Kindergarten and Grade School.

A short story of the school:
It was a hot summer evening in 1994. There are a couple of Australian travelers had a unusual conference with two young Chinese in an open air tea house in Chengdu Southwest, China. The conversation had been written in the their book call < The panda and the wondering geese> by Ben and Thanh Cherry. The conversation inspired the Chinese couple went to take a teacher training course in Emerson College in the UK, then they went to Sunbridge College in the United States later. This was the seed of Waldorf Education that Ben and Thanh planted in China ten years ago.

The Chinese couple are Li Zhang(Lily) and Huang xiaoxing (known as Harry Wong). Through this couple, currently, there are a half dozen people have received training both in England and the United States. There are many Chinese people got to know about Waldorf Education through the works from these people. The seed had sprouted grew and start to blossom.

After a long period of preparation, an initiative group has been formed in Chengdu in the summer of 2004. The group has found a place which was a holiday resort with some farming land to set up the first waldorf school and the kindergarten in the fall of 2004

The school locates in the country about 7 miles from the down of Chengdu. But, now the school is surrounding by the apartment buildings after only 4 years. The resort consists of 35 small rooms and two large rooms and a typical country courtyard with a small garden in the middle. The land that attach to the property is used to practice Bio-dynamic gardening and farming.

Li and Huang (Harry) are the first people from China who had trained as Waldorf kindergarten and Waldorf school teacher both in England and in the United States. Many Chinese people got to know about Waldorf education through Harry’s book, articles and web site. Harry’s book is the first book published in Chinese on Waldorf education. It was published by Guangdong Educational Press in main land China and published by Hong Kong Chinese University Press in Hong Kong.

In the initiative group , there ia dynamic teacher name Zewu, Li. Zewu was a primary school teacher and completed Waldorf teacher training in England in 2003. He has a 12-year-old daughter. His wife is a music teacher in the primary school in Chengdu. A notice person who plays an very important roll is Eckart Loewe, Eckart Loewe is a German Waldorf graduate who has been living in a small village in China for more than five years. He teaches children as a volunteer in a very poor village. Chinese media has been focusing on him for the past years. Many people got to know about Waldorf education through interviews and articles in various media about his background as a Waldorf graduate. He wrote a book in Chinese about his teaching experience, titled , which was permeated with Waldorf educational ideas. Eckart plans joined the group to to start the school, then he went back to the village in Guangxi.

The school start with 3 chidren with mixed age group and with 5 children in the kindergarten. Li zhang leads the first kindergarten group and the kindergarten. Zewu leads the grade school class and the grade school. There were night other young dynamic people who come from all over China working as assistants and keep the school running. In the mean time, we start the teacher training process. Ben and Thanh Cherry came in the summer to give a 4 days workshop introducing waldorf education to the teachers and friends come from all over China. There were 60 people in the workshop. Ben and Thanh really helped us laid the foundation of the school and kindergarten.

After two months, came Ian and Tammy and their son Linden. They joined us and gave very much support for three months. Then, Ian went to New Zealand and Tammy went to work in Hong Kong.

We went through a great difficulty in the first year. There were lack of understanding anthroposophy, the lack of funds, and the human relationships. We almost close our doors by the end of the Christmas. But a new life starts after Chinese New Year in 2005. We hosted a workshop for Dr. Lai who promotes organic food and holistic life style. The workshop brings us some new students and funds. The number of students grew up to a double. After have been through a painful adjustment in the following summer, the school and the kindergarten start to have a good shape. The number of the children double up again. There were 14 children in the grade school which consist two mixed age group and 15 children in the kindergarten by the end of summer in 2005.

It was a fruitful year from 2005 to 2006. The new first grade start with 7 children in the fall in 2006. There were 4 of them come from the kindergarten. The kindergarten teacher training program was set up. There were 80 people enrolled the three years part time training program. There were number of short courses and biodynamic workshop were offered, There were more then 1000 people came to the workshops and courses.

In the summer of 2006, we rent two more houses and add two more kindergarten classes in the fall. And there was one class in each grade from grade one to grade five in the grade school. We no longer have mixed grade.

In the fall of 2007.We have five kindergarten classes. There are 67 children in five kindergarten classes. And, there are 48 children in five classes from grade 1 to grade 6. There are 14 children in the new first grade in the grade school .We have 29 teachers, assistants and volunteer assistants.

In the summer of 2007, the school moves a big step forward. We bought all the building that we have been renting and lease the land that the buildings where on. ( the owner for the building leased the land to build the building and rent to us). Now, we got 35 years lease of the land we can build classroom. A master plan has been laid.We are now moving to the next step of physical growing. We are looking for funds to build 12 classrooms.