One of the first Romanian Waldorf initiatives was founded in Timișoara, in western Romania, two years after the 1989 revolution. The number of pupils at Liceul Waldorf Timișoara grew steadily in the years that followed, until the first school classes grew into a middle and upper school. Single classes gradually became double classes and at some point, the urgent need for a larger school building became clear. A small extension had to suffice temporarily; the preparation classes were housed in the kindergarten. A new solution urgently needed to be found for the ever-growing school.

This led to the first plans for new, separate buildings for the middle school, which would meet the needs of both pupils and teachers. It was envisaged that the primary and sixth form would remain in the existing buildings for the time being, and another building would, one day, be constructed for the high school – the sixth form. When the plans were eventually finalised, the city applied for EU funding of 3.5 million euros. However, during the realisation of the plans, it quickly became clear that the funds would not be enough. The anticipated costs had doubled in the meantime. The city council then agreed to cover the additional costs and ultimately contributed around 55% of the construction costs. This makes the city of Timișoara the first in Romania to contribute to the construction of a new Waldorf school. In addition, the school furniture totalling 707,980 leu was financed from the municipal budget, which equates to around 142,250 euros.

The new building has a spacious and extensive design. It consists of 20 rooms, eight of which are classrooms, each measuring over 70 square metres. The other rooms will be used, for laboratories for biology, chemistry and physics, as well as for music and eurythmy; there were, until this point, no separate rooms for these subject and activities. In total, there will be space for around 750 pupils on the school grounds, or around 29 per class. Currently, 580 children are on roll at the Liceul Waldorf in Timișoara. We currently have 44 teachers and as the number of pupils increases, we will probably grow to be a teaching team of around 60 colleagues.
 
The new school building was completed in the autumn of 2024. Both the pupils and we, the teachers are looking forward to teaching in the new premises. Unfortunately, we will probably have to wait until March 2025 for it to be approved by the various authorities. But what takes a long time ...

Robert Dycke