Steiner Schools...

[princesss]

Any experiences/ views on a Steiner education, I'm looking at St. Pauls in Islington

fantasticfixit...if this hate this thread why dont you just read and comment on threads that interest you.you are quite rude and you have lost me on the google it thing, plus why you would think I would want to impress people I don't even know?????! is that what your trying to do?

thanks amuminscotland that is a very interesting point you have made. there have been some very good points raised here on this discussion, I find it quite bizarre the controversy steiner can create...i cant wait to get in on the open day! :)

Princesss - what interests me more is that in other posts you have made you have specified schools that have a uniform, and where children sit SATS and discounted others where this does not happen. It is all at odds with your thread here, isn't it?

I have every right to comment on any thread that I like - and actually, for the record this does interest me enormously. Some of the posters here have been incredibly informative. You however, are seeking validation for a decision you clearly have already made. I wish you all the best of luck with the education that you have chosen for your child - I haven't disputed that in any way.

I don't believe it is 'rude' to point out that you claim to have a lot of experience of Montessori but cannot spell the name of the school or education.

Anyway, this really is all a waste of breath quite frankly because you have made your mind up. I'm not sure why you asked for advice and experiences when that is clearly the case. It feels a bit voyeristic to me.

All the best
TFF

I think a lot of the "controversy Steiner can create" is largely borne of their speed at shutting down debate about Steiner, and threats of litigation (not on this thread- yet- but I looked into Steiner a while ago being v disaffected with State ed, and unwilling to go to the standard private sector, and was at what I read...)

I ended up with home ed, which fit in comfortably with our domestic set up, tho appreciate it's not possible for many. Steiner made my skin creep...

Interesting thread. Seems to me that the OP has made her mind up and simply wants to share the 'benefits' of this style of education.

Having read this thread I am now very confused. I thought Montessori was more unstructured learning and Steiner was more structured. For example, someone once told me that in Steiner schools colours and shapes are introduced one by one. Only when the child is confident with the first thing does the child move on to the next thing. This appealed to me because, although I personally found some aspects of formal education constraining, I also found that there was quite a lot of pressure. For me, an educational philosophy that instils confidence in children can only be a good thing. I think I need to find out more about all of these educational philosophies. Having said that, I don't think there is the choice outside of London.

MollieO - yes I think you have hit the nail on the head there. An OP who already knows about anthroposophy and tells us how great Steiner education is in comparison with either mainstream or Montessorri. And who dismisses the huge amounts of criticism which Steiner has had as "personal bias". Interesting.....

In the past I've criticised the posters who came on here specifically to support Steiner education against any criticism as being too blatant to be anything other than the direct agents of Steiner Waldorf, and pointed out how unconvincing that made them. Perhaps they have got a little more savvy?

thanks to you guys who have sent me PM's about your experiences its good to hear some people talk with authority about the steiner experience ;)

i guess with the road less travelled there are always the less educated (people who havn't experienced first hand-such as myself) these people can either question those with knowledge or preach from a position of ignorance

Please PM me any more experiences as this thread is getting bogged down by the anti steiner brigade (why they are so bothered beats me, but im finding it all quite humerous!)

im collating all the info and questions for the open day and feel a lot more knowledgeable about the ethics in practice now! thank you!

I think there is a massive disconect between those people who fully understand and promote Steiner principles and those Steiner parents , who simply use the fact that their children attend a Steiner School as an opportunity to mask their own agenda. For exam

Given our Steiner experience, I would suggest a state school would best fit your needs, or home ed, or a more laid back non-Steiner private school.

I thought Steiner was great when we first went, but left with my second child after a hideous child protection disaster, another parent left the same week due to the teacher bullying her daughter, other incidents included teachers dragging 'naughty' children across the playground, and a statemented child not getting his one-to-one support, but a student who was helping in the class being told to lie to the parents should they ask. All incidents that would not happen in better regulated schools.

We went to the open day at St Pauls a few years ago and I found it ghastly. The woman who showed us around judged me openly for working and the whole atmosphere was pretentious and forced.

Princesss I am not at all recognising your picture of Montessori education. I went to a Montessori primary in the Netherlands and it was all very child-led, with children being allowed to progress at their own pace and not being regimented at all. They were really good, supporting children who found reading and writing hard and letting them do it at their own pace, and bringing in secondary-level work for those children who were ready for it rather than making them skip a year.

I've no personal experience of Steiner schools, but I did know a Steiner couple back in the Netherlands who adhered to the teaching rigidly, and their DD was the most frustrated, intelligent, angry child ever because she was not allowed to learn to read despite being emotionally and intellectually ready (knew letters and sounds, had taught herself, was verbally slapped down every time she tried it). Not a fan as a result.

