It began under a tree.

Lesedi opened in 1989 with one teacher, six children, and a borrowed mat. Thirty-seven years later, the same school carries a full primary and a boarding home.

The founder

Emily Maobelo came home.

Emily was born in Madietane and trained as a Waldorf kindergarten teacher in Cape Town, then in Stuttgart. In 1989, against the advice of almost everyone, she came back to her village to start a kindergarten of her own.

She believed the children of Madietane deserved the same education as the children of Cape Town — or Stuttgart. Emily passed in 2006. The school she planted under a tree continues to grow, in the hands of the teachers she taught.

The growth

Thirty-seven years, step by step.

1989

Emily Maobelo came home to Madietane after training as a Waldorf teacher in Cape Town and Stuttgart. She started with six children, one borrowed mat, and the belief that village children deserved what city children got.

1998

The first kindergarten children were ready for primary school, so the school grew alongside them and Class 1 opened. Parents had built the first classroom by hand, on weekends, a few years before.

2004

The same six children who started kindergarten finished the full Waldorf primary course in Class 7. The school had proved it could carry a child the whole way.

2009

A long-time donor funded two simple dormitories. The first ten boarders arrived from villages too far for a daily journey. The boarding home has been full ever since.

Today

A full primary school, a boarding home, and twenty-one teachers. The kindergarten still meets under the same tree where Emily started. A registered NPO (016-343) and an independent school under the Limpopo Schools Act.

The Federation

Part of a wider Waldorf family.

Lesedi belongs to the Southern African Federation of Waldorf Schools — seventeen sister schools spanning sixty-five years of Waldorf education in this country. The Federation is currently chaired by William Bester, who has mentored Lesedi for many years.

The worldwide movement we belong to was founded in 1919 and is today one of the largest non-denominational independent school movements in the world. We are the youngest, smallest and most rural of its South African schools — and that is part of why we matter.

Lesedi is a Sepedi name — the light. A child who knows where they are from grows up unafraid of where they are going.

Rooted in this place · Open to the world

Registered & accountable

The paperwork, in the open.

Nonprofit

NPO 016-343

Registered under the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997.

Independent school

Limpopo Province registration

Registered Independent Primary School under the Limpopo Province School Education Act No. 9 of 1995.

Affiliation

Federation member

Member of the Southern African Federation of Waldorf Schools, assessed annually each September.

Coming from the schoolTeacher and staff names with photos — the people who carry Emily's school today.

Read on

Curious about how we teach?

The Learning page walks the full journey, Kindergarten to Class 7.

The Learning Visit us