Pagan faith school / college

[DaughtersofFrya]

There are many faith schools, but no Pagan ones, and I'd be interested to hear some opinions on the subject. Would you like to have attended one, or would you consider sending your children to one in the future, for example?

That's fine, we're no strangers to hard work.

The other thing that bothers me is that you may attract some very difficult children. I suspect you are going to want to support and educate them, rather than exclude them, but you will need to be very well prepared for all sorts of problems, threats, violence, drugs, promiscuity, running away, etc

I really hope this works! Please keep us informed, over hte next few years

All true, of course, but we feel that a healthy environment and keeping them busy doing useful and interesting things will go a long way to help.

Yes, let us know how it turns out. After your PGCE year and two ECT years.

Thank you. Yes, I certainly will.

Are Free schools inspected by Ofsted?

Yes. Same framework as other state funded schools.

yes

Yes, you're right, the focus is indeed more on the environment than the content. The latter will be decided depending on circumstances, so it's no surprise I can't answer specifically.

Yet you want them to do GCSES

You completely ignored the differentiation question.

Your current lesson plans all seem to be we will sit in a field, talk about nature occasionally in German.

With no one defined religious order, it would prove problematic to get designated as a faith school. It would also be difficult to demonstrate compliance with Section 48 inspections and also determine whether somebody was acting in compliance with the tenets of the faith

'But my version is ''Do What Thou Wilt Shalt Be the Whole of the Law'',

'My faith says that worship must be conducted skyclad, so I know this morning's assembly was a little different, but we'd have fewer issues if the caretaker put the heating on higher every Tuesday morning',

'Of course Mason hasn't brought a dagger into school for nefarious purposes, it's a religious artefact',

'Swastikas are a perfectly reasonable tattoo, it's not my fault the Nazis pinched them from Hindus and they're also on ancient Druidic monuments',

'Please don't oppress Freya like that, she was merely expressing her faith and spiritual identity as a Berserker when she battered Loki with her lunchbox',

'Oh, those? They're just pure white chickens. Essential part of my faith. I know that the word fetish can have different connotations, but it's perfectly accurate if you look beyond the Eurocentric assumptions of paganism. Well, that's a little racist, if you ask me. It's not my issue if you think that a 34 year old middleclass white bloke from just outside Wolverhampton can't possibly be legitimately following West African spiritual practices and what's more, Aphrodite is being very prejudiced towards the heritage her name suggests by getting teary about what could be happening in Friday afternoon's observance, even if she is Vegan'.

'I'm sorry that you feel Christian is being victimised for his name and that we have a lackadaisical approach to student safety, but the muddy corner of the field is being converted into an essential bog for worship and he is actually being honoured by being chosen in this way'.

Absolutely all of this with fairy bells on.

somebody has a dream of a lovely school in tune with nature, with happy children, and still able to provide the basic education that will give students a choice in their future lives.

I dont think it is something to mock. Of course it isn't going to be easy, but it could end up being amazing, or it could fail, but if you think you can design a school better, no one is stopping you

I agree it is a lovely idea but I disagree about the basic education part.
All questions about the actual teaching are met with

We'll have classes in a field
We'll deal with that later

Safeguarding concerns are met with
We're all celibate females.

yes, but it is clearly a work in progress at the moment. In 5 years time it could all be amazing

It's a lovely idea, but the OP sounds quite naive.
And a 'basic education' is unlikely to give children access to all the choices they may want to make in their lives in the 21st. century.

yes, but this will be scrutinised by the authorities however it is set up ( and quite right! when you are taking responsibility for children!)

As soon as one child moves in, this will become an informal fostering arrangement, and subject to a social services inspection, and they will be returning every ew months to monitor. That is if it is not classed as a school

AS soon as it is classed as a school, it will be subject to all the normal school inspections, whether through the private framework, or the state

You are not allowed to just take in other people's children and do what ever you want with them!

yes, but it is clearly a work in progress at the moment. In 5 years time it could all be amazing

If they have identified children to attend I think they are planning on starting a lot sooner than that

Is this your group? 🧐

DaughtersofFrya

It's a lovely idea, but the OP sounds quite naive.

Oh come on, it’s a bonkers idea.

Sounds like it. Surely a group that has a rule forbidding sex is rather self-limiting? Anyway, she's not actually describing a school, more a home education group that breaks a whole other set of laws.

So, eg Deep Dives into phonics, maths and history for a primary and English, physics and geography for a secondary? It would be huge amounts of work and pressure on individual teachers for such a tiny school to keep on top of the curriculum progression, intent and impact, assessments etc for each subject.

Bending knees to pray for 6 hours a day would make it quite difficult to get much else done…

Oh, that's not problematic at all...

🙄

Good grief. I wonder why the tunic has to be short. That'll be a nice thing to teach the kids.