WILLOW TREE KINDERGARTEN TEAM
lily clark
Lead Teacher & Manager Little Kindergarten
Lily joined in September 2019 and is the Teacher Manager of Willow Tree Fishponds. She has a BEd. Honours Degree in Education and is a qualified Steiner Primary School Teacher. Lily was fortunate to have a Steiner education and believes that a Steiner kindergarten experience truly cherishes and supports the young child’s development and early learning needs. She has worked for many years as a Steiner School Teacher in various Steiner Schools in England and abroad before becoming an Early Years Steiner Kindergarten Teacher. She worked in the Bristol Steiner School Rowan Tree Kindergarten for 3 years as a Parent & Child Leader, followed by 3 years as a Kindergarten Teacher there and then joined the Steiner Academy Kindergarten for a further 3 years before joining the Willow Tree Kindergarten.
Lily is passionate about children’s development and providing them with inspiring and engaging play and learning opportunities which incorporates their individual interests and allows them to grow with confidence within their environment. She feels it is a privilege to be a part of a young child’s development and watch them take their first tentative steps on their learning journey to become independent human beings and a part of the world we live in.
rose douglas
Afternoon Teacher
Rose is our Afternoon Lead Teacher, and has been working with us at the Willow Tree since 2018.
Rose has had a lifelong involvement with Steiner education, having herself attended a Steiner school, and her children having also received a Steiner education.
After completing a BA degree at Bath Spa University, during which Rose took modules in Education and did placements in a Steiner Kindergarten - doing her final dissertation on Steiner Education; Rose went on to do the Steiner kindergarten training in London.
She has a Level 5 qualification in early years.
Rose has spent her life working with children and in education, working as a nanny and in early years nurseries, and working with 16-25 year olds with autism and other learning difficulties at the Steiner inspired education centre Ruskin Mill College.
Rose has a passion for child centred, unhurried holistic education, where creativity and imagination and the aspects of head, heart and hands are celebrated and nurtured. She loves celebrating the seasons and festivals with the children and within her family home, nature walks, baking, wild swimming, music, reading, travel and adventures!
Hiroka Dathan
Deputy Manager & SENCO
Hiroka has always been passionate about Early Years Education. She has studied level 3 childcare, has a BA in Early Childhood Studies and completed a level 6 post graduate in Early Years Professional/ Teacher Status. Hiroka has worked in and managed a range of childcare settings including day nurseries and children's centres. She also has experience as an Early Years Inspector.
Steiner Education has always been close to her heart, having attended Steiner schools from the age of 7 to 18 in Japan and in the UK and then to seeking Steiner education for her own children.
Hiroka was involved in setting up the 'Little Kindi' in Fishponds and was part of The Apple Tree Steiner Home Education group in Bristol.
She feels very fortunate to be part of the Willow Tree team to spread the joys of a gentle and unhurried childhood and continue to create a beautiful space for children to explore and grow.
Magda Palinska
Kindergarten Assistant
Magda has been at Willow Tree since January 2026. She has worked as an educator for the past 20 years, 15 years at various Steiner Waldorf settings. She has a BA in teaching and an MA in linguistics. She worked with young children and teenagers with neurodiversities at the Sheiling school as well as in the SAB kindergarten and Bristol Steiner School with main school children as a LSA/classroom assistant. She has just started Level 3 early years training.
Magda strongly believes that Steiner/Waldorf education, especially kindergarten, provides invaluable experiences for children that will stay with them for life, like awe and respect for natural environment and all living creatures and creativity.
Magda enjoys reading, walking, sailing and languages.
Abi Oborne
Kindergarten Assistant & Admissions
Abi joined Willow Tree in the summer term of 2025. Abi has a degree in Fine Art and has worked in a variety of roles including an art technician in two secondary schools and at a community arts and creative hub in Stokes Croft. Whilst her children were young, she worked at a nursery chain doing their accounts and bookkeeping in the back office and a little seed was planted realising that she might like to spend her days with the children rather than in an office.
