SWSF News

School Starting Age: Time for a Rethink.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:40:00 +0000

The SWSF supports the call from Dr Richard House, education campaigner and child psychologist, for a new approach to early childhood education in the light of current research. Dr. House, in a speech to the Westminster Education Forum, claims that there is now sufficient evidence that an early school starting age is bad for children. He is calling on the Prime Minister to intervene and wants to see the following action from the government:

make the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) voluntary rather than statutory;
extend the EYFS to the end of the sixth year;
consider, via an independent inquiry, raising the statutory school starting age to 6
allow schools the flexibility to allow children to repeat a year

In Steiner schools pupils start formal learning, i.e. writing, reading and numeracy in class one at the age of six, the norm in many European countries and an approach supported by a significant body of research to which Dr. House makes reference. Cognitive skills can be introduced with relative ease if children have first had the opportunity to develop speech, co-ordination and their relationship to themselves, others and the world around them during the pre-school years and in Kindergarten.

Nursery World Article

Dr. House's Press Statement

Daily Mail Article

Daily Telegraph Article

Science teaching in Steiner Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:10:00 +0000

The SWSF response to the letter in the Observer, Sunday May 13th, re. `pseudoscience`.

Sirs,

The letter invoking fear of `pseudoscience` in proposed Free Schools (Observer Sunday 13 May) suggests that Steiner education poses a `grave threat to science education`, whilst offering no evidence to support the statement. Is an evidence-based approach not central to all good science? In Steiner schools it certainly is. In Steiner schools all science teaching begins with the close observation and direct experience of physical phenomena in order to gather evidence, rather than with a description of prevailing theories and models. An open mind as to causes and first principles is encouraged. Conclusions and concepts are then derived from the observations and finally the theories that explain the whole are introduced. This approach reflects the way that science has developed historically. It is an approach that resulted in the 2006 PISA study into Austrian Steiner schools concluding that state schools could learn from Steiner methods `especially concerning science teaching`; an approach which led to the same recommendation from a National Academies report in the USA; an approach that assists Steiner pupils in their generally excellent results in GCSE science subjects; an approach that has produced scientific alumni such as John Fitzallen Moore, Prof. Dr. Wolf-Christian Dullo and Kristen Nygaard, and an approach favoured by the parents who want their children to receive a scientific education that empowers them to question, enthuses them to explore, and equips them with a context in which to consider the ethical and moral issues that surround science. The `grave threat` our youngsters face is one posed by science-as-orthodoxy, not by an educational approach that is rigorous, open-minded and questioning.

Alan Swindell

SWSF

A New Baby is Due: Early Years news from the North of England.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:08:00 +0000

A new baby is due to be born this autumn! It is the North of England Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Studies programme (NESWEC) which will provide an initial early childhood training course based in the York Steiner School. The validation will be identical with the London Waldorf Early Childhood course, with Edexcel through Crossfields Institute, and our intention is to have both these courses placed on the national frameworks in England and Scotland as soon as possible so that they will provide a valid early years qualification, now necessary for working in early years settings in these countries. Currently the London course is the only one available in Britain and a new course based further north will be its ideal complement.

The three year structure, the assignment load, and the costs will all be comparable with the London course. The core tutor team will include the tutors from the Plymouth Foundation Degree and we intend to bring to this new course the strengths of our Plymouth experience. These include strong support for our students, an open and interested attitude towards the wider world of early childhood studies and the essential balance of thinking, feeling and willing throughout the course.

We aim to provide a high quality, nationally validated and accredited course in Steiner Waldorf principles and practice that will attract students from outside the Waldorf movement as well those already involved in Steiner Waldorf schools and settings.
The taught sessions for the first two years will take place on 10 weekend residentials in the York Steiner School and 2 five-day residentials annually in Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School, Stourbridge.
The third year will be a full time work placement in a Steiner setting supported by a work placement tutor and including 3 weekend residentials, leading to a level 5 qualification. This is equivalent to a Foundation Degree. (Level 6 is equivalent to a Bachelor’s Degree and we hope that it may be possible to provide a Steiner Waldorf early childhood course to this level in future.)

We are looking for seed money for setting up the course and would welcome any offers of grants or loans that might assist us. We are also ready to receive expressions of interest from potential students. You can contact me via our web-site at www.neswec.org.uk , e-mail me at jill@neswec.org.uk or write to me at 132 High Lane, Brown Edge, Staffordshire, ST6 8RU.

