Michael Mount Outreach
Michael Mount Outreach was established in 1989 to share expertise, resources, and facilities with our sister schools Inkanyezi in Alexandra and Lesedi in Madietane village in Limpopo. The programme is run by Michael Mount staff and parents, with the support of the greater community. The aims of the Outreach programme are:
- To make the Waldorf experience available to more people.
- To provide support for training and education to Waldorf educators.
- To connect, communicate and cooperate to the benefit and enrichment of all concerned.
- To facilitate dignified collaborations in which all parties feel seen, heard and valued.
- To raise funds to make the above possible.
One of the main fundraising projects run by the Outreach parents is the tradition of Pizza Fridays. The proceeds are used for various community outreach activities that the school conducts throughout the year, particularly to support our sister Waldorf schools – Inkanyezi Waldorf School in Alexandra, and Lesedi Waldorf School in Limpopo. Pizza days play a special role in our school and are a core feature of our community building, providing the parents with the opportunity to engage with and give back to our greater Waldorf community within South Africa.
The Bryanston Market at Michael Mount
The Bryanston Market has been operating from the Michael Mount Waldorf School campus, as a fundraiser for the school, since 1976. It started with parents selling fresh organic fruit and vegetables to each other and to passersby, from the back of their bakkies and trailers in the school’s parking lot. Word spread like wildfire. Soon the car park became too small and a ‘farm stall’ was allocated space on the property of the school. Over time, artists and crafters joined the market with their paintings, photographs, pottery, carvings, natural fibre clothing, wooden toys and more. With ongoing support from the school’s teachers and parents, the market soon became an ‘organic village market’ where friends would meet under a leafy canopy, eating yummy, wholesome things while listening to a local musician. They would leave with fresh, organic produce, free-range eggs and meat, home-made cheeses, wholesome baked goods, prepared meals, natural skin-care products and one-of a kind gifts and decorations.
Today the Bryanston Market is home to +-70 stallholders. It has become a leading light in the movement towards healthy, conscious living and eating, as it promotes products and activities and shares information that aid the healing of the earth and its people. Most items at the market are hand made locally from natural materials. Fresh produce is organically grown, and delicatessen and bakery goods are free from artificial additives, preservatives, and colourants. The market provides an holistic, supportive environment for farmers, artists, crafters and musicians to earn a living as they bring their gifts to the world.
The Bryanston Market is open every Thursday and Saturday, as well as most public holidays, from 9.00 am to 3.00 pm. Additionally, Moonlight Markets – open from 5 to 9 pm – are held every last Friday evening of the month, and from mid-November until just before Christmas every year.
Entrance to the Bryanston Market at Michael Mount is at 40 Culross Road, Bryanston.
Contact: 011 706 3671
Email: sarah@bryanstonmarket.co.za
Website: bryanstonmarket.co.za
Anthroposophical Society
“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart, of the life of feeling; and it can be justified only inasmuch as it can satisfy this inner need. He alone can acknowledge anthroposophy who finds in it what he himself in his own inner life feels impelled to seek. Hence only they can be anthroposophists who feel certain questions on the nature of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as one feels hunger and thirst.”
—Rudolf Steiner
Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973
“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart, of the life of feeling; and it can be justified only inasmuch as it can satisfy this inner need. He alone can acknowledge anthroposophy who finds in it what he himself in his own inner life feels impelled to seek. Hence only they can be anthroposophists who feel certain questions on the nature of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as one feels hunger and thirst.”
—Rudolf Steiner
Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973
Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society in 1924. He called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. Today there are many branches throughout the world.
The Johannesburg office of the Anthroposophical Society in Southern Africa is housed in the Steiner Centre for Art, Music, and Drama at Michael Mount.
The Society is home to the Basil Gibaud Library, a bookshop and reading room, and is open on Mondays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm.
The aim of the Anthroposophical Society is to further the life of the soul – both in the individual and in society – based on knowledge and understanding of the Spiritual World. The Society offers public events, such as art exhibitions, classes, lectures, study and discussion groups and more, on topics of concern to humanity. Find their latest events list here.
Membership to the Society is open to anyone, without distinction of nationality, social standing, religious, scientific, or artistic conviction.
Contact: 011 706 8544
Email: library@anthro-jhb.org.za
Website: anthro-jhb.org.za
The Christian Community
The Christian Community was founded in 1922 in Switzerland – inspired by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education. There are approximately 350 Christian Community congregations worldwide, with headquarters in Berlin, Germany. It is a movement for religious renewal without an official theology or articles of belief. Participation is based on free will. While The Christian Community exists separately and independently of Michael Mount, the shared influence of Steiner’s philosophy and the acknowledgement of the human as a being of spirit, makes the Community’s activities of interest to many Waldorf families. These activities include:
- A Christian Community camp during the December holidays in which children hike, do crafts and activities, and participate in community life
- A Sunday service for school children
- The Community also offers all the usual services associated with a church
The Christian Community is situated at 46 Dover Street, Ferndale, Randburg.
Contact: 011 789 3083
Email: joburg@thechristiancommunity.org.za
Website: thechristiancommunity.org.za
The Southern African Federation of Waldorf Schools
The Federation of Waldorf Schools is an association of independent schools and teacher training institutions, which work out of the pedagogical indications of Rudolf Steiner.
It is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to further education as expounded by Rudolf Steiner and to encourage, assist and guide both new and existing Waldorf schools. A primary task is to ensure that the names “Waldorf” and “Rudolf Steiner” are only used by schools and institutions that are based on Rudolf Steiner education, as recognised by the Federation. The Federation holds the right of trademark on these names. South Africa boasts 17 registered Waldorf schools and a Waldorf Teacher training college in Cape Town. The schools reflect a wide range of cultural groups. The movement also includes a state-accredited teacher-training centre in Cape Town and informal training initiatives in some of the more established schools.
The Federation of Waldorf Schools is situated at 235 Bryanston Drive, Bryanston, Gauteng, South Africa
Postal address: PO Box 71719, Bryanston, Gauteng 2021
Email: info@waldorf.org.za
Website: waldorf.org.za
Michael Mount’s Sister Schools
Michael Mount parents, teachers and students have been actively involved in a cultural interchange and support programme with both Inkanyezi and Lesedi Waldorf School for decades.
Inkanyezi Waldorf School
The first Waldorf kindergarten in a South African township was founded in July 1987 and later developed into a formal school. Today about 360 children and 20 teachers attend Inkanyezi Waldorf School and the Community Centre on London Road in Alexandra, Sandton. In 1992, the “Guardian” newspaper published a report: “A small star shines in the darkness of Alexandra” referring to the name Inkanyezi, which means “starlight”.
Lesedi Waldorf School
Lesedi Waldorf School is nestled amongst picturesque mountains north of the Waterberg area in Madietane, in the district of Polokwane, in Limpopo. The school came into being in 1989 through the efforts of the first kindergarten teacher at Inkanyezi: Emily Moabelo. From these humble beginnings under a Marula tree, Lesedi is now a boarding school.
Visit the Lesedi Waldorf School's website.
