Our Mission

Gecko Garden is a school and community of teachers, children and families who collaborate to create an experience of life and education which values wonder, creativity, curiosity, respect, and ethical and environmentally sound practices equally with academics.

Our Vision

  • To foster curiosity, adventure and wonder in the children, teachers and families.

  • To provide a Waldorf/Steiner education to the children.

  • To nurture a supportive community of international families and teachers who work together to create a home away from home.

Our Story

Gecko Garden School (GGS) was founded in 2001 when the “Little Gecko” and “Garden” playgroups joined to create the first not-for-profit, parent-run preschool in Phnom Penh. In 2018, the teachers and parents of GGS decided to deepen our commitment to providing the most valuable, progressive and socially-appropriate education in the world, by becoming the first school in Cambodia to adopt Waldorf/Steiner education.

To accommodate the demand of families wanting to keep their children at GGS, the school expanded to having with 2 additional Kindergarten Classes in another campus that is just right in front of the main branch on street 21.

GGS and its loyal, caring and kind group of Khmer and international teachers have welcomed more than one thousand children in the years since, maintaining an ethos that values play-based learning, multicultural diversity, and family involvement.

About

Waldorf/Steiner

Education

Founded by Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart Germany in 1919, Waldorf/Steiner education has spread worldwide in its more than 100 years, with more than 1,200 independent schools and thousands of preschools and kindergartens worldwide. The Waldorf/Steiner curriculum is deeply rooted in Steiner’s theories of child development, with Waldorf teachers seeking to support each individual child at each stage of their childhood.

Waldorf Schools, including Gecko Garden, are rooted deeply in a commitment to social renewal and transformation, envisioning and striving to create each day a world that is just and beautiful for our own and future generations.

  • Recognized Environmental Priorities

    In 2019 GGS was recognized by Plastic Free Sea as the most plastic-free school in Cambodia. We believe a healthy relationship with the natural world is essential to our future. We teach children from the earliest years how to make creative use of natural resources to solve problems, helping establish the foundation for a generation of adults who can live full lives without reliance on plastics and dangerous materials.

  • Friends of Waldorf/Steiner Cambodia

    GGS is a founding member of Friends of Waldorf/Steiner Cambodia, a group dedicated to bringing the impulse of Waldorf education to the children and families of Cambodia. The group advocates love of nature, culture, and each other, and personal freedom for all.

  • Supporters of the Alliance for Childhood

    The Alliance for Childhood is an international network of people and organisations, acting nationally and locally. The aim of the Alliance is to raise awareness in society of the importance of a good and healthy childhood, promoting the development of human beings able to build a society based on a culture of peace, environmental sustainability and respect for all differences.