaking voluntary service in anthroposophical institutions in 50 countries all over the world through Friends of Waldorf Education. The organisation has appealed for financial support for the expensive rescue action.
Photos can be requested from Friends of Waldorf Education.
Account details for donations: name: Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e. V., bank: Badische Beamtenbank Karlsruhe, bank sort code: 66090800, account number: 1014250, purpose: „Aktion Libanon“
Link:
www.freunde-waldorf.de
Item: 070631-01EN Date: 31 July 2006
Copyright 2006 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See http://www.nna-news.org/copyright/
More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/
KARLSRUHE (NNA) - Three German volunteers undertaking voluntary service at the Rudolf Steiner School in Beirut and on a social therapy farm in Baalbek were dramatically rescued from war-torn Lebanon earlier this month.
According to the Karlsruhe office of the international organisation Friends of Waldorf Education (“Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e.V.”), the three volunteers, Marie Pfister, Tabea von Verschuer and Matthias Galle, had at first been taken to various places of safety in Lebanon when the fighting began.
When a village close to the Rudolf Steiner School’s summer camp had been bombed, the Lebanese partner organisation of the Friends of Waldorf Education, FISTA, decided to move the two volunteers working there to the German Evangelical Church’s community centre in Beirut. From there they were taken by bus convoy organised by the German embassy to Damascus airport, where tens of thousands of refugees from many different countries were already waiting to leave.
The third volunteer working in Baalbek was taken to Damascus by secret routes by a FISTA member of staff after the roads and buildings in and around the town had been bombed and there was a risk that escape would no longer be possible.
After their 16-hour rescue, the three young people were received by the Friends of Waldorf Education team in Damascus and flown to Stuttgart via Italy on the next day.
In Stuttgart they met up with a group of Lebanese pupils from the Beirut Rudolf Steiner School who had attended the UNESCO Peace Festival in the city and had subsequently been given asylum in the Karl Schubert School in Stuttgart since it is currently too dangerous for the children to return to Lebanon.
The successful evacuation was planned and executed in close collaboration between Friends of Waldorf Education, the German foreign ministry, the German embassies in Beirut and Damascus and the Lebanese partner organisation FISTA.
Some 400 young people are currently undertaking voluntary service in anthroposophical institutions in 50 countries all over the world through Friends of Waldorf Education. The organisation has appealed for financial support for the expensive rescue action.
Photos can be requested from Friends of Waldorf Education.
Account details for donations: name: Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e. V., bank: Badische Beamtenbank Karlsruhe, bank sort code: 66090800, account number: 1014250, purpose: „Aktion Libanon“
Link:
www.freunde-waldorf.de
Item: 070631-01EN Date: 31 July 2006
Copyright 2006 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See http://www.nna-news.org/copyright/
More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)