Please talk to me about Steiner Schools

[DoTheBestThingsInLifeHaveFleas]

Hi there

Please bear with me, I may ramble....

There is a Steiner School opening near to where I live. It will open when DD is due to start school. I do not know much about them apart from the prospectus information and an informal chat with the headmaster. It will be a free school funded by the local government. Initially I like the ethos, but do have some concerns.

My DP and I were both state educuated and feel massively let down by the system and that it really prevented us from making more of our lives. Only our wonderful parents support ensured we are where we are today, and although we both take personal responsibility for our actions, we want better for our DD. I really do not want her going to a school where the kids make you feel that 'learning is for geeks and saddos' and that she has to be naughty and rude just to try and fit in (Yes this is what I felt I had to do and until I started to behave badly to try and fit in life at school was unbearable. And yes I am bitter!!!) or aspiring to be a WAG when she grows up. DP was the other extreme and one of the ones who made my life miserable. He is a bright and intelligent person, and was bored and under stretched at school and so started trouble and distracted others. Again we both take personal responsibility for our actions, but really at 12 - 16 years old it's hard to understand the impact you are having on your life.

So anyway, do we go for a private school, which will be very hard financially (although a sacrifice we are willing to make) and also have its pitfalls, or could a Steiner school be the right move? Any comments welcome, thank you in advance.

[BeQuicksieorBeDead]

Took me ages to think this through, but I am pregnant...isnt 11% over five years as good as 11% in one year? Doesnt it mean roughly the same?!

[TheHumancatapult]

oh and they had no issues with ds3 need a computer at because he physically can not write without one

Ithink like any school they can vary

[mrz]

TheHumancatapult a state maintained school cannot turn down a child.

[ceramicunicorn]

I went to a Steiner school. I got very good gcse's and a levels and went to a good uni. A huge amount of this was due to the amount of tutoring my father gave me outside of school hours however.

I had a wonderful time there but did struggle when I started uni with the very structured learning. I am constantly being pulled up at work for my lack of respect for authority and struggle socially which I blame entirely on my schooling.

I had a wonderful childhood at school, playing in the river, making daisy chains etc. But it was a childhood rather than an education. I would never put my child in a similar school.

[seeker]

Be very careful, thehumancqtpqult. If your child's bop needs are so complex that a state school is not sure whether it can meet them ( they can't actually say no, by the way) I would be amazed if a Stiner school would be able to. Amazed.

[TheHumancatapult]

Mrz

they can refuse if they say can not meet his needs ( stamented)and will affect other pupils.i know because they all have, even LEA caseworker is stumped atm where he going to go come September and are considering tutors at home while try find somewhere.

Seeker

tbh its becuase he needs help in most areas where steiner are not all focused on the education side which suits him .

[mrz]

Parents have a right to tell the Local Authority which school they would prefer their child to attend. If a school is over- subscribed, admissions criteria are used to decide which children have priority for a place.

Pupils with special educational needs but without statements must be treated as fairly as all other applications for admission. The application must be considered on the basis of the schools published admissions criteria. A pupil must not be refused admission because the school feels they may be unable to cater for their needs.

Where a maintained school is named on a child?s statement, the governing body of the school must admit the pupil unless to do so would be incompatible with the efficient education of the other children.

SEN Code of practice, section 8:8.

[TheHumancatapult]

Mrz

thank you

but that is the exact argument they are using and LEA have tried 3 times ds is y3 and has had statment since Reception but been in speech unit but is incurable)

but the steiner school to give them their due are a lot more open to discussing ds3 and meeting his needs and the easy going way will suit him to a tee

[seeker]

Oh humancatapault- do please be careful........

[Picturesinthefirelight]

I identified the school purely from the stats posted.

[TheHumancatapult]

Seeker

Don't worry I'm not that naive but also not blinked either it may or may not be right but am certainly going look into it more

[Tizian]

thebee.se/comments/FrenchTeacher.html

[mrz]

and here is his essay petekaraiskos.blogspot.se/2012/09/the-anthroposophical-indoctrination-of.html

[Tizian]

Still misleading.

[Tizian]

For just one of many misleading statements in Perra's essay, as he knows, in addition to his misdescription of the biological basis for what Perra describes as "anthroposophical doctrines", he writes:

"there is the School of Spiritual Science, confined to those Anthroposophists are allowed to listen to the lessons of the First Class (the secret cult in which some lectures of Steiner are read, accompanied by mantras that are considered especially sacred ? members have the duty to meditate regularly and preserve the group's secrets)."