I look forward to hearing from you

Jill Taplin

On behalf of the NESWEC core tutor group

Screen-Free Week: One School Confronts the Issue.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Screen-Free Week: One Steiner School Confronts the Issue Head On.

`Dear students, to remain in this school you will have to commit to zero use of all screen technologies: no more TV, no more DVD's or cinema, no more social net-working. Collect your contract from my desk and return it, signed, to the office by the start of next week. Any questions?`

They didn't buy it for a second. The nonsense of such a `zero-tolerance` Screen Policy was obvious to all. Beyond a smirk, an `in your dreams` and an amused curiosity these teenagers knew they were being set up for a discussion rather then being informed of the school's latest attempt at shooting itself in the foot. But they were ready for the argument and equally ready to share their concerns about how their lives are constantly being channelled through screens.

The debate, at the South Devon Steiner school, was not stirring up anything new. Steiner schools have never been afraid to engage with the debate on how technology impacts on children, and nor are they alone in this. Mary Winn's The-Plug-In-Drug was published in 1977. Jerry Mander in 1978, Martin Large in 1980 and more recently Aric Sigman's Remotely Controlled have given teachers plenty of academic and populist back-up for endless parents' evenings on the subject of TV. Aric Sigman, one of the speakers at the Steiner Waldorf Schools Easter Conference in 2010 had awoken the indignation, anxiety and sense of responsibility many educators are feeling as the three `platforms`: mobile phone, lap-top and TV, fight it out for supremacy.

Increasingly parents are asking schools for guidelines and support as they attempt to manage their children's exposure to screen time, and sensible schools are taking the discussion and consultation to the older pupils where interesting new perspectives emerge: `It's too late for me` one pupil said after the above classroom discussion, `but I wouldn't want my little brother playing computer games at the age I did.` `You can't keep us away from films and stuff` said another, `it's not going to happen. But at least we know how to talk about them, what they are really about.` One group of thirteen year-olds bemoaned the passing of books: `We want a library` they said, more than they wanted internet access. `Energy use,` said another, `people need to know about data centres and the carbon footprint of the internet.`

More than anything else these young people want to take their place in the real world, both as digital residents and as free individuals. They are on the front line of a compromise and feel it keenly. They also know that a `zero-tolerance` approach is never going to work, and nor do they want to sacrifice the benefits that screens bring to their lives, but they do want to engage actively with the problems that screen exposure brings. As one sixteen year old summarized it: `We don't want to look back on all this as the "Screen Age" in the way that people look back on the "Cigarette Age", shocked by a level of harm that nobody really questions. But don't tell us it damages our heath, we already know. We need to learn how to live with it.`

Alan Swindell

An earlier version of this article appeared in the SWSF Newsletter in Spring 2010

Celebrating Screen Free Week

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:32:00 +0000

Celebrate Screen-Free Week: April 30-May 6

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship is proud to officially endorse Screen-Free Week (April 30-May 6), the annual celebration where children, families, schools, and communities `turn off screens and turn on life.` Please visit www.screenfree.org to join the fun and to download your free Screen-Free Week Organizer's Kit. It’s packed with fact sheets, great suggestions for screen-free activities, pledge cards, and more!

We all know that children spend far too much time with screens: an astonishing average of 32 hours a week for preschoolers and even more for older children. Excessive screen time is harmful for children—it’s linked to poor school performance, childhood obesity, attention problems, and the erosion of creative play.

Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff) is a wonderful way to help children lead healthier, happier lives by reducing dependence on entertainment screen media—including television, video games, computers, and hand-held devices. By encouraging children and families to unplug, Screen-Free Week provides time for them to play, connect with nature, read, daydream, create, explore, and spend more time with family and friends.

Nature Deficit Disorder: our response to National Trust research.

noreply@blogger.com (SWSF) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 09:27:00 +0000

The SWSF shares many of the concerns highlighted in Stephen Moss's research commissioned by the National Trust.

An active engagement with the natural world is an important aspect of Steiner Waldorf education.

In Steiner early years settings the young child is given every opportunity to play outside, to explore and make use of natural materials and to experience the outdoor as a familiar environment, full of wonder and possibility.

Throughout the primary school years teachers will look for opportunities to link classroom learning to the outside environment. The study of house building and farming at age nine may involve the making of clay bricks or the hands-on experience of farming techniques. Chemistry lessons at age 12 may involve the building of kilns to make charcoal or lime; physics lessons may involve green-wood turning or practical engineering solutions that take children out of the classroom and into the natural world.