But as other posters have said, you seem to be looking more for validation of your choices than for information.

TanyaBranning anyone who criticised me for working at a school open day would have had a scathingly polite earful!

Tanya, I'd have been furious - especially since Steiner schools are fee paying. If you don't work, how are they meant to get their money???

I think it's fair to say that there are wonderful and dreadful schools throughout the educational system. But unless you have your heart set on Steiner because you are a true follower of its philosophy, I'd look around. Look for community schools. They have child-centred, non pressurised learning. My DCs go to one, because it is the local school. Frustrating at times, as despite being bright and about to go into yr 5 they still don't even know their three times table. So we've realised we have to do the boring stuff at home while they spend hours doing the fun stuff like cooking, gardening, art, craft, music, theatre, nature rambles, all day long! they bound out of school saying: We had no lessons AGAIN today! But they are very happy and they do love learning. And although they lack all the requirements met by a more rigid education (punctuation, times tables) they are very knowledgable, confident children who are very natural and as far from being identikit as 400kids could be.

So, if you find a local state school with that approach, you could save your money and spend it on fantastic holidays and music lessons and hundreds of books and music downloads for your children - all those gorgeous extras.

Ditto menagerie. dds at a community school (state primary) and lots of support there for being happy, creatiec individuals who look after chickens, plants and each other, make things, see their ideas become reality (if they are good ones). Very confident, happy children come out of there.

creative, even.

Menagerie - are you in England? All state schools have to follow the NC. They can be child led and wonderful, but they do also have to teach times tables and puntuation.

I would be deeply concerned if I had a child in yr 5 who didn't know their 3 times table (assuming they were NT). What will happen in two years time when they are at secondary school and struggling?

Have read through all the thread and I'm not aiming to start another Steiner debate here but I wanted to ask if anyone with experience of St Paul's Steiner school in Islington could PM with their experience I would be really grateful. I would be moving my DS aged 6 from a Catholic primary (where he is hugely resistant and unhappy with reading and writing) and looking for possible experiences with this kind of transfer and the school's management in general. Thanks in advance!

No experience of Steiners, but speaking as someone who had a very school resistant six year old, it was a very nurturing prep school with a decent SEN dept and loads of extra curricular activities that got him interested in school - the resistance to education was caused by dyslexia related panic, I've never looked back.

I don't know about your DS, but if he did have SEN a Steiner wouldn't be the best place. My DS is very very bright, so his lack of engagement with school was baffling - I might have thought a freer approach at school was the way forward (he'd loved Montessori nursery) but for a helpful comment about it possibly being dyslexia.

Obviously I don't know the Steiner you're looking at, but I'd try some tasters at other more conventional places too.

Evidently not much spelling was done in montissauri (?) schools back in the day.

Actually, I'd just like to say that I was at normal school until the age of 14- I then moved to a Steiner school as I really disliked liked the school that I was at.
I have never been in such a great environment, I got all a*'s a's in my GCSE's and it was a place that the teachers genuinely care about the welfare of the students- it really wasn't as wish-washy as others make it out to be and although the ethos IS different all that I noticed was that the other students were a lot more down to earth and fundamentally kinder more accepting people. My children will be going to a Steiner school and it angers me a lot when people who don't know it knock it.
Obviously not everyone got A* A's but as is everywhere it depends on the child.

My best friend (who is black) taught for a year in a Steiner school in the Netherlands. There were a lot of great things about the school, but she was increasingly aware of the racism in Steiner's writings. Steiner schools distance themselves from all of this, but it is still a part of their belief system, along with the idea that children are sent disabilities as part of their soul's development, and it is wrong to interfere with this process.

Here is an article:
www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=480

Here are quotes from Steiner:
“But the people that didn’t develop their id, that was too exposed to the influence of the sun, they were like plants: They produced far too much carbon under their skin – and became black. That is why the negroes are black.”

“Look at these colours, from the Negro to the Yellow population found in Asia. From those you have bodies which are once again containers of the most different souls, starting with the totally passive negro-soul, completely devoted to the surroundings, the outer physis, to the passive soul’s second level in the different parts of Asia.” 10

Not my cup of tea.

Rudolf Steiner school Kings Langley failed on safeguarding again. Child victims of the school have been threatened and parents shouted at in the street. reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/117631

Annetta I notice you have resurrected numerous xombie threads on Steiner schools. I am interested to know why. Are you an ex teacher/pupil? At a school in direct competition with a Steiner school? It would be interesting to know.