The lectures held by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 to the members of the first class of the School of Spiritual Science were published as manuscript in 1977 and in 1992 for anyone to buy, and have again been published in full in 2011 in book form, including the mantras, possible to order from any bookshop.

Most would probably not primarily consider something published in full since long to be "secrets", and indicates the degree of reliability of what Perra writes, as also his conscious untruths in what he writes.

[Tizian]

The not very secret "secret cult" of the School of Spiritual Science with its sections and the "First Class" of the School are described at www.goetheanum.org/School-of-Spiritual-Science.300.0.html?&L=1 and www.goetheanum.org/First-Class.791.0.html?&L=1 respectively.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

We visited one and ALL the art looked like it had been done by the same child. That decided me.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Can anyone tell me why the art was all the same? I know about the wet and dry thing....why were all the paintings done in the same colours and I am not talking ONE set but ALL the art through the school. All wishy washy water colours in sunset tones. Grim.

[seeker]

Yep- I didn't like the art all looking the same either. And the grown ups that make the posters for fairs and things use the same palette and style.

And they do a lot of learning through bible stories in the early years. Nothing wrong with bible stories- but a bit limiting, I would think.

[BranchingOut]

I had reason to look into the quality and effectiveness of Steiner early years provision a while back. Unsurprisingly, I could find no evidence base of independent research - this is with the help of a specialist library, not just Google. The only report I could find was a collaboration between a university and the Steiner Institute, so hardly what you might call independent.

[saintlyjimjams]

Thehumancatapult when ds1 was 2 & we were being made unwelcome in mainstream groups I found the local Steiner group very welcoming to us & him. He found the regular routine of the group calming as well - the same thing happened at the same time each time. Steiner schools are very into daily rhythmns. Had ds1 been more able we would have considered Steiner. Steiner himself was one of the first to see people with learning disabilities as worth educating (very unusual for his time) & given that & the existence of Camphill communities I always wonder why people believe there is some dark undercurrent towards disabilities & Steiner schools. My experience was certainly that they were much more welcoming to ds1 than mainstream - tbh the little Steiner group we went to was a huge support in the dreadful early years.

We looked at our local one (and decided against) for ds2 & ds3 - but they worked closely with the local Camphill community & seemed perfectly sane about disability (this was a different school to the group I took ds1 to as it was in a different area).

[CountryMama]

I'm a teacher and I have liked the idea... But I guess more than anything I'm interested that education could be done differently. Personally I don't like private schools as I see them as too pushy. There is a wonderful inspiring talk on you tube that has really made me think about what I do want in education... It's called changing educational paradimes by sir ken Robinson.

[worldgonecrazy]

NeoMaxiDoom I have no idea. The art work in classes at DD's school is similar, but never the same. I just thought it was because the children are all drawing the same thing, or creating art in a certain style. For instance, in the nursery class they had strong black shapes cut out of card (houses/castles/trees), overlaid on the oranges and reds of a sunset. In upper school there is a display of sculptured clay heads - the heads are all similar but not the same. I guess it's the same thing as would happen if a bunch of students in any art class were all given the same still life image to paint - the images would be similar but not the same.

seeker in DD's school they learn through stories from many different areas, not just Biblical stories. They learn from stories from Babylon, Egypt, Japanese, Chinese, Norse mythology, Roman and Greek mythology, and English folk tales too.

[seeker]

"NeoMaxiDoom I have no idea. The art work in classes at DD's school is similar, but never the same. I just thought it was because the children are all drawing the same thing, or creating art in a certain style. For instance, in the nursery class they had strong black shapes cut out of card (houses/castles/trees), overlaid on the oranges and reds of a sunset."

That is what you always see in a Steiner nursery class. And it was what I saw when I looked round one for my dd 15 years ago.

[worldgonecrazy]

seeker I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make? When I was at (catholic) Primary School we all drew pictures of vikings, which all looked broadly similar. On returning to the school as an adult, a good many more than 15 years later, I noticed that the children had all drawn vikings, again, broadly similar (except with a few more weapons that I remembered). Could we presume from this experience, that all 7 year old children at Catholic schools paint the same vikings?

(The viking paintings are imprinted in my memory because I was severely reprimanded by the teacher for suggesting my friend's painting looked like it was "doing a plop" )