At the same time a sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world is fostered from pre-school all the way to adolescence. This is supported by the use of stories that draw on the world of plants and animals, the celebration of seasonal festivals and a curriculum that includes botany, geology and animal study .

At secondary level there is an approach to natural sciences that emphasises the need for observation and direct experience rather than simply an abstract knowledge of prevailing theories. A sense of the moral responsibility we have towards the natural world is cultivated.

Steiner schools engage their parents in critical debate on issues such as play and screen entertainment, encouraging them to give their children wide opportunities to get active out of doors.

National Trust research

Former Pupil wins `Young Journalist of the Year`.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:50:00 +0000

Congratulations are in order for Ruth Sherlock, a graduate of the Hereford Waldorf School, (now the Steiner Academy Hereford). Ruth has won the Young Journalist of the Year Award for 2012.

The Daily Telegraph describes how Ruth ` beat off stiff competition to win young journalist of the year for her reporting from Egypt and Syria ….The judges praised her "astonishing collection of work" during the Arab Spring after she produced a series of "harrowing" accounts which showed her "skill in colour writing as well as courage". `
Ruth also features in the SWSF video `The Gift of Learning` that can be viewed here and on the SWSF facebook page.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:32:00 +0000

Interest in school videos from around the globe confirms growing trend.

The excellent Waldorf Today web site and news service has made available six short videos from six different Steiner schools, four in the USA, and one each in Germany, Australia and Canada.

This comes at a time when media experts and `trend analysts` are pointing to the fact that young people are increasingly using social media such as facebook and You Tube as their search engines of choice, rather than the likes of Google and Yahoo. This means that a prospective parent searching the internet for information about Steiner education is more and more likely to meet a video clip than a `traditional` web site.

SWSF has experienced the same phenomenon in recent weeks with the huge interest in the DVD `The Gift of Learning`

Waldorf Today can be found at: http://www.waldorftoday.com/

View the following videos:

Brooklyn, New York

Sacramento, California

Sanderling, California

Cologne (in German)

Montreal (in French)

Alice Springs, Australia

Marin, California

noreply@blogger.com (SWSF) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:48:00 +0000

New Documentary: "The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner"

A new documentary about Rudolf Steiner by the award-winning documentary film-maker Jonathan Stedall will have its première at Rudolf Steiner House in London at the end of February.

The documentary, “The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner”, involved filming in five countries and three continents. The two-part documentary (each part runs for 90 minutes) gives an historical overview of Steiner's life, as well as looking at examples of his legacy around the world.

“This documentary will confront both the challenge of understanding the essence of Steiner's message, as well as the challenge of taking what lay behind that message into the future,” Cupola Productions, the company specially set up to make and distribute the film and raise funding for it, says on its website.

Filming took place in Austria, Switzerland, India, the USA and in Britain. As well as relating the story of Rudolf Steiner's life, the film looks at some of the current work inspired by his insights - in particular the Waldorf School movement, biodynamic agriculture, eurythmy, Camphill communities and Ruskin Mill, Weleda and the worldwide network of anthroposophical medical work, including the Hiscia Institute in Arlesheim, Switzerland, and the Blackthorn Medical Centre in Maidstone, UK.

For more information:

Cupola Productions Ltd.: www.rudolfsteinerfilm.com,

Jonathan Stedall: www.jonathanstedall.co.uk

The Steiner Academy Hereford Celebrates...

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:44:00 +0000

Over 130 guests attended a recent reception at the Steiner Academy in Much Dewchurch, including Madame Mayor of Hereford Julie Woodward, Jesse Norman MP and Baroness Estelle Morris of Yardley.

Other guests included representatives from the local community, the Training and Development Agency (TDA), the Department for Education, Canterbury Christ Church University and assorted educators, local politicians, governors, staff parents and friends. The guests toasted the completion of the building programme with some of Herefordshire's finest apple juice and cider.

Following an afternoon tour of the school, which included drop-ins to woodwork, music, art and maths, Estelle Morris shared tea and scones with some students from Class 10 (year 11), before addressing the invited guests in Birch Hall. She spoke about the importance of creativity in the lives of all of us, commenting that Steiner education has a strong commitment to creativity through the entire curriculum, while the ethos encourages parental engagement with school regarded as a hub of community life.

