
Learning
In Crossfields Learning we develop and deliver educational programmes, which may be created by ourselves or in collaboration with partner organisations. If the latter, then the partner organisation delivers through us using our resources and expertise in systems, quality assurance and pedagogical practice. This option is attractive for those who do not want to have the full responsibility of running an accredited programme but who do want the benefits. Crossfields Learning can offer qualifications awarded by Crossfields Institute Awarding or we can accredit programmes through university partnerships. To date we have collaborated with University West of England (UK) and Alanus University (Germany) for this purpose.
An example of one of our longer format programmes is our Crossfields Institute Level 7 Diploma in Philosophy and Practice of Integrative Education (more details below), which was developed in collaboration with the Steiner Waldorf federations of the UK, Finland and Denmark. This is a post-graduate level qualification for teachers and school leaders. Another example is our Masters programme Researching Holistic Approaches to Agroecology (more details below). This is certified through Alanus University in Germany and is for those wishing to carry out research or develop a project in agroecology.
Crossfields Institute Level 7 Diploma in the Philosophy and Practice of Integrative Education (PPIE)
Now in a new, modular delivery format
PPIE is an innovative, international teacher development programme that is now entering its fifth year. The main aim of this postgraduate level programme is to inspire teachers to develop their own practice drawing on relevant theory and on their own capacity for critical and reflective inquiry. For the January 2022 intake we have made a significant change, which is that PPIE can now be taken as separate, stand-alone short courses. This enables you to be more selective about what you study and to complete the programme at your own pace. It also enables you to spread the costs of the course over a longer time period if needed. What follows is an outline of the three main courses within the PPIE framework.
Foundations of Waldorf Education
This course is for teachers working primarily in a Waldorf upper-school context. It has three main aims:
- To help you engage critically with Steiner’s philosophy and developmental picture of the human being
- To help you understand and apply the core principles and methods of Waldorf pedagogy
- To give you the foundations for a reflexive and inquiry-based approach to developing your own practice
The overall aim is to enable you to critically engage with the underlying core principles and methods of Waldorf pedagogy as the basis for developing yourself as a Waldorf practitioner.
Course content includes:
1. Steiner’s philosophy and anthroposophy
2. Core principles of Waldorf education
3. Inner work and the art of teaching
The course is suitable for teachers working in any curriculum area and is particularly for those working in an upper-school context.
Foundations of Integrative Education
This course is for teachers working in any context who want to renew and re-inspire their practice, drawing on integrative and holistic education principles and methods. It is also for those who are committed to re-thinking education in light of the many global challenges we face. The course has three main aims:
- To give you an overview of different approaches to integrative teaching, learning and assessment
- To enable you to apply integrative approaches to teaching learning and assessment
- To give you the foundations for a reflexive and inquiry-based approach to developing your own practice
The course is taught by our own experienced faculty combined with visiting international external faculty. It appropriate for teachers working in any curriculum area.
Course content includes:
1. Colleagueship and collaboration
2. Principles of integrative teaching and learning
3. Principles of integrative assessment
Educational Leadership
This course is for practicing or aspiring leaders working in an education context. It has three main aims:
- To give you an overview of different theoretical approaches to leadership and self-leadership
- To help you to build strong collegial working
- To give you a foundation for a reflexive and inquiry-based approach to developing your own leadership practice
Rules of Combination
If you want to take the full PPIE diploma you complete two of the three courses outlined above, plus a project module of ten credits.
Delivery Format
The courses outlined above take place online over a six-month period. The full PPIE programme can be taken over twelve or eighteen months. Delivery includes short intensives over two or three days combined with regular online lectures. You will also attend regular seminars where you work in collaboration with fellow students to deepen understanding and application of the taught content. (Face-face intensives can also occur depending on the location and volume of students in a given intake.)
Total Qualification Time for the short courses:
Total Time
150 hrs
Guided Learning Hours
36 hrs
Total Credits
15
Total Qualification Time for the full programme:
Total Time
400 hrs
Guided Learning Hours
94 hrs
Total Credits
40
Course Fee
Short courses: £1700 (15.000 DKK)
Full programme: £3400 (32.000 DKK)
Steinerpædagogikum
Following approval by Børne- og Undervisningsministeriet and Syddansk Universitet, Teoretisk Pædagogikum (SDU) recognises the PPIE modules Foundations of Waldorf Education and Foundations of Integrative Education. Danish students required to fulfil statutory requirements for HF teaching gain automatic entry into Teoretisk Pædagogikum (SDU) with ‘Merit’ from PPIE. This enables Danish students to fulfil statutory requirements for the HF whilst enrolled on the PPIE Diploma. To qualify for SDU recognition students must complete the full PPIE programme.
