Primary: Class 4-7

CLASS FOUR
The theme-story of the Class Four year is Norse Mythology. These stories, that are always so well received by successive Class Fours contain within them the very things children are grappling with at this stage - the battle between light and darkness, extremes of cold and heat, how to meet challenges and preserve what is beautiful and good.

Studies of nature take in the fascinating variety of the animal kingdom. At this age children's love of animals and natural phenomena is easily aroused and engaged. The fables and stories of Class and Three are now left behind and the animal kingdom is presented as a factual study, so that the child learns to appreciate the perceptible forms of creatures whose developed bodies enable them to function in many wonderful, specialised ways. Here a distinction is made with human beings whose 'unspecialised' hands, for example, provide the freedom for artistic, creative and practical use.

Class Fours approach Geography through a study from their immediate environment further into the wider world. They learn to connect with this ever-widening world through feelings and their newly developed sense of accurate observation.

Grammar moves from the more pictorial presentations of Class Two and Three into the more - dealing with a basic analysis of parts of speech and tenses. Number work, now called mathematics, introduces fractions while the crossing of the mid line which awakens and supports the child's unfolding consciousness is finally consolidated and strengthened by the weaving patterns in Form Drawing, the cross-stitch work in Handwork and the movements in Eurythmy and Bothmer Gym.

CLASS FIVE
Typically the child in Class Five is experiencing a warm loving and balanced time. This is truly the heart of childhood. The growing child who at first is strongly directed by adults (educators and parents in the partnership of education) is slowly becoming more independent. Eleven year-olds are now more conscious of themselves as individuals and learning more and more to cope with the material world. In Class Five, the curriculum mirrors this dawning consciousness of the child through the mythologies of ancient civilizations, from Ancient India, Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt to Greece at the beginning of Class 6. The children are beginning to be interested in and fascinated by the causes of phenomena. The form and nature of a plant which grows here in South Africa, in the sub-tropics, will be very different from one growing in a cold climate. Plants growing at the coast will differ from those in the Drakensberg. The progression of Natural History Studies from humans, through animals to plants will lead on to geological studies in the Minerals of the Earth in Class Six.

CLASS SIX
The Class Six child is approaching twelve years of age. Physically this stage is characterized by a period of growth, and they become awkward and heavy as their limbs begin the lengthening process. There is a more consciously thoughtful involvement with both their inner and outer world, and opportunities for discussion often arise as they query and challenge. The time is now ripe for ordering and formalizing, for the imaginative solving of real problems and for establishing a balance between aesthetic appreciation and technical, scientific precision. The core themes of the year attempt to meet this developing consciousness of the children. The highly disciplined military organization of the Romans with their efficient communication and transport systems, and the development of a sophisticated system of government and law becomes a vital theme of Class Six. The topography, climate, rainfall, temperatures, vegetation and animals of Africa are presented in various ways: from a sociological study (the traditional way of life of the peoples of the continent) or from a topographical study (forming a large scale three dimensional map of the continent). Variety that presents scientifically accessible information holds sway in Class Six.

CLASS SEVEN
In Class Seven the children have come to their final year in primary school and also their final year with their class teacher. The learners are approaching an important crossroad: the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence. They have spent six years developing and structuring their inner faculties: they have practiced clear thinking, worked creatively, and learnt to acknowledge and express their feelings and to care for and communicate with one another. They have been challenged to expand their limits and yet recognize boundaries; they have had to develop social awareness in all dynamics of the class and group activities. Now it is time for the individual to emerge from the safety of the inner space to face the outer world. This process is evident in the outer changes of the physical body at this age, but also in new emotional intensity.

This is a time for the children to follow the sea-routes of the great European and Asian navigators to the Spice islands and India and the Americas. The curriculum then returns the children to Renaissance Europe and Asia, a time of great change. They meet scientists who developed abstract concepts; new ideas and philosophies: artists and inventors who changed the world, and great individuals who led the people. The children learn a great deal about the physical world, which they are ready to enter and conquer, but through careful observation they can discover the essence and processes which bring it alive. Thus in Physics they concentrate on the lifeless concepts of mechanics, magnetism and electricity, to discover the strength and energy in them. In Chemistry, studied for the first time in Class Seven, the children look at the characteristics of substances and how they relate to one another. Through careful observation new concepts are discovered. Class Seven learners realize that only when abstract concepts are combined with thoughtful observation of the processes, can true principles be derived.

Geography in Class Seven presents the world as a living organism. What has been learnt in history about the voyages of discovery is incorporated with the children's understanding of ancient civilizations from Class Five and the work on Africa and Europe from Class Six is expanded. The Main Lesson includes the children's knowledge of plants and animals and of weather and seasons as well as introducing Astronomy.
Biology introduces a study of the digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems of the human body. The transforming thirteen year-olds begin to realize how all the physical matter they take in becomes transformed and how everything in the world out there affects them within. In Mathematics they learn about positive and negative numbers, about square roots and the balancing of algebraic equations. Here as in all the work done in Class Seven, the focus is on balance and transformation from childhood to youth; to step out of the focus on one's inner world and into the outer, physical world; to find the courage to reveal one's own individuality.