The 3-year, £9.5 million building project, designed by John Renshaw Architects and built by Speller Metcalf is entering its final phase, with just the landscaping and garden and craft classrooms to finish. The Steiner Academy Hereford is the first publicly-funded Steiner school in the UK and has 330 pupils on roll from 3+ to 16 years of age.

The school, whose Class 10 (Year 11) students achieved a GCSE success rate for 5 GCSEs (maths and English included) of 72%, has over 60 children and young people on its waiting lists.

The Academy's Principal, Trevor Mepham, declared that this event confirmed that the Steiner Academy is open for business as a member of the local family of schools, offering an authentic and effective difference in the educational landscape of Herefordshire.

Chair of the Board of Governors and Sponsor-Lead, Sylvie Sklan said, "It was good to be able celebrate the completion of this first publicly funded Steiner school with so many of the people who helped to make it happen. This project has been a long time in the making. But in the bigger scheme of things, what has been created now - on a site that has been a place of learning for many generations - will bring benefit to generations of local children for many years to come."

Following the reception, under the banner of Arts Alive and Nightjar Music there was a concert by the acclaimed Senegalese kora player, Sadio Cissokho.

Congratulations to Australian Steiner Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:32:00 +0000

The recent news from Australia gave a heartening example of how diversity can be recognised even within a centrally managed regulatory or `mainstream` framework.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible in its own country for everything included in its title. Similar functions in the UK are shared by the Department for Education, Ofqual and previously the QCDA*. ACARA operates a Recognition Register which, following extensive collaboration between ACARA and the Steiner Education Australia (SEA, the Australian equivalent of SWSF), now includes the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework.

In simple terms this means that an equivalence has been recognised between the curriculum offered by Steiner schools and that provided in the rest of Australian schools.

Tracey Puckeridge, Chief Executive Officer of Steiner Education Australia stated, `It is essential that choice and diversity in education is valued in Australia, therefore we appreciated the opportunity from the Federal Government to be involved in this rigorous recognition process as an acknowledgement of different learning approaches and pedagogy.`

The view that choice and diversity in education need to be valued is certainly one we share with our Australian colleagues.

Read further at: www.steineroz.com

*Ofqual : The Office for Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

QCDA : Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (until March 2012)

The Frome Steiner Academy: good news and congratulations.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:27:00 +0000

The government has announced that the Frome Steiner Academy's bid for Free School status has been successful. The proposal is for a new school to open in September 2012, starting with 26 places but eventually offering double stream entry through to 16 (i.e.: 644 places). It is one of 55 new, state-funded Free Schools that will open from September 2012 onwards.

The success of the Frome bid is a tribute to the hard work and professionalism of a determined and dedicated team and good news for the children and parents of this Somerset town.

The proud statement on the Frome Academy's web-site reads:

"Our dream is a reality - Free Steiner education for all."

For further information contact: Frome Steiner Academy

Frome will become only the second state-funded Steiner Waldorf school in the UK, joining the Steiner Academy Hereford which opened its doors in 2008.

There are over a thousand Steiner Schools in more that sixty countries around the world. In some countries (including many in Europe) the schools are partly or fully state-funded, while in others there is no state funding available. The government's Free School programme has created an opportunity for other existing Steiner schools and new Steiner school projects to apply to become state-funded Academies.

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF) is committed to helping Steiner schools to become state-funded if they wish to, while fully supporting those preferring to maintain their independence from the state sector.

SWSF is also seeking to support parent, teacher and community groups wishing to apply to open new Steiner Academies in places where Steiner education is not currently available. It is has been developing a set of resources designed to assist Steiner free school projects with all aspects of their applications and is seeking to encourage a consistent and co-operative approach with a particular emphasis on effective models of school governance.

Groups in England (the legislation does not include Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) who are interested in the possibility of state-funded Steiner education in their area in the first instance should register their interest with the SWSF by emailing info@steinerfreeschools.org.uk

New School Opens in Hebden Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:17:00 +0000

For over ten years the Pennine town of Hebden Bridge in the Calder Valley has been home to a Steiner Waldorf kindergarten. Two-and-a-half years ago the move to a beautiful old Sunday School in the picturesque village of Cragg Vale brought the dream of growing into a school much closer. This September the transition was complete as the kindergarten became the Calder Valley Steiner School. Its first class one, of eight children, began their school life in time-honoured fashion by experiencing the difference between a straight line and a curve. Meanwhile, two kindergartens and a thriving Parent and Child community are supporting the future development of the new school.

