Friday Flyer - 12th February 2026
Dear Michael Hall Community,
I was mulling over what theme to explore in this weeks Friday Flyer. The days are getting longer (though not much drier!), which is always welcome after the darkness of the deep winter months. There are signs of life growing from our rich soils, which is symbolic of a cycle and not an ending. Half the year has passed which is a suitable reflection point for an annual journey. But instead of opting for these, I have considered the theme of conformity, meeting expectations and how the individual can thrive with these societal demands to essentially ‘do the same as everyone else’.
At Michael Hall, our Waldorf education asks a deeper question: how do we hold expectations without asking children to conform in ways that diminish their individuality?
Our expectations create rhythm and reliability, and rhythm is one of the great foundations of healthy development. Children thrive when the world around them feels ordered, predictable and purposeful. In every school community there are expectations. Some are practical and necessary: arriving on time, caring for materials, speaking with kindness, completing work with effort and integrity.
Culturally we have developed into societies which exert powerful pressures toward conformity (but then employers want someone who can ‘think outside the box’!) how to look, what to value, what success should resemble. From a young age, children can feel the subtle pull to compare themselves with others or to measure their worth against external standards. In our caring and nurturing Waldorf setting, we work to create an environment where each child’s development is personal. I have heard it poetically and beautifully phrased as ‘each child’s unfolding is honoured as a unique beauty’. We recognise that development is not linear, nor identical from one child to another.
I have read in one of my exploratory guides that in Waldorf education readiness cannot be rushed and gifts cannot be forced. This does not mean the absence of standards. Rather, it means that expectations are rooted in growth rather than uniformity. We expect children to try, to practise, to persevere, to listen, to contribute, but we do not expect them to become replicas of one another. There are data informed norms which we can refer to at a developmental level, which support our understanding of where a child should be with their reading age, mathematical understanding and application of the mother tongue (we can draw academic expectations from this). However, our goal is not sameness; it is wholeness. A classroom may move together in rhythm, but each child’s inner journey is personal.
There is a quiet discipline in this approach. Freedom is not the absence of boundaries, it is the capacity to act with a sense of responsibility. When children experience clear expectations held with warmth and consistency, they gradually internalise them. Over time, what begins as outer structure becomes inner self-discipline. This is very different from conformity born of fear or comparison. It is growth born of trust, respect and an understanding that the adults around the child want the best for them.
As a community, we play an important role in modelling this balance of setting expectations and valuing the individual within the conformity of our actions and interactions. When we celebrate effort rather than outcome, character rather than performance, and authenticity rather than popularity, we send a powerful message. We show our children that meeting expectations is not about pleasing others at the expense of oneself — it is about striving to become the best version of who one truly is.
In our education, we hold both the form and the freedom. Structure and individuality. Expectation and imagination. In doing so, we commit to nurture young people who can stand confidently in the world not because they have conformed, but because they have grown into themselves.
For those who are having a break over the next week, I hope you have a lovely rest and enjoy high quality family time. For those who have to keep working, I hope you wake up with the will to do it well; and without the envy that may creep in if your spouse or partner is not working (speaking from personal experience!).
Warm wishes,
Stuart
Stuart McWilliams
Principal
Ways to Contribute
February's Forest Row Ceilidh Club is coming soon!
Organic Apple Juice from our orchard at Old Tile House
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