Delivery dates
Foundation of Waldorf Education begins with a three-day intensive from 13th January to 15th January 2022. Dates for the session taking place between January and July 2022 will be confirmed shortly. Foundations of Integrative Education and Educational Leadership are scheduled to begin in July 2022, completing in January 2023. The project module will also run in the Autumn term 2022 and in the spring and summer terms 2023. So, you can complete the full programme by January 2023 or July 2023.
Faculty
Faculty for the 2022 intake will be announced shortly.
Core faculty (for the 2021 intake)
- Andrea Brandão (programme co-lead)
- Dr Fergus Anderson (programme co-lead)
- Jonathan Code
- Dr Charlotte von Bülow
- Dr Peter Simpson
- Sven Saar
- Martin Lauesen
- Christina Vilhelmsen
- Mette Kaufmann
Visiting faculty who have contributed to the programme
- Dr Scherto Gill (UK)
- Dr Marcelo da Veiga (Germany)
- Dr Jennifer Gidley (Australia)
- Paul Hougham (UK)
- Maureen Curren (USA)
- Dr Bo Dahlin (Sweden)
- Dr Robin Schmidt (Germany)
- Dr Peter Simpson (UK)
- William Forward (UK)
- Dr Isis Brook (UK)
- Mike Chase (UK)
- Colin Crawford (UK)
- Erik Marstrander (Norway)
- Elaine Holt (UK)
- Dr Eeva Raunela (Finland)
- Tom Ravetz (UK)
- Martin Schmandt (Switzerland)
- Toby Cann (UK)
- Silke Weiss (Germany)
- Dr Martyn Rawson (Germany)
- Jan Thiesen (Denmark)
- Dr Bronwen Haralambous (Australia)
Further information
For more information about any of the above please contact: dialogue@crossfieldsinstitute.com
Testimonials
The PPIE course in the short time since it began has already influenced my teaching, thinking and reflective practice. The intensive course in January 2018 was a mixture of lectures, discussion groups and activities, which wove together teaching methodologies, research approaches, historical and contemporary educational contexts and the key elements of assessment.
Conversations on educational models across northern Europe, the sharing of stories and experiences from a wide range of upper school situations and the process of learning together have created a productive basis for regular shared on the Virtual Learning Environment. Being able to pose questions to colleagues and receive their support on the forum has been really rewarding and enlightening.
Hester Machin
PPIE student, UK
Without a doubt a course that inspires and motivates. It brings together both interesting learning and people, and the range of teachers and topics has been outstanding. The way that theory, practice and exercises have complemented each other has also been exemplary.
Jens Noe
PPIE student, Denmark
Having attended the last residential I can say that this was one of the most inspirational courses I have been on – an incredible opportunity to explore what education could and should be in our world today. This course seeks to create change by transforming education through developing human potential, and nurturing a different kind of leadership. If you are a teacher, leader or interested in education, do go on this course if you can.
Beth Cuenco
Head teacher, Canterbury New School, UK
The course gives me inspiring things that I can do immediately with my students
Samantha
PPIE student 2021, Denmark
The tutors are brilliant at asking questions that are probing and critical
Alan
PPIE student 2021, UK
It’s perfect what you are doing, the themes the questions…even online you succeed
Charlotte
PPIE student 2021, Denmark
PPIE gave me confidence in my role as a teacher
Eva
PPIE student 2019, Finland
Researching Agroecology
“A healthy agriculture is the basis of a healthy culture and a healthy culture implies a healthy agriculture”
– Wolf D. Storl, Culture and Horticulture

Short Courses
All our short courses offer a Crossfields Institute certificate of attendance for CPD purposes. If you are interested in booking any of the courses listed below for your organisation, please contact us to discuss further details.
Some of our courses are offered by our own faculty and associates, for others we invite contributions from artists, academics, educators and practitioners from a range of different disciplines.
Our short courses take a transdisciplinary and integrative approach to topical themes and current issues.
