Mantles of Care for Young People
Available in Australia
“Mantles of Care” approaches the individual as body, soul and spirit from a salutogenic health perspective - the basis of Rudolf Steiner's Waldorf Education and all faculties of life.
Mantles of care revisit basic daily health and hygiene practices with the use of plants, natural materials and elements such as colour, texture, sound, tone, touch, rhythm, temperature. Together with the uprightness of the adults providing care, the children’s etheric bodies are nourished and their forces of growth and learning more able to receive and partake in a day. Full and vital etheric forces provide the ground for the higher members of the human being to find their place in the bodily constitution. As well as lesson content, these mantles may assist the digestion of food and social interactions.
Developing the Self Developing the World health practitioners work alongside teachers and parents to bring mantles of care to support healthy sensory development and the awareness of interactions, attention, self-regulation, and daily health and hygiene practices. Teachers have expressed that children have had a restorative time that has then enabled them to settle into their school work more readily.
Care and renewal sessions for students throughout the school day
Our health practitioners visit individual classes to offer experiences from the mantles of care. Most often it starts with a conversation between a class teacher and a health practitioner to understand the unique nature of the class so that the most suited offerings are brought to the young people.
The series may be offered to the whole class during an afternoon session or in groups of 6- 8 throughout the day.
A rhythm of three can support a deeper working and experiencing of the mantles, and this is encouraged such as three afternoons, or three days.
Classroom Care Space
Advise can be offered in ways to bolster the etheric of the Classroom so it too gives to the children. Creating a permanent space in a classroom that holds a gesture of harmony as well as the items that the children have created for their care helps to establish a rhythm where individual children can return to harmony whilst remaining with their class. From this space the educators can provide mantles of care and with maturity the children can work towards self-regulation within the classroom ethos.
The purpose of introducing Mantles of Care through the Classes could be seen:
To introduce students in their Class group to developmentally appropriate and curriculum supported self-care that will equip them for caring for themselves now and towards adulthood.
To introduce hygienic care practises to support students’ daily hygiene and uprightness.
To introduce care practises to support self-regulation in Class and in daily life.
To support a Class ethos of caring for self and caring for others.
To establish a care space as a part of the Class culture of care, and together gather and create the equipment needed.
To support students towards harmony.
To experience one’s own skin and boundary an age appropriate considerations towards consent.
As an opportunity to provide practical examples to parents of the possibilities or creating reverent and nourishing moments out of every day activities.
To introduce sessions for periods within Class time with students working with self care practices and their own items to invite harmony.
Individual sessions for students, teachers and parents
In a school setting, we contribute to observations and child studies with staff that further extended with the consideration of anthroposophic remedies, home-care, eurythmy and painting to support each child.
Individual appointments are available for therapeutics and mentoring.