Thinking of Steiner / Home Ed - how do you forget everything you think you know about how education SHOULD be?

[TheFairiesAreBack]

I have just had a great conversation with someone who has put their child into a Steiner school - all very positive.

Then talked to people about it during my lunch-break - all very negative.

I get that most people will look at any 'alternative' kind of schooling through very narrow eyes, as in we mostly all grow up thinking education is done in a certain way - the way were used to, with targets and framework and discipline...

So can anyone tell me how easy or difficult it has been to leave that behind when choosing to educate your child(ren) in an alternative way like Steiner or Home ed?

How do you make that commitment, how do you deal with comparisons to other children (friends/Family)?

Has it been a good or bad experience? would you recommend it?

I thought from your title that you wanted to provide a Steiner education at home. Steiner and Steiner-inspired home education does seem to be growing more 'popular' in the UK.

I think Hakluyt is right about academic achievement (etc) in the schools themselves. Though I know one family who has done extra GCSEs outside of Steiner school as a private candidate. Though I personally wouldn't think that ideal

" I don't think small is necessarily best, though. How small is small and why do you favour that?"

in my area the other larger school recently increased its intake (there has been a baby boom) in the next catchment over which is a 'better' area they have decided to build a whole new school for their baby boom.

The school I like is an old building with no potential for expansion and I just like that, that rather than increase the intake they will remain small. The school has about 230 kids, including nursery part timers.

the next nearest school had 390 children in 2010 but since then have increased their reception entry.

news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/07/31/bullying-claims-as-secret-steiner-dossier-exposed.aspx

That is interesting but I wonder how many teachers in state schools have complaints of racism and bullying made towards them. This evidence can't stand alone, it needs to be compared to other schools for it to mean anything.

I guess you wouldn't want a school that is losing all its playing space in mobile classrooms. How much has the reception intake been increased by in the other school? My dss go to a 2-form entry school, meaning they have space for up to 420 children ( 7 years' worth of 60 children each year) without having to increase the number of classes, so I'm just wondering how the 390-children school works? Is there lots of space higher up the school, but more than 60 children in reception? Also, how does the 230 children school work? Is that a single form entry school with classes of more than 30, sometimes?

"suppose I am just one of many parents who feels a bit weird about their child being fed into the school system which will start marking him from age 5 to meet targets set by people who know very little about children"

(Teachers? Who know very little about children?). And one PFB makes you an expert?

State schools can be wonderful, they can be a bit shit. Just as with all things. When we hear the word "state" some people tend to think of a one size fits all school. This is wrong. Schools vary. Teachers vary. Any school that embraces any "philosophy" which you don't really understand sounds odd to me. What do you know of the teacher you child might have? That is a far better question.

230 could include "nursery" places (my school is 250 but that includes 56 nursery places)

sorry if I have offended you Roseformeplease and thanks for the input.

yes, as I said "The school has about 230 kids, including nursery part timers." it does include the nursery kids :)

plus, when I said targets set by people who know very little about children I meant people like Michael Gove et al, not the teachers.

"What do you know of the teacher you child might have?"

she graduated in 2011
She looks nice on her facebook profile
I imagine she is fairly new to the school

As I have not visited the school yet I don't know her. I am aiming to visit the school next term.

op, it's not just Welsh medium schools that do learning though play until year 3, it's all state primary schools in Wales. I really think you need to look into this more. the Welsh education system is very different from the English.

" I really think you need to look into this more."
Thank you - I will. What should I look into exactly?
Presumably all the primary schools in my catchment area will be offering exactly the same thing as far as the national curriculum is concerned?

wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase/?lang=en

wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/foundationphase/2274085/frameworkforchildrene.pdf?lang=en

Presumably all the primary schools in my catchment area will be offering exactly the same thing as far as the national curriculum is concerned?

Whic is a bit like saying "all supermarkets sell baked beans". Well, yes they do but the beans in Harrods are different to the beans in Marks and Sparks which are different to ASDA value baked beans! And even if the beans look the same, the packaging will be different.

You need to decide which type of beans you like

There are concerns about whether Steiner education should be state funded. There's a summary in this link.

news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/07/31/bullying-claims-as-secret-steiner-dossier-exposed.aspx

A general comment- from someone who has home-edded and who has close friends who looked into teiner very carefully.

Home ed is exactly as you want it to be. We did structured (DS came out of, and after a period of HE returned to, mainstream primary), others did wholly child-led / autonomous. I met, during that period, parents who HEd to keep their child 'ahead', to keep them 'out of formal learning for longer'. to fit round an extremely tuime-consuming hobby / activity (junior chess champion etc), to work round an absence of good schools, to mend a child or provide for a child who had been damaged by school in some way or who had an SEN that parents felt was not well provided for in schools locally.

If you embark on HE, it might be worth considering your desired 'end point' - is it a 'whole academic career' plan (in whuich case think a little bit about access to qualifications) or a 'delay school staring but ultimately jouin it' plan (in which case you might want to think abit about which are the critical skills to acquire during HWE to make school reintegration easy. This needn't be in any way time consuming - HE is VERY quick compared with normal school - I used to reckon that 1.5 - 2 hours tops would fit in more than DS would normally get during a school day - but it might be worth keeping an eye on).

Steiner - well, it will depend on the school. My ftiends looked at a school which is renowned for being quite 'hard core' Steiner. They were surprised to find it so 'unprogressive' - basically they described it a fossilised relic of what alternative education looked like AT THE TIME OF STEINER. All the developments in e.g. early years education that then happened in state primaries after that time were completely ignored, which had the curious effect that the Steiner school classes were MORE regimented, LESS child-led, much less learning through play than a normal state primary.

"The officials note that Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy contains racist elements, such as that "blond hair bestows intelligence" by diverting nourishment from the eyes and hair into the brain, and that the spirit is reincarnated through the races, from "black to Aryan".

The briefings state that then secretary of state Michael Gove had been made aware of complaints from two parents that a school failed to act when their mixed-race child had been the victim of racist abuse by pupils and that teachers had used "racist epithets".

“A recurring theme in the material provided is that bullying is not tackled within Steiner schools,” the document says. It notes a complaint by a parent who witnessed an attack on their son where a teacher is alleged to have justified non-intervention by claiming the children were “working out their karma”.

It goes on to cite teacher training materials that ask whether a child’s karma is to be a bully or a victim and suggest that a school “provides the opportunity for some bullying to take place, as children test each other out”.

According to the briefing, written in August and September 2010, the DfE was aware of “serious complaints” of staff bullying pupils in eight of the 25 independent Steiner schools, and that in several cases the schools had failed to investigate allegations of bullying by teachers.

The department had received four complaints about physical abuse of pupils by teachers, including one where a teacher threw a rounders bat at a child."

From "Bullying and racism claims as secret Steiner dossier exposed"
Started by: NickMorrison 31-7-2014 • 23:20, Tes Website. i.e., from the link above.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28646118