Personal, professional and organisational development
Kindling
References to ‘fire’ can be found in a wide variety of contexts today. In education, it is not uncommon to find references to the ideal that education should be about kindling flames, not filling pails. Terms like ‘burnout’, ‘fire-fighting’ and a ‘slow burn’ pop up in organisations of all kinds and we will know from our own experience what it means to be running ‘too hot’ or ‘too cold’ in our roles, relationships and orientation to life. These are not mere metaphors. Understanding fire in ourselves, in our organisations and in each other is a key to knowing when we need to feed it or when we need to contain it. This workshop explores kindling in its many dimensions, starting from the embodied task of lighting a fire using the timeless technology of a firebow, hearthboard and spindle. Undertaken collaboratively, kindling goes to the heart of what it means to work together, what it takes to kindle a flame and what it means to keep it going. Kindling is a situated process – it is undertaken at a particular time, in specific places, with local materials and conditions. However, kindling is also more than just a local event, it helps us re-connect with those sparks of meaning and purpose that weave throughout our personal and professional lives.
Duration and format: The workshop can run in a full morning, though longer periods of time are preferable (a full day or even 2 days). This workshop is delivered on-site. Suitable sites are those with a courtyard, open playground, woodland or green campus. Sites are agreed together and where feasible a site visit is undertaken before the workshop.
Cost: Cost depends on length and format. Please contact Jonathan Code to discuss.
Facilitator: Jonathan Code. Jonathan has taught this workshop in a wide variety of contexts and countries. Kindlers have included agricultural apprentices, young adults in land-based learning settings, adults in organisations on staff development programmes, academics in conferences, teachers, school leaders, and interested members of the general public. Jonathan’s EdD research centres on the theme of ‘kindling’ in education and how it features in personal, professional and organisational development. Jonathan is a Senior Lecturer with Crossfields Learning. Please contact Jonathan Code for further information about this workshop. jonathan.code@crossfieldsinstitute.com
The following workshops focus on specific aspects of personal, professional and organisational development. These workshops have been developed and refined over a number of years and offer an excellent way to address specific needs within an organisation. All workshops are highly appropriate for Waldorf schools, and each can be tailored to the specific individual context.
1. Working with complexity and uncertainty in the workplace
This workshop addresses the increasingly common experience of uncertainty, complexity and anxiety in the work place. Participants explore the origins of these emotions in themselves, how they can effect relations with colleagues, and how to use practical tools to transform them.
2. Care, creativity and courage in the workplace
In this workshop participants explore the three qualities of care, creativity and courage and their role in creating healthy work environments. For a genuinely caring professional environment there must be courage to face the uncomfortable and creativity to liberate and release engrained habits. This requires awareness of the different kinds of narratives we can build up about ourselves and about others.
3. Developing self and others in the workplace
This workshop focuses primarily on the importance of self-development and self-leadership as the foundation for deepening collegial relationships in the workplace. This can take many forms, and in this workshop we explore some of these through practical tools, examples and exercises.
3. Performance and development reviews that make a difference
PDRs can often be box-ticking exercises that offer little in terms of real change and development for those involved. In this workshop we re-cast the traditional PDR and explore ways to make it a vital and important organ for collegial and professional development for individuals and for the whole organisation.
4. How to hold a meeting that matters
Given that meetings are part of the life-blood of most organisations, it is perhaps surprising how often poor meeting facilitation is a hall-mark of organisational culture. In this workshop participants learn how to use simple tools to facilitate meetings that matter. This can make a considerable difference to staff culture, productivity and general wellbeing across the whole organisation.
5. The art and craft of delegation
Delegation is a highly important aspect of the life of any organisation, and perhaps particularly so in Waldorf schools. And yet it is often poorly carried out. In this workshop participants learn some simple techniques for delegation and follow-up to ensure clear communication, motivation, responsibility and accountability.
Duration and format: These workshops are typically one half day to one full day. They can be taught in-person or through a combination of in-person and online delivery.
Cost: Cost depends on length and format. Please contact Charlotte von Bülow to discuss.
