This website presents a proposal for new ‘Special Character Guidelines’ for Te Ra. This is the document that aims to succinctly describe the Special Character of our school. It stands for the commitment that parents make when enrolling their children at Te Ra and for the commitment teachers make when signing their contracts of employment.

The draft presented here is the result of a joint effort between a group of parents, the Kapiti Waldorf Trust, the Faculty, the College of Teachers and the Board of Trustees. It had its origin from two strands that began in parallel back in 2013:

• A grass roots movement of parents (beginning in July 2013) who felt that the wording of our special character guidelines was a place where we could get specific about the direction the school needed to move in if it was to respond to the challenge that had been brought to the school in regards to the unacceptable writings of Rudolf Steiner.

• The Kapiti Waldorf Trust who separately initiated a review of the special character guidelines in November 2013.

The DRAFT presented is the result of many conversations and much collaboration that has taken place since then.

We believe it is now ready for wider consultation with parents, faculty and trust members.

The proposed draft

We want to know your thoughts. How does this document ‘feel’ to you? Does it describe what we are and what we need to be?

• The latest draft as of June 12 2014.

• The “Special Character Guidelines” document as it is currently, from 2008.

• Click here for a comparison of the two.

How to provide feedback

If you have any feedback to offer there are three ways we invite you to do that. Please choose the method that feels most comfortble for you

• Discussion in person. Please feel free to approach any of the people named below to discuss this.

• By sending email to specialcharacterfeedback@gmail.com.

• By joining our online and email discussion group at http://groups.tera.school.nz/groups/scd/

What happens next?

Based on the feedback given, there may be a need to have more discussion around this proposal in person. Alternatively we may move to formally ratify this as our new Special Character Guidelines.

Once there is wide agreement, the KWT trust, as guardians of the special character at Te Ra school, has the formal responsibility to adopt the proposal (or otherwise). At this point the trust, the board and the college of teachers can move to ensure the new guidelines are incorporated into the parent handout, the school charter, the code of conduct and into our public website.

Thank you for your input

With kind regards from the Kapiti Waldorf Trust:

• Shelly Andrews, Joannes Boele van Hensbroek, Dawn Cowdry, Jill Duncan, Richard Hale, David Simpson and Doris Zuur

And from selected representatives of the parent group:

• Timoti Brown, Lenka Rochford, Miles Thompson, Vernon Trainor, Janine Walker and Te Ariki Wineera