Pupil Opinion: Steiner Waldorf Olympics
July 3 2023
Every year, Class 5 pupils from the Steiner Schools in the UK and occasionally further afield, come together for the Steiner Waldorf Olympic Games. Class Teacher, Bruce Houldsworth, asked pupil Rosa Fusseis to write 300-words on the Class’s experience. It is published below.
The Class 5 Steiner Olympics are held at Michael Hall, a Steiner School near East Grinstead, England.
Held at the oldest Steiner school in the UK (Michael Hall Steiner School), the event celebrated its 33rd year this weekend.
To get there, my Class departed from Edinburgh Waverley on Wednesday the 28th, in the morning and arrived at London King’s Cross around 1:00pm. From there we took the underground to London Victoria, and the train to East Grinstead from where we walked, four miles, to Michael Hall. Tiring! The rest of the day seemed to fly past. We set up our tents, and Mr Houldsworth told us our city states, the groups we’d be training in, and competing for.
Opening Ceremony (2023)
Thursday and Friday, the days of training, went something like this: We’d train all morning (with snack break), then have lunch and in the afternoon we’d play a big game. I liked “ Storm the Castle” most. We made new friends from schools all over the UK.
On Friday, we went to bed early, since we’d have to get up really early on Saturday, which we did.
The Olympic games started with the opening ceremony, and ended with the medal ceremony. In between the two ceremonies, everyone got to choose in which disciplines to participate.
Steiner Waldorf Olympic Games incorporate the five disciplines of discus, jumping, wrestling, javelin and running.
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- Pupils are divided into twelve cities, held by an Arcons (teachers)
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- Discus discipline, where the athletes throw a metal disc as far as possible.
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- The discus was introduced as part of the pentathlon in the Ancient Olympics of 708BC.
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- High jump
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- Long jump
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- Jumping with weights
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- Javelin, part of the pentathlon at the Ancient Olympics, is the third discipline
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- Three styles of javelin are incorporated into the discipline.
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- The enthusiasm of the Class 5 athletes remained unimpeded by the beating sun one moment and rain pours the next.
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- Wrestling at the Olympic Games first appeared at the first modern Olympics, in the form of Greco-Roman wrestling, held in Athens in 1896.
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- A simplified wrestling is incorporated into the Steiner Waldorf Olympics.
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- Class 5 pupils take part in palm-against-palm wresting.
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- Mile Marathon and Mini Marathon (350m)
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- The Dash: a 70m sprint around a pole and back.
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- Family travelled from near and far to be spectators on Saturday.
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- Relay involving teams running in four x 75m lengths
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- Passing the baton on every 75m in the 23-school relay.
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- First, second and third coming in in the 23-classes relay.
After the games, we played with our friends, barbecued and SLEPT.
On Sunday, on our way home, we visited the British Museum, but we were all half asleep. We only woke up in the Museum gift shop. It was sooo cool.
Ancient Greek cultural artefacts, Parthenon sculptures and a special exhibition on Luxury & Power: Persia to Greece at the British Museum in London.
We had a day off school today; and I don’t think anyone would have survived without it. We were so exhausted.