In celebration of Waldorf 100, the WA Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in Australia is hosting two visiting speakers in September, Horst Hellman, and Joan Sleigh.

Horst will be here between 15^th - 25^th September, and Joan for a shorter period, 18^th – 19^th. By ‘happy coincidence’ they will both be in WA at the same time – perhaps it is the first time their paths have crossed!

We invite you to participate in their visits by hosting talks for teachers and parents and we welcome contributions towards their costs.

For your information here is a brief of their Biographies:

Horst Hellman:

Born 1943 in Germany

In this year of the 100^th anniversary of Waldorf Education, Horst Hellman is celebrating 50 years since first studying to become a Waldorf teacher.  He spent over 30 years teaching in Steiner schools in Germany.

In 1981, he spent his sabbatical year in Australia, and gave talks on Waldorf/Steiner education in many places and the seeds from those talks grew into Steiner Schools, including Balinga Valley Steiner School, Perth Waldorf School, Yallingup Steiner School and Golden Hill Steiner School. 

Since 1982 until the present, he has been lecturing, conducting teacher-training seminars and mentoring Waldorf teachers in Australia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. 

In 2000 he became the founding teacher of the school in Berlin "Eugen Kolisko/ Havelhoehe".   After retiring in 2005, his activity in Asia has grown stronger.  Presently, he is mentoring at Waldorf Schools in the Phillipines and Thailand, and is facilitating teacher training in Thailand and Indonesia.  Horst lives now in a village near the University City of Goettingen.

Horst is a very engaging speaker and has a long list of topics on which he can speak with assurance, energy and deep knowledge.   Please find attached a list of possible topics for you to choose from.

Joan Sleigh

born 1962 in South Africa
Birth and childhood in the Camphill communities in South Africa. Attended part Waldorf and part rural State education. Moved to Germany in 1982, mothered four children and trained as Waldorf Class Teacher in Witten-Annen. Returned to Cape Town, South Africa in 1995. Worked as class teacher at Michael Oak Waldorf School from 1995 – 2012 and as teacher trainer at the Centre for Creative Education from 2006 – 2012. Member of the International Forum for Steiner / Waldorf Schools (Hague Circle) and co-ordinator of the Pedagogical Section in Cape Town since 2010. She became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society in 2013.

Joan will be visiting other locations in Australia and will begin her visit by giving a talk at the Waldorf 100 event being held by Samford Valley Steiner School. Overall she is willing to go into schools to meet and work with teachers, as well as meeting with Anthroposophical Society branches. She is keen to talk about the Social Initiative Forum and we note that ‘googling’ her also brings up videos of her speaking on the topic of Empathy.  She is also ideally placed to speak about developments in the Goetheanum.

Proposed Programme

We have developed an outline for a programme for their visits and invite you to advise us whether or not you would like to be included.  The coincidence of them both being here at the same time is both an opportunity and a challenge for scheduling, but certainly means that every school can receive a visit from one or the other visitor.