“Here you’re trained to be someone who can do almost anything. Arable farming seems to me to be the most fun. I like being on a tractor. In the holidays here at Warmonderhof, I’ve already ridden one.”

“The diversity of classes, activities and people makes it unique”

Okke Rave (18) is a first-year student at the time of this interview. He’s doing practical training in horticulture, livestock farming, arable farming and fruit growing and doesn’t have to choose a specific direction just yet.
“Before I came here, I was training to be a carpenter, but I quit that. It wasn’t broad enough. Warmonderhof is. After attending an open day, I knew it: this is it for me. It’s the perfect match for my passion for machinery. And you get to combine it with agriculture. Here you’re trained to be able to do almost anything. You learn how to work on a farm, you learn how the business runs, and you learn all about organic and biodynamic farming.

“I love technology”

“I was only seventeen when I came to live here. Everything was new. Starting the week with a week ‘opening’ with the whole school was new for me. It was exciting, and also quite difficult sometimes in the beginning. All of a sudden, I had to take care of myself. Luckily, I was well taken care of in the house I shared there with all senior students. I actually became friends with everyone there.
“I like engineering. I like creating something based on an idea. That’s why I also like studying art so much. I get to make something with my hands. The diversity of classes, activities and people is unique here. In my house, a few students are quite anthroposophical. But there’s one other student apart from myself who isn’t that at all. But we always have fascinating conversations at the table and everyone is accepted. There’s an openness to everything, and everyone has their place.

“I definitely want some tractors”

“The living-working-learning environment is intense. When you get home, you still feel as though you’re at school, and vice versa. There’s quite a bit of social control. Employees live here on the Court, and teachers also regularly stay overnight because they live far away. Then, if you’ve been partying late into the night, you’ll sometimes get remarks about it early in the morning in class, or outside on the pathway.
“Of course, it will still be three years before I graduate from Warmonderhof, but I already have some ideas of what I want to do then. At the end of this first year, I will have had all the practical training: livestock farming as well as arable farming, fruit growing and horticulture. And the way I see it now, in the future I’ll be working on an arable farm, similar to the one here. I don’t necessarily need any animals on the land. But I definitely want some tractors!”