The five primary years are one continuous journey, accompanying children from six to ten or eleven. In the early years learning happens mainly through image, story and doing; over time, rules, closer observation and the first explanations are gradually introduced. Here are the main stages, in plain language.

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Classes 1 and 2: from pictures to letters

We begin with drawing and with painting in broad fields of colour, and out of these the first letters emerge: every sign comes from an image and from a story. Children learn to write in block capitals and, little by little, to read what they have written. The stories are fairy tales, with their vivid pictures. In mathematics we start from number and from counting with the body and with movement, and the four operations are introduced by starting from the whole and arriving at the parts - by sharing out objects, for instance. There is singing, there is the recorder, and work with the hands begins.

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Class 3: the world around us

Around the age of eight or nine, a child's view of the world changes. After the practice of form drawing, cursive handwriting is introduced. The first ideas of grammar are brought playfully, and attention is given to spelling and to building sentences. Through practical life lessons children discover the crafts and trades, the growing of crops, how houses are built: they come into concrete contact with the real world. The first experiences of geography also begin, starting from their own surroundings.

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Classes 4 and 5: observing and recounting

The ability to observe and to recount in one's own words grows. In Italian, children work on verb tenses, direct speech, and the difference between their own opinion and someone else's. They study the history and geography of their own region and of Italy. In Class 5 come the first great ancient civilisations - and this study culminates in an unforgettable experience: in May the Class 5 groups gather at Paestum for the Olympic Games, Greek-style games in which the Greek and Roman history studied in class becomes play, movement and a meeting between schools. The first natural sciences appear, with the study of animals and then of plants. In mathematics, fractions and decimals.

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Languages: English and German, from Class 1

From Class 1 onwards children meet two foreign languages, English and German: it is one of the things that make our path distinctive. At first they are learnt mainly through the ear and the voice - songs, rhymes, games, short dialogues - without books and without studying grammar, drawing on young children's natural ability to imitate sounds. Over the years the hours increase and, when the children are ready, reading and writing begin too, with the first rules introduced gradually.

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Art, music, movement and hands

Alongside the academic subjects, activities that involve the whole person come round every week:

• Music: singing and the recorder, for the pleasure of making music together from an early age.

• Rhythmic work: a movement activity in which gesture and step accompany music and the spoken word.

• Physical education and movement, which from Class 3 is enriched by Bothmer gymnastics, characteristic of Waldorf schools.

• Handwork: children learn to make things with their hands - from first work with wool to small crafted objects - training hand, attention and thinking together.

• Drawing and painting accompany the work every day and give form to what is learnt.

 

In every year, too, the class goes out regularly to learn from direct experience: trips into nature and around the area that complete and bring to life the work done in class.