It was during the Covid lockdowns when her daughter was at home learning, that Abi realised she might like to go back into education but this time at kindergarten level.
Abi has three children, all of whom she took to parent & child and two of her children also went to Willow Tree Little Kindy in Fishponds and has been encorparating Steiner rhythms into her home life ever since.
Abi is currently studying for her Level 3 in Childcare and enjoys anything creative but especially printmaking, drawing, knitting and sewing. She'll also be found gardening at home and on her allotment or exploring woodlands with her family. She values creativity, ecological sustainability and is passionate about learning through play, especially outside in nature.
Nicola Bohlen
Kindergarten Assistant
Kindergarten Support TEam
Floredia hrissikou
Deputy Manager & SENCO
Floredia joined the Willow Tree Fishponds in September 2018. She has been involved with Steiner education for 20 years, since her first son joined the Rowan Tree KG. The other two followed and all three went through the Bristol Steiner School (BSS) from KG to Main School.
For the last 10 years,she has worked as a classroom Assistant, initially at BSS Main School and then at the Rowan Tree KG.
After that, she worked for 3 years as a KG Assistant at the Steiner Academy in Fishponds, when it first opened. She has a Level 3 Diploma in EY and Young People workforce. She is passionate about unhurried childhood, loves being part of the Steiner community in Bristol, supporting children and young families (both as a Steiner EY practitioner, but also as a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor) and immersing herself in kindergarten life and craft projects.
Karolina Czyć
Kindergarten Assistant
PARENT AND CHILD (St ANNE'S)
Susy Jackson AZEVEDO
Parent & Child Group Lead
Susy joined Little Kindergarten in April 2023. She was a mainstream Primary school teacher for five years before having her two children. Susy discovered Waldorf when her children were small and lives a Waldorf inspired family life at home. Once her children were both at school, she went on to return to working in education as a Learning Support Assistant in a local primary school, before joining us here at Little Kindy. She loves sustainability, crafting, walks in the woods, camping and encouraging open-ended imaginative play.
ADMINISTRATION TEAM
Kate Harvey
Finance & Office Manager
Kate joined Willow Tree in June 2023 and is responsible for payroll and invoicing, plus all other financial responsibilities within Kindergarten.
Abi Oborne
Admissions
As well as working in the kindergarten as an assistant, Abi also manages our admissions. She has a wealth of experience working in community arts and nursery business management, accounts and bookkeeping.
TRUSTEES
jAN COLES
Chair of Trustees - Child Protection and Wellbeing Lead
Jan founded the Willow Tree with a group of parents in January 2010. She has a Steiner Waldorf Early Years Diploma graduating in 1996. She taught for many years at the Rowan Tree Kindergarten, part of the Bristol Steiner School. She is a mother of three who, all went through BSS from kindergarten to the age of 14. She is also now a grandmother. Having managed and been the lead teacher at the Kindergarten until 2016, Jan ran the Parent and Child groups from 2016 - 2020.
Siobhan Gilchrist
Treasurer
Tara johnson
Tara helped set up the Willow Tree with Jan Coles and other parents in 2010 and has returned as a trustee 16 years later. In that time she has completed her Steiner Waldorf teacher training, helped to create the Steiner Academy in Bristol in 2015, and worked with others to set up the Apple Tree Steiner home school group in 2019.
She now runs a Play Therapy practice in St Pauls, using the Waldorf picture of child development to help children make sense of their world through play.
Alice Masson-Taylor
Alice joined the Willow Tree family when her eldest started in 2023. Her interest in Waldorf early years quickly grew and she feels passionate about what the Willow Tree team offer to Bristol families. She became a Trustee in 2024 with the aim of contributing and supporting this. She worked as a Buyer for Film and TV and more recently as a facilitator in Community Garden settings with a focus on wellbeing.
Alex Harrison