About Us

The concept of the English Week is based on our conviction that intensive artistic work with actors, directors, story-tellers, poets and clowns, can be of immeasurable benefit for foreign language teachers. Thus, we view the daily three-hour artistic workshops as the keystone of the entire English Week. In addition, there are morning lectures based on the general conference theme and a wide variety of working groups addressing different methodological issues and questions, as well as a 'Teachers Sharing' offering an exchange of materials and ideas. The evenings are full of the "Spirit of English" in the forms of songs, dances and artistic presentations. Another aspect that has always been important to us is to encourage an open exchange with leading authorities in foreign language teaching outside of Waldorf circles.


The Team

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Peter Lutzker

Prof. Dr. Peter Lutzker taught English in Waldorf Schools in Germany for twenty five years, first in Frankfurt and then in Düsseldorf. He has been been active in Waldorf teacher education in Germany and in other European countries since 1990. Since 2011, he has been working full time at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart (Waldorf Teachers College), teaching Anthroposophy, pedagogical anthropology and the methodology of English foreign language teaching.

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Silvia Albert-Jahn

Silvia Albert-Jahn started teaching English at the Waldorf School in Mülheim in 1987. For many years she has been involved in training English teachers and held seminars and workshops at the Institut für Waldorfpädagogik in Witten, at the Alanus Hochschule in Alfter and at the Teacher Training College in Mannheim and Stuttgart. She was one of the co-founders of the English Week.

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Doris Schlott-Lüdicke

After my studies of economics I worked in Greece (export company) and as assistant to the general manager in a Frankfurt hotel. Through my children I found anthroposophy and attended various courses on child development and education. After moving to London with my family I studied English at the Cambridge University (TEFL exam - Teaching English as a Foreign Language), did the two-year Waldorf teacher training course at the Steiner House in London and the RSS Kings Langley, where I afterwards worked as a German teacher. Since we returned back to Frankfurt in 1996 I have been teaching at the Frankfurt Waldorf School all grades up to class 11, but especially enjoy classes 4 to 10. I have worked as well in Waldorf teacher training for quite some years.

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Martyn Rawson

Dr. Martyn Rawson was born in Glasgow a long time ago (1954), went to school in Edinburgh and Hull then studied at Cambridge and York. He helped to found the York Steiner School then moved to Germany where taught English in Stuttgart at the Freie Waldorfschule Uhlandshöhe. He returned to the UK and taught in Botton and Michael Hall School (English, history and history of Art). This was followed by a return to Germany, where he taught English and History in Elmshorn and he now teaches in Hamburg. Nowadays his main job is in teacher education at the Waldorfseminar Kiel, the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart and in Kassel. Over the years he has written a number of books and many articles on various aspects of Waldorf education and does research. He supports Waldorf education internationally with lectures, workshops, coaching and regularly visiting China, India, Taiwan and South Africa. He supports Ulrike Sievers on the elewa online learning platform for Waldorf teachers and has a website and blog at www.learningcommunitypartners.eu.

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Christoph Jaffke

Prof. Dr. Christoph Jaffke attended the Rudolf Steiner Schule Wuppertal and started teaching English in a Waldorf School in Stuttgart/Germany in 1967. He is one of the most experienced English teachers in the Waldorf movement. He published the first scientific research about the teaching methods for the Lower School in Waldorf and in main-stream education. In 1976, he initiated the series Materials for Language Teaching in Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf Schools. He has been involved in training English teachers at the Waldorf Teacher Training College in Stuttgart since 1975. He holds seminars and workshops in Europe, Asia and South America.

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Ulrike Sievers

Ulrike Sievers was born in the North of Germany in 1959, into a family whose business was a tree nursery, thus combining her future interests in biology and pedagogy, which she studied together with English literature and linguistics in Kiel. Ulrike raised three children and then moved back into formal education. She taught her subjects at the Freie Waldorfschule Elmshorn for nearly 20 years and is now a teacher and school leader at the Christian Morgenstern Schule, an inner-city school in Hamburg. Inspired by Waldorf pedagogy and action research, she has done practice research in the field of foreign language teaching for many years. She has been working in teacher education at the English Week, at the Waldorf seminar in Hamburg and in different countries. Recently she published a book in which she shares a holistic approach to foreign language teaching, “Creative teaching, sustainable learning”. Together with Martyn Rawson, she runs a platform for online courses for the professional development of Waldorf teachers, elewa – www.e-learningwaldorf.de. In her free time, Ulrike enjoys creative writing, reading, travelling and being outside in the sun, wind and rain. She lives in Northern Germany.

English Week 2023 - “The forms of things unknown…”: Learning Words in a Foreign Language