Facilitator: Charlotte von Bülow
Charlotte is a highly experienced leader and leadership coach who has lead organisations and worked with leadership teams for many years. She recently completed her PhD on the practice of attention in the workplace. She is currently senior lecturer at University West of England and director of Crossfields Europa. Please contact Charlotte von Bülow for further information about the above workshops. charlotte@crossfieldsinstitute.com
In-service workshops for Waldorf schools
Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom
In this workshop participants get to grips in a hands-on way with the main ideas presented in Steiner’s book The Philosophy of Freedom. Using experiential exercises and group discussion, participants explore the nature of sensory experience and the unique nature of the experience of thinking. This forms the basis for understanding Steiner’s radical idea of freedom, which lies at the basis of Steiner’s anthroposophy and at the basis of Waldorf education. The workshop is suitable both for those who want to understand Steiner’s philosophical stance, and also for those who want to apply his ideas in a practical way to their own personal and professional development.
Steiner’s picture of the human being as the basis of Waldorf education
In this workshop participants explore Steiner’s unique and fascinating developmental picture of the human being, against the backdrop of the cultural and historical influences of his time. The aim is not only to understand basic concepts, such as the distinction between body, soul and spirit and thinking, feeling and will, but also to consider the wider implications for education and for science today. Depending on need, the workshop can also focus more specifically on the basic underlying principles of Waldorf education and child development. A further theme that can be added is Steiner’s unique perspective on embodiment and how this relates to embodied and extended mind theories that have become so influential in recent years.
Meditation for personal and professional development
In this workshop participants explore the aims, principles and practices of meditation drawing primarily (though not exclusively) on the work of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner outlined a number of different practical approaches to meditation and concentration, and in this workshop participants explore general principles and techniques in a hands-on and experiential way. This workshop is for anyone interested in beginning or deepening a meditation practice with the aim of developing deeper self-knowledge, building resilience, and developing themselves both professionally and personally. The Workshop is particularly relevant for Waldorf teachers.
Duration and format: The above workshops can vary greatly in length depending on content and need. They can be in the form of a short introduction of 1.5 hours, a workshop over three days, or can be extended over a number of sessions over several weeks or months. They are normally taught in person (at an agreed location) but can also be taught through a combination of in-person and online delivery. It is also possible to do an entirely online version. The workshops are equally suitable for this with no previous knowledge of Steiner’s work and those with previous knowledge.
Cost: Cost depends on length and format. Please contact Fergus Anderson to disucss.
Facilitator: Fergus Anderson. Fergus has many years of experience in teaching this subject in a wide variety of contexts. Fergus did his PhD on the experience of thinking drawing on contemporary philosophy. He is also made an in-depth study of Steiner’s philosophy and anthroposophy. He also has a Masters in education, and has a particular interest in Waldorf education. He is programme leader for Philosophy and Practice of Integrative Education, which is a Crossfields post-graduate programme for Waldorf teachers. Please contact Fergus Anderson for further information about the above workshops. fergus@crossfieldsinstitute.com
Soap Making
Creative process, collaborative learning, new competence
“Part of craft’s anchoring role is that it helps to objectify experience and also to slow down labour. It is not about quick transactions or easy victories. That slow tempo of craftwork, of taking the time you need to do something well, is profoundly stabilizing to individuals.”
– Richard Sennett, The Craftsman
Soap making invites a profound engagement with the senses, essences from the plant world, and the dynamics of ‘separating’ and ‘reuniting’.
Weaving between the garden and the workshop, participants create washballs & vegetable oil soaps while discovering along the way some of the magic that lies in the making of this deceptively simple substance.
Soap making is a hands-on study of the polarities of ‘forming’ and ‘dissolving’ and their inter-weaving. It is both practical craft and catalyst for contemplation. This workshop includes both individual and collaborative activities.
Soap making workshops can be adapted to suit the needs of your context or organisation. Some of the activities that can be included in this workshop are:
- The chemistry of soap making
- An overview of traditional soap making, including the use of tallow and potash
- Gathering plants from the garden for soap making
- Understanding plant properties
- Victorian washballs
- The properties of essential oils
- Essential oil distillation
- Infused oils for soap making
- Cold process soap making
- Speciality methods in soap making
Aims
The aim of the workshop is to inspire and provide participants with an opportunity to be creative. The workshop also offers the possibility for participants to take a practical craft as the basis for exploring
- dynamics in creative processes that are analogous to processes in our personal and professional lives. We are thus enabled
- to have conversation and reflection about ourselves and our work through the medium of the creative process and materials.
Workshops can accommodate a variety of group sizes and can vary in length.
All equipment and materials are provided.
Contact dialogue@crossfieldsinstitute.com for more information
