Steiner schools- We got a place

[birdsflying]

Hello, (This is a fair ramble of thoughts and feelings)
I have read previous threads on the subject of Steiner schools and i'm hoping to start this one without debate. Please only post YOUR experiences.

My two children have been offered a place at a local steiner school. We have just moved into the area and had been on a waiting list.

I love the ethos and I like the fact that they put off all the reading a writing until the age of seven and focus on other activities before then. The nature based learning and i'm not opposed to the spirituality.

I think this form of education would suit my youngest who is quite the personality and not very keen on writing (she's five). She struggles and is behind her peers at school. Wheras my son is very academic and loves learning and maths. Unfortunately I can't send one and not the other.

We are quite an alterniative family and have mostly lived in tightly knit communities of artists and creatives. We have moved rurally into a conservative area where breast feeding is frowned upon and where excluding people from play groups is the done thing if you have a difference in opinion (not my personal experience thankfully- just a witness).

We want to accept the place as we believe it might also be a good way to be apart of a community. The issue for us is mostly the fees.
We're in a fair amount of debt around 10,000 and have no savings behind us. We have put everything into a spreadsheet and it looks like we could afford it but things would be quite tight.. We worked out we could potatially pay our debts off over 8 years and pay the school fees but would be left with no savings or luxuries. (they have about 12 years of schooling before them).

I am freelance so sometimes I get non attanding clients or no shows and now and again need time off when unwell- unpaid obviously so as far as my job is concerned i'm not completely as stable as somebody working in employment. I have also had bad bouts of ill health over the last few years and have had months off work now and again. Luckily i've been okay over the last 2 years but it's always in the back of my mind that I will relapse and be in the same situation. I don't want my ill health to get in the way of this decision either.

I want to know about peoples experiences, is it amazing? Did your child thrive? How was the parent community? Any regrets? If i'm paying for it and sacrificing luxuries/essentially half a house in money, then I want to know that my children are being taught and have a good experience of it. I've talked to some steiner mums who say its down to the teacher?

This has been one of the hardest decisions to make for our family and we have spent two weeks discussing the pros and cons. We need to decide by tomorrow at the latest so please give your exeriences.

Please be nice and as i've said I WANT EXPERIENCES ONLY posi or nagative AND NO DEBATE- Everyone has their own story,. XX cheers in advance x

If you can pay your debt off in two years while paying school fees I would use the money and pay off your debt as soon as you can then reconsider your options. Your son is academic and loves learning (presumably in an ordinary school) so why disrupt things and live with debt.

That sounds great OP. I wanted to say that even if you don't agree with the state system, there are lots of things you can do at home to offset the focus in school, which I am sure you will do. Your attitude being one of the most important- DS1, who will be doing SATS this year knows my opinion on the value of them! And luckily our school does not out pressure on them and seems to handle the process really well. You will have no much more money to pursue other interests and more importantly, feel more financially secure. I recently looked into Steiner schools for secondary level, but decided against it too. I also wanted to say that your local community will be made up of so many different people, several of which will have similar ideas as you (and lots who won't of course, but that's real life!).

Your current school sounds great and getting rid of your debt will help your stress levels more than incurring school fees would

There is a state Steiner in Forme. TBH your current set-up sounds fine all round though.

Frome that was meant to say.

In the German speaking part of Switzerland (where Steiner was from), they only start teaching reading and writing at age 7.

However, reading and spelling in German is a lot more logical, with fewer spelling exceptions so it works to start later.

With English it is a much longer process of learning the phonics and exceptions and therefore is important to start earlier.

As mentioned above, im not a fan of Steiner education. But the whole reading and writing thing is a misnomer, assuming there are no learning difficulties. For the average child, learning to read later isn't a problem. The process happens a bit faster because they're ready for it.

The problem comes if they transfer into a mainstream school before they're at an equivalent level.

However, the problem is quite difficult to remedy if there are problems with reading - dyslexia etc because they can't be properly diagnosed (if the school even goes down that route - another issue) if the child hasn't started reading yet, because the tests are fairly standardized on the assumption of the national curriculum being followed.

