AUCKLAND (NNA) – Following its earlier approval by the New Zealand Qualification Authority, the new Steiner School Certificate (SSC) has now also been accepted by the country’s universities as a university entrance certificate.        

According to a statement from the Federation of Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf Schools in New Zealand, the representative body for New Zealand’s eight universities, Te Pokai Tara, has also approved the certificate.

The certificate has thus passed its final hurdle which…

FOREST ROW (NNA) - The UK Biodynamic Association (BDA) has announced the launch of the first ever online, fully accredited distance learning course in biodynamic agriculture.                                          

The programme, “Biodynamic Agriculture – Principles and Practices”, has been developed and will be run by the BDA’s Biodynamic Agricultural College (BDAC) located in Forest Row, East Sussex, England. 

Arjen Huese, one of BDAC’s course leaders, wrote the course together with other…

With Thailand still recovering from last year’s political crisis, this year the worst flood in generations swept through two thirds of the country, causing over 600 deaths and inundating about six million hectares of land. The estimated damage as forecast by the World Bank is US$45bn (£28.75bn, €33.47bn). In the following report, the Anthroposophical Group in Thailand describes the consequences of the floods.

BANGKOK (NNA) – Beginning in the north in July, massive volumes of runoff from an…

BASEL/ILKESTON (NNA) – The CEO of the Swiss-based Weleda group of companies, Patrick Sirdey, has been honoured by the French state with the National Order of Merit.

This is the first time in the history of Weleda that a chief executive has received such an honour, the company said in a press release.    

Patrick Sirdey became CEO in June 2008 after working for the company for 30 years, initially with Weleda France. In 2000 he became deputy chairman of the Group management.

In previous public…

SCHWÄBISCH GMÜND (NNA) - The Weleda Group has become a member of the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT), a not-for-profit organisation which advocates the introduction of a globally recognised standard for the sustainable acquisition and use of raw materials. The company joined in October.        

By joining the UEBT, the Weleda Group was reinforcing its principles of ethical management and was committing itself to applying the UEBT standard for the procurement of raw materials, a Weleda press…

BOTTON VILLAGE/NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE (NNA) – The lack of proper procedures at the Botton village Camphill community, which cares for adults with disabilities, has been criticised in a routine review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the British government’s regulator for hospitals, care homes and care services in England.                    

In a report published at the end of November, the CQC came to the conclusion that while staff were caring and had empathy with the villagers, Botton was…

WITTEN-HERDECKE (NNA) - The University of Witten/Herdecke (UWH) has developed a new interdisciplinary Master course in the subject of dementia. All three departments of the faculty of health at the UWH – human medicine, dentistry and nursing - are involved in the new degree, both in research and teaching. 

More and more jobs and areas of every-day life are confronted daily by dementia and the people affected by this illness. “Dementia poses a substantial socio-political, economical,…

WARSAW (NNA) – Anyone who associates Christmas and Christmas markets with commercialism and the purchase of things for which you can find no earthly purpose, should go and spend a few days before Christmas in Warsaw. Because young people there have set up a Christmas market of a completely different kind: here art objects are sold which have all been made from recycled materials. The two-day Recycling Christmas Market in the Warsaw district of Praga on the left bank of the Vistula was held this…

Berlin (NNA) – Ethical and sustainable banking produces higher growth rates than conventional banks and is an important pillar of the real economy. That is the outcome of a study present by the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) in Berlin at the end of November which compared 22 sustainable banks with 28 conventional banks over a period of ten years from 2002 to 2011.

The study also proves false the preconception that ethical and sustainable banks must necessarily generate lower…

NEW YORK (NNA) – A former Waldorf pupil has won one of the most prestigious awards in the US literary world. William Alexander, an alumni of Kimberton Waldorf School, was the winner in the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Awards for his fantasy novel Goblin Secrets.

The award was presented at a ceremony in New York on 14 November. Goblin Secrets came first out of a total of 314 submissions in the category.

The book, which is aimed at ages 8-12, is about Rownie, the…