Steiner Academy Frome crazy or creative?!

[TiredMummy3000]

My husband and I are planning to move to Frome this year specifically to enroll our two girls in the Steiner Academy there. My husband went to the Steiner school in Hereford in the first few years of it opening, so we have a good understanding of what Steiner education can entail.

What i'm looking for is some opinion specific to the Frome school. My husband had a positive experience in Hereford, based on the caring and nurturing principles in place there and this what we are seeking. There was very little anthposophy and not too much of what i personally think of as the "crazy stuff". I've read plenty of things on here that make my blood curdle... gnomes, imperfect souls, reincarnation etc. But when i ask my husband about that he has no clue what i'm on about, it played no part in his education at Hereford.

Are there any parents or teachers or otherwise in the Mumsnet community that can give me some idea whereabouts on this scale the Frome Academy sits?

No disrespect intended but please no general Steiner bashing. I'm aware it can be a divisive subject, but i'm looking for comments from those with real life experience of Frome Steiner school - especially from present an previous parents

The question is whether the detailed text of the report will change your view one way or the other, over and above the dramatic drop in grading? Given the chain of events and likely outcome both seem fairly clear, is this still somewhere that you want to move house for your children to attend? Having visited the school and spoken to staff there already - as I presume you must have done in arriving at the decision to move - does your (presumably positive) reaction to it 'in the flesh' over-ride a negative Ofsted report?

I know someone who upped and moved from one country in the UK to another to get their kids to the steiner school they wanted. They seem very happy with their choice.

If I could afford it (not a chance) I would definitely move to get my kids to the school I want them to go to (not steiner though). I buy lottery tickers for precisely that purpose!

The inspection was early December, so might take a while yet. The school only went back today.

If it really was early December, then there are a good couple of weeks - if not a bit more, depending on the definition of working days - to go.

OP, you should be able to find out the date from the school. the 28 working days - with a little uncertainty about how many 'working days' are lost of Christmas - is then relatively easy to calculate.

Tiredmummy3000 following your reply about pps being anti Steiner I wasn't going to come back to this thread.

The concerns I wrote about previously weren't playground gossip, I've had sight of the documented case made by the parents. It is a thorough, clear concise argument and has been written with the assistance of legal advice. It isn't a pile of sloppy accusations.

Whether these complaints are upheld remains to be seen.

I have been to Frome Steiner, one of my own observations is that they don't have a play field, in itself this could be ok but they use the local park instead. Again, this wouldn't be a problem but I've seen for myself young children being poorly supervised I'm being generous in an area freely used by the general public.

Fwiw my position on Steiner is this; I don't work in education but I work closely with it. As a student I lived in Germany for a year, I like the kindergarten system and easing children into education gently. I have always wished that there was an alternative to our conventional education that lets children play and be young for as longer. My DCs are far too old now, when the eldest started school Frome Steiner wasn't open although there was a school in Bruton we might have thought about Steiner, but despite wishing for a less rigid alternative to conventional primary education Steiner schools wouldn't have been it.

For a free thinking environment Steiner schools have some very rigid ideas; one example is that every classroom is painted a certain colour, depending on the school year. I think it's year 1 that has to be painted an odd salmon pink colour, it isn't relaxing. Children experiencing trauma need a low stimulation environment this pink classroom colour can overstimulate. Overstimulation leads to poor behaviour, which in turn is not being challenged at the Frome school. I'm not suggesting that your DCs would be experiencing trauma but others in their class will be. I'm happy to add more to this if you are interested.

I'm neither for nor against Steiner schools but they can have some odd ideas and the basis of their ideology is questionable. Any arguments you find on the internet will be strongly polarised 'for' or 'against' Steiner which doesn't help parents find clear, unbiased information.

If Frome Steiner becomes part of a Multi Academy Trust it will have to fall into line with the expectations of that trust, this will change the way the school is run. It will have to become much more like non Steiner schools.

If your house purchase is going through I would suggest moving to Frome as planned and considering home educating your children until they are a bit older. One of the real strengths of Frome and the surrounding area is the excellent network of support and resources for parents choosing to home educate. If you prefer you can choose to send your DCs to school for 2 or 3 days of the week and home educate for the rest of the week.

It is out tomorrow. Parents have already seen it and apparently it is worse than expected. Not just safety concerns, bullying, disregard of SEN, but also a massive amount of money unaccounted for.

Not even sure that a MAT and a new HT is going to sort this one out.

Not out yet, but front page leaked on line. It look almost as bad as the Exeter Steiner one.

I've just seen the leaked front page. It does not look good!

I would agree. While e.g. lack of academic progress could be considered 'unimportant in light of the school's 'alternative' ethos', the safeguarding failings, pupils being at risk of harm, inappropriate reaction to incidents and treatment of children with SEN are deeply concerning.

However, I do wonder to what extent ALL of these issues are 'endemic to schools following the Steiner philosophy': the view of SEN; the alternative-yet-rigid approach to learning that gets in the way of progress; a lack of concern for safety under the guise of freedom? I suppose what i am saying is that I don't read the front page - though utterly shocking - as being 'a Steiner school doing Steiner education very very badly'. I see it as, quite possibly, a Steiner school just doing Steiner. It is probably very similar yo OH's husband's Steiner school a generation ago - but at that point scrutiny was less intense and things like safeguarding and health and safety were everywhere more lax.