Your current school sounds lovely op, as does your dcs home life. Aren't parents really the main educators anyway? I keep hearing that.... So it must be true

My son attended Steiner kindergarten for three years and I thoroughly recommend it. I'm concerned for your debt, however I would certainly do as one poster suggested and discuss fees with the school. Many schools offer skill swap and/or reductions for families on low wages (not sure if this applies).

I'm interested if any of the posters here with experience with Steiner have any thoughts on the school near Reading?

I went to a steiner school from the 80s to 1990 and came out of it feeling like I had had a wonderful experience, if fluffy education. It's only years later when I unquestioningly put my dd into the local kindergarten that I started questioning the school with a more detached adult gaze and looked into various elements that I remembered that had troubled me. Fundamentally, I do think that it, or can be, a wonderful, creative and nurturing environment and I understand why my parents took me out of my harsh, ugly and very un nurturing state school and put me there... but my concern is with the covert agenda that they teach from but don't make explicit to the parents, but which filters through into everything they teach. I say - absolutely - pick a steiner school if, after reading about anthroposophy etc, it still feels like the best place for your child. I'm not saying it won't but education (excuse the ironic pun!) is key! Here's a link to an article which I found to be a very honest account of how things go down.

sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/my-life-among-them

I wouldn't do it in your circumstances; not worth the stress for you and your family. Health, family, time and some spare cash to do things together is the most important thing in my opinion.

Apologies, a bit late. I saw you made your decision already. I did help me read about stainer schools as I have considered it for DD who Is behind. I don't think I am considering it anymore but did feel inspire to do more things with DV and let them enjoy being children and explore simple things and nature

Not sure if this is too late! But my kids currently attend a Steiner school. They started kindergarten because it was just round the corner for our house and we are quite ‘alternative’ and liked the fact there are no stressful tests, plus the seasonal focus and creativity of kindergarten. My son (7) has been there four years now and LOVES it. He is very interested in learning and loves numbers. He has been in the main school for a year and his literacy is flourishing. He has caught up academically with the older kids in his year so is given the same work as them. The kindergarten DID NOT DISCOURAGE READING just let the kids pick up books and look through them and talk about the story and words without adult intervention. The 3,4,5 and 6 year olds have constant access to books. My daughter (5) is autistic and has been there two years so far. She has been so thoroughly supported through her difficulties settling (she can’t handle transitions of any kind) that she now runs in to her classroom. The teachers have been amazing with her. Each half term we have a progress report meeting where the teacher tells us in detail how they’re getting on in class. We are always amazed at the depth of knowledge, interest and respect the teachers have for our kids. There are parents who don’t know what anthroposophy is, there are a few who live and breath it. But there’s never preaching or any weirdness!! I don’t buy in to it, I just enjoy the wholesome, nourishing environment my kids are being taught in. The teachers are down to earth and friendly. I know some Steiner schools ‘ban’ technology but ours accepts people use the internet etc. It provides regular police talks about internet safety and safeguarding issues in general. We are lucky to receive a massive discount price based on our low income but it’s still a huge struggle, we are scraping the money together each month to continue sending them there for another year if we can manage it. It’s worth every penny. The kids are flourishing. We are then going to home educate. Every Steiner school is different though, I think we are lucky that ours is one that accepts it is part of modern society and completely puts the kids first.

Oops just saw you already made a decision. Incase this helps anyone else though, the education isn’t necessarily ‘fluffy’, the graduates of my kids school recently ALL got university places studying astrophysics, maths and computer science amongst other arts and science subjects.

It was good of you to join to tell us all about how amazing Steiner schools are.

Well.. if that is meant as a sarcastic comment.. I didn’t have time to read all the messages but incase anyone is genuinely looking for Steiner experiences I thought I would reply to counteract all the negatives (many from people who have never set foot in a Steiner school) . If you had read my reply you would see that I am aware of issues at some Steiner schools.