Scandinavian Model Schools

[NorfolkMama]

Hello!
I'm new to Mumsnet after 13 years of motherhood!

I'm trying to find a primary and secondary school in either Scotland or Yorkshire which has based its curriculum/ethos on something akin to the Scandinavian/Finnish approach to educating UK kids, if there is such a thing! I'm not after the full on Steiner approach, but have 2 kids who are not massively academic and my eldest gets very stressed by her tests and exams at her very high achieving private girls school. I would consider both state schools (if they'd allow this kind of education) or private schools, but can't afford the likes of Bedales. I was also wondered if there are small private schools out there with a rounded approach to the curriculum with equal emphasis on The Arts and STEM subjects and not constantly testing kids?
I would really appreciate any help/advice on this 🙂

Finland is the Scandanavian country most famous for great educational results and low testing. It does really well in the PISA scores, but Finnish has a more consistent phonology than English. Also Finland is in the middle of a massive overhaul of its education system towards thematic education, rather than academic subjects. Otherwise the thing that Scandinavian countries are famous for is maintaining play-based informal learning for far longer than other countries, but if you daughter is 13, then she is long past that stage in her education.

I think you need to narrow down what you want. Do you want a low-stress school environment, fantastic Arts opportunities or great STEM? On the whole I would say you can find two of those together more easily than three. To answer the question, you might want to delve deeper into why your daughter is unhappy. Is it just academic pressure or is it also social? If she is socially happy, would you be able to get the school to help with her anxiety about testing?

If you want the ultimate low-stress hippy school environment there are some independent schools run on crofts in Scotland. You need to sign up to the whole lifestyle though. Otherwise, you might find that a less pressurised independent day school offers more than enough opportunity in the Arts and STEM without being a pressure cooker.

Finland isn't Scandinavian, it's Nordic. I know that sounds like the worst kind of nit-picking, but the reason why Finland is not included in the Scandinavian group (Sweden, Norway and Denmark) is because its historical trajectory has been very different to that of those three countries, and that history probably has a lot to do with why its education system is/was high performing in many regards.

OP, of course there will be "alternative" private schools that fulfill your requirements.

The thing is, though, you mention in your post that your kids have been at a "very high achieving private girls school"---do you not think that you are perhaps feeling a bit burned-out and disillusioned about conventional education because you and your kids have spent the last several years in this kind of high-pressure environment, surrounded by really really clever kids and pushy parents?

What I am trying to say it, before you start lurching to the other extreme and trying to find full-fledged crunchy granola school, have you considered just putting your kids in a more "normal" state school environment with regular kids and families? Your kids might grow in confidence if they are not constantly feeling like they are the least-able pupils in the class, and state school teachers are used to dealing with a wide range of levels and attainments in their pupils. And you'd be saving a packet, which you could put towards other things like fulfilling extra-curriculars and holidays. It's just a thought....!

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my post. Lots of food for thought. I'm pretty open to any approach which would make my kids happy in there school years. My daughter is socially happy at school but just feels so stressed by the high level of achievement surrounding her.
The reason why I chose the private section was because I had been a secondary school teacher and I saw how stressed out teachers had become and how large class sizes were getting. Not to mention the lack on proper funding. I'm absolutely not into elitism of any description. I suppose I want the state system with small class sizes and teachers who are not working out there exit strategy from teaching. Probably a bit pessimistic of me, I know.
I am intrigued by independent schools run on crofts in Scotland mentioned by Genevieva. Do you have any Information on specific schools? I want my kids to come out with reasonable GCSEs/A levels, so I may not go down the Steiner route. I was looking at Fyling Hall in North Yorkshire, because it seems that their moto might suggest that happiness comes above exam results, 'The days that make us happy make us wise’. I would be interested if anyone knows about Fyling Hall as a past pupil or parent. It's so hard to know what the reality is.

Apologies for lumping Finland into the Scandinavian bracket. I did think twice before doing it, but decided that the OP was not asking about geographical or historical issues, but about education. Broadly, Finland and Sweden have a lot in common in terms of their approach to progressive low-stress education, which is what the OP was after.

I only know one croft school thought friends who are involved in it. Very small and only for participants in the croft lifestyle. They joined the crofting community years before having children and are fully committed to the hands-on sustainable way of life. I gather there are others, but I know little about it. They don't do GCSEs and A Levels. I have no idea whether they do Highers.

I am very much on the same page as Kokeshi. It would be a huge mistake to jump out of the frying pan into the freezer (to bend an analogy). You clearly want an academic education. You just don't want your children hot houses to the point where they feel anxious. Children can still reach their full potential in a less academically focussed school. In your shoes I wold want as little disruption as possible, so I would be looking for a school within reach of home - a happy state school or a smaller, more nurturing private day school.

Have a look at Clifton Hall in Edinburgh. Probably not logistically practical due to location but St. Chris's in Letchworth maybe?

Good advice. It feels like a head over heart or heart over head decision.

Thanks for the tip, adognamedhog. I'll have a look.🙂

Just one point: if you have a child who isn't really brilliant enough to keep up in a highly academic private school (and I'm sure my child wouldn't be able to do this either), having to admit this, even to yourself, can feel hard and a bit humiliating. It's tempting, in such circumstances, to kind of go "That's it! I want a holistic alternative school without testing and pressure!" because a school that doesn't test your child looks like such a blessed relief after years of pressure, and because the decision to switch them can be presented (to friends and family) as an active choice that is about preferring a particular educational style, rather than as something you feel pushed into because your child isn't academic enough. I get this and it's natural. Especially if you are in circles where a lot of people send their kids to private schools and there seem to be an awful lot of really clever kids.

As the above poster said, though, beware of letting your kids down by kind of drifting off into the whole comfortable area of "alternative schools which are terribly 'nice' but the kids don't actually learn a terrific amount and the parents still spend a fortune."

I know nothing about Fyling Hall, but in my experience all schools have this nice-sounding spin on their websites about "We value the whole child not exam results" and all that kind of stuff. It often means very little and I've seen some real hothouse schools claiming similar stuff. I'd put it into the same category as "We don't want parents to tutor their kids for our entrance exams!!" Yeah, OK. The reality is that schools say this even when they have stringent entrance conditions and consistently pick kids who have been crammed like mad.

Have you thought about Montessori education? No idea if there are any Montessori secondary schools in Scotland though. We looked at a Montessori secondary here in Germany for DD2 as she'd been to a M nursery and we loved it, butDD2 thought it would be too unstructured and actually too little pressure (DD2 knows she needs both those things to get her arse in gear). It's far less weirdly ideological than Steiner, but definitely an unorthodox approach.

One of the key aspects of Finnish education is no grades up to age 16, and Montessori does precisely that.