The financial mismanagement, alone, seems to stand out as something 'being done badly, not for reasons linked to the Steiner philosophy'. I think that being a state funded school, with the degree of accountability that requires - as opposed to small alternative private schools subject to less financial scrutiny - has caught them by surprise.

sorry 'to OP's husband's Steiner school....'

Cantkeepaneyeforever - sorry what is your point really? You are stirring but cant see what you want to take away from all those points - sorry about being blunt, but at some point you have to call things by its name 😐

It looks like they are endemic:

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/17/ofsted-inspections-find-three-steiner-schools-to-be-inadequate

Oh go on, I'll say it then. Steiner's teaching is that SEN is a result of bad karma in a previous life. Steiner schools are notoriously bad with SEN. These two things are probably not coincidental.

And for all those who say that Steiner schools do not teach the works of Steiner, that is true, but the teaching is utterly steeped in it. Am happy to link you to the reading list for a Steiner Teaching MA which has 17 instances of his books as required reading.

That guardian article also reports a huge proportion of parents very happy with the school. So parents should make up their own minds.

The ofsted - I have read it all now - is blistering. Money unaccounted for, poor progress, huge safeguarding lapses. The report was triggered by a group of parents who were so appalled by what had happened that they employed a lawyer. Complaining to the school about SEN issues had not worked - the school had no SENCO and in one case the HT called the police on a complainant. So if you do choose it, do make sure your child doesn't have any special needs.

How can we read the report? I can't find it online

It's supposed to be out today, but when I don't know.

That guardian article also reports a huge proportion of parents very happy with the school. So parents should make up their own minds.

In any school, state or private unless you have a child with SEN or who does not fit the box the school wants to put them into then you tend to live in blissful ignorance. I found this out when at my ds's former independent school they refused to implement the strategies outlined by various medical professionals for his SEN/disability.

It's not just SEN, safeguarding is inadequate and bullying is rife and unchallenged.

The updated 2015 Code of Practice says that all schools must have a SENCO and they must be a qualified teacher.
Steiner Frome doesn't have this.

Good SEN provision doesn't just benefit students with diagnosed SEN. When embedded in the curriculum good SEN practices benefit all students.

Lack of safeguarding affects everyone, it's not just a new fangled modern idea but rather is a way of protecting all students.

You asked whether Steiner Frome is crazy or creative? Well, there's certainly been some creativity in the accounting.

Dancing,

I think my point is pretty clear - the problems encountered in Frome, Bristol and Exeter seem, to me, to have their roots in the 'Steiner' nature of the school. As I said in a previous post:
"given the known Steiner positions on bullying and SEN (based on the belief system that underpins the difference of all these schools, a bedrock of the movement) and known safeguarding issues throughout the movement's schools.... I would want to be looking for concrete evidence and examples of how Frome as an individual school has positively and publicly fought against and shed these known issues"

It seems to me that, unless a Steiner school very actively jettisons certain aspects of the Steiner philosophy / ways of working - a lack of focus on academic progress, specific beliefs about SEN, rigid alternative practices, lack of safeguarding under the guise of 'freedom', a certain naivity at best about fiunding - then this type of Ofsted is an almost inevitable result. In the same way, my early 1970s primary schools, both in the UK and abroad, would similarly have fallen foul of today's Ofsted for quite similar reasons. However those same primary schools have moved with the times, while many Steiner schools have remained fossilised, true to the tenets and philosophy of their long-dead founder, who obviously can't be flexible from beyond the grave!

is that clearer?

If the OP wishes to have an education for her children which is from her OH's childhood, that is her prerogative. Whether it fits those children for the modern world, and whether it will subject them to treatment and expose them to risks that are no longer acceptable in mainstream state primaries, is a different question.

i would suggest that if her children are robust, academically adequate but mainly interested in more practical subjects, have no SEN, and are not too questioning of exposure to some very unusual beliefs, they may come to no specific harm in her proposed school, and she may be very happy with it.

I think what such schools offer to parents (specifically) is a strong community for them, a community with often quite similar viewpoints and values, where these may be less common in the general population.

Sorry, should remember to post all my thought in a single post.

I would absolutely defend the right of Steiner and other alternative schools to exist as private schools, provided that they adhere to sufficient of the basic standards of safeguarding to protect children from foreseeable significant harm or abuse, and for these schools to be available for parents to choose.

However, if they are given money by the state to run state-funded education, then they should adhere to the standards required of all state funded schools, and expect to be judged against these standards.

OP, have you seen their most recent Ofsted?

files.api.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50050742

This is not a school to move house for.

Sorry, missed the last page discussing the Ofsted. Anyway, there it is in the link....not good. At all.

As a point of fact; Steiner Frome Academy has an excellent SENDCO who took up post in September 2018. She holds a Phd; is a fellow of Oxford University; a qualified teacher who holds a PGCE and she has also completed a Masters in Special Needs Education. You would have to go a long way in any school to find a SENDCO more qualified or experienced. In fact, the strategies she has rightly started to put in place at the school are acknowledged in the Ofsted report published today.