Thomas Muller
Role in nursery school: Tom will be the lead teacher at Acacia Tree Nursery School in 2011.
Tom is better known in East London as Tom's circus and Games and he regularly entertains and teaches circus at fairs, festivals, shopping centres and birthday parties. He works for Reach for a Dream as a clown that entertains children in hospitals in the East London area
Tom went to the Michael Mount Waldorf School from Kindergarten until Class 12. When he left school he worked as an apprentice on Biodynamic farms (the farms connected to the Waldorf education) both in South Africa and the UK.
In 1996 he joined Buccaneers Backpackers in Chintsa to help run tours into the Transkei and this is where he met Madeleine. In 1997 Tom and Madeleine traveled to the UK and Tom did a 5 year training in Bothmer Gymnastics.
About Bothmer Gymnastics: Graf von Bothmer lived in the early part of the 20th century and inspired by Rudolf Steiner created exercises that is particularly relevant to the movement development of the child. Based on his work a training has been created which teaches the movement curriculum for Waldorf schools. It studies healthy movement development and look at what is appropriate in a Movement curriculum for children at different ages.
In 1999 Tom also joined the Waldorf Class teacher training at Elmfield School in Strourbridge, which he completed in 2001. After he left he became the Games Teacher at Wynstones Waldorf School where he was head of Games and Gymnastics until his return to South Africa. He knows a wide range of traditional games and had an active circus club that performed at the yearly Spring festival.
Whilst working at Wynstones he decided to do a part time specialization in Spacial Dynamics - attending courses in both Stuttgart and New York and completed his Level 2 certificate in 2006. As a Spacial Dynamics practitioner he uses movement and posture in its therapeutic aspects and since returning to South Africa has seen patients in both Johannesburg and East London.
He has just completed building his family a house out of Rammed Earth - which has kept him busy for the best part of 3 years! On Weekends he entertains at parties - using his wide range of circus skills and equipment and his knowledge of traditional games.
