Any Sheiling school/camphill community house parents....

[thankyoupoppet]

Does anyone out there have experience, or know of anybody who has been a house parent in a camphill community?
Or anyone who knows a child who schools there?
Post back if so, just wanting to ask a few questions.
thanks

bumping for evening crowd

bump again!

My sister has DS and stays in a Camphill community. Not sure if I'll be able to help, but ask away!

My dh and I are seriously considering becoming house parents, have started the ball rolling now but really just wanted to hear about other peoples experiences/opinions good and bad really, its a big decision.
Am in love with the idea of it but wont have any real idea what it is like until we are there, so any info would be great. -if you post back it might prompt a few questions -I must sound quite vauge!

She's had some good houseparents and some not so good ones. She's been there for about 16 years now and seems to like it. Her speech and hearing are poor, so communication is often a problem, but when she goes to my mum and dad's house for a weekend, she's always keen to go back to Camphill, so she must feel settled there. A lot of her houseparents have been from abroad - Germany, Poland, Brazil etc. Most stay for a year or so, but I don't know if that's Camphill policy. The "best" ones have been the ones that had kids of their own - they really were like "parents" rather than people who were perhaps choosing to do it to escape from their own problems, which it seemed like a couple of the overseas houseparents were doing. Where my sister stays is very remote, and I feel it's slighly claustrophobic, in that there's not that much interaction with the local community as you'd need to drive there. There are lots of outings and workshops - baking, basketry etc, but again, there's quite a high turnover of workers. This presumably wouldn't be the same in all the Camphill communities. Do you have children of your own? I think that if you have the commitment to do it, it would be a wonderful job. It's a relaxed, slow-paced way of life, and you'd really be contributing to the lives of people who live there. Some people at my sister's place have no family at all, so it's a really big responsibility to become a houseparent to them. I know that it's heartbreaking for the residents when houseparents leave. Good luck! Let me know how you get on. If you want to know anything more, just ask.

there's been a thread on this before years ago - will do a search for you.

here you go