Primary Rudolf Steiner Education: 
the Class Teacher Years 1-6

Term 4, 2026

Overview 

This is a continuation of the 2025 or 2026 Primary online part time course. In Term 4, you will have an option to study the Class 2 or Class 6 curriculum. It is suitable for teachers, parents and homeschoolers who are interested in teaching children of these two age groups.

In each class, we will be asking the question “How does the curriculum meet the child’s innermost needs at this particular stage of development?”

The evening online classes include a presentation, with class discussion (subject to cohort size), and artistic work woven throughout the course. This course is conducted in English and is open to local and international students.

Dates: 13 October to 24 November 2026
Days & time: Tuesdays 7-9pm (Melbourne time)
Duration: 7 weeks | Live Online: 2 hours per week
Tutors: Terri McMillan (Class 2) & Pauline Lucas (Class 6)

Class 2 Timetable

Tutor: Terri McMillan

  • Class 2 child development
  • Class 2 curriculum, structure and yearly planning
  • Morning circle activites: songs, poetry and speech
  • Stories
    • Nature stories
    • Fables/saints
    • Celtic stories
  • Main lessons:
    • Literacy: reading, writing short stories, sentences
    • Maths, tables, place value, patterns, magic numbers
    • Local environment

A break before artistic activity

  • Form drawing
  • Craft
  • Clay modelling
  • Morning circle, bean bags
  • Speech exercises
  • Painting

Class 6 Timetable

Tutor: Pauline Lucas

  • Class 6 child development and overview of the Class 6 curriculum, structure and          yearly planning
  • Main theme – Roman civilisation
  • Main lessons:
    • Poetry and creative writing
    • Botany
    • Science: sound, light, heat
    • Percentages
    • Law
    • Debating
    • Geography – our neighbouring nations
    • Astronomy
    • Book study
    • Drama

A break before artistic activity

  • Practice and/or discussion of artistic work related to Class 6:
  • Drawing: light and shadow
  • Geometry
  • Clay work

Teaching through the arts is a key aspect of Steiner education. Developing artistic skills and nourishing your own inner life is an important part of teacher development.

You will need to have access to or purchase some art materials. Essential items are:

• ‘wet on wet’ painting paper and paints such as Stockmar (or other equivalent) which can be purchased from art supply shops or Mercurius online. You could buy one each of red, yellow and blue paints or if you feel expansive, there is also the set of six which contains two tones of each colour. If you have any questions about this please call our office.

• flat 18 mm brush for painting

• smooth hand building clay

• format paper (A2)- suggest a cartridge spiral bound which becomes your portfolio.
Otherwise, newsprint or cartridge loose large sheets is fine also.

• pencils and crayons in blue, red and yellow. A piece of beeswax for modelling

terri pauline

Terri McMillan is a teacher of 35 years experience in a Steiner School and 5 years in the State system. She co-founded the Maindample Steiner School (now Mansfield); took two classes through the Primary Class Teacher period, and has been a senior geography teacher for past 10 years. Terri co authored the Steiner Geography Curriculum for the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework.  

Pauline began teaching English Literature and History in secondary schools and TAFE with young adults. Her interest in Anthroposophy lead to Steiner education where she took three classes through the class teacher period.The transformative power of the Epoch stories and storytelling as an art are two of her special interests.

Over the last years she has been involved in teacher training, teacher mentorship and Professional Development days in Steiner schools.

Fee
$480 per term for the online course.

Withdrawing and refunds
Please notify us by email if you will be withdrawing from a course.  
·         If you withdraw prior to course beginning we will refund any fees paid less a $100 enrolment processing fee.
·         If you withdraw  after the first session of the course, we will refund any fees paid, less $155 administration fee.
·         If you withdraw after the second week, no refunds can be given.

Our part-time courses come with a certificate of Professional Development hours, subject to meeting the course requirements:Each evening will be live streamed and recorded.  We require your attendance of 100% of sessions in order to gain the acknowledgement of PD hours completed ANDa simple but meaningful assessment task at the end of each term which will be based on some general questions about what you have gained from all sessions completed. This is a required step as part of meeting PD standards in Australia.

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