SWSF and all member schools send their support and best wishes to this worthy venture.

More information can be found on: http://hebdensteiner.com/

Edinburgh Steiner School's Exam Success

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:34:00 +0000

STEINER PUPILS SMASH EXAMINATION PASS RATE

Pupils at the Edinburgh Steiner School are celebrating one of the best Higher examination pass rates in Edinburgh. The school, which does not select on the basis of academic ability like other independent schools in Edinburgh, achieved a 96% A-C pass rate which is 21% above the national average.

50% of its pupils achieved 5 Grade As including Tara White who achieved 5 Grades As at Band 1.

Alistair Pugh, a teacher at the school, commented: “We attribute our strong results to our small class sizes and the unique nature of the Steiner curriculum. We expand on the exam curriculum through a programme called Main Lessons, a technique which is only used in Steiner Schools. These are topic blocks which are studied continuously for 2 hours a day over a four week period. Main Lessons ensure that, irrespective of their final exam subject choices, our pupils cover a wide breadth of topics throughout their education which greatly assists them in their examinations and beyond.”

Alongside academic success, the school places an equal importance on creating a nurturing and supportive environment.

Dr Rebecca McKinlay, former pupil, explains: “The Edinburgh Steiner School gave me a broader education and range of experience than my previous school. I was free to be myself without being bullied or ostracised. I just wish I'd been there for the entirety of my education. I'm now a postdoctoral research assistant having completed my PhD at Imperial College, London.”

Please join us for a School Tour on Friday 7^th October 2011. To book, call 0131 337 3410 or visit www.edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk.

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:30:00 +0000

Canterbury Christ Church University and SWSF collaboration: Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and a new Masters Programme.

SWSF has been working closely with Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) on two exciting new projects: the development of a route by which experienced Steiner Waldorf teachers can gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and also the launch of a new Masters programme leading to MA Education (Steiner Waldorf).

There are many talented and experienced teachers in our schools whose status as qualified teachers has never been fully recognised. We believe that appropriate acknowledgement of professional status should not be denied to colleagues simply because they have learned and applied their skills outside the maintained sector. This belief is shared by colleagues at CCCU and also by the Training Development Agency, (TDA), the government body responsible for teacher education.

Many of our teachers would welcome the opportunity to engage as equals with state teachers, to have their own practice better understood and to learn from and contribute to current `mainstream` practice. Many see the acquisition of QTS as one way of coming closer to realising these aims.

We are delighted to report that the first cohort of teachers is now being signed up to the pilot scheme.

This development is not only significant for the professional development of individual teachers: whilst independent schools and the newly established Free Schools are able to employ teachers without QTS, there is a concern shared by many in the sector that QTS may one day be a requirement for staff in all schools, regardless of funding.

The proposed Masters is expected to begin at Easter 2012. It will be a three year programme and will provide an opportunity to expose Steiner Waldorf theory and practice to appropriate scrutiny in a research based environment. In addition to attracting those currently engaged in Steiner education it is expected to be of interest to educationalists from a wide range of back grounds both in the UK and abroad.

If you would like to be kept updated on either the QTS or the Masters programme please contact: office@steinerwaldorf.org

SWSF RESPONSE TO DAME CLAIRE TICKELL’S REVIEW OF THE EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:01:00 +0000

1st April 2011.
The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship would like to thank Dame Claire Tickell, her team and her advisors for taking account of the issues brought by the SWSF in her considered review of the EYFS. We look forward to the Government’s positive response to this review.
We welcome her recommendations for a slimmed down and less bureaucratic curriculum with fewer Early Learning Goals and the focus on the three prime areas as the foundations for healthy development of life long skills... read more in this pdf.

Approching Steiner - Article by Phoebe Doyle

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:34:00 +0000

"Phoebe Doyle takes an historical, philosophical and practical look at Steiner education, an approach that, almost 100 years since the first school opened, still sparks inspiration, debate and controversy."
Eye Magazine December 2010

View the full article "Approaching Steiner" - download the pdf here. (Approaching-Steiner-20101122.pdf 1861kb).

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship welcomes the review of the Early Years Foundation Stage

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:14:00 +0000

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship welcomes the review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Following the announcement on Tuesday 6th July that there will be a review of the Early Years’ Foundation Stage, the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship is looking forward to contributing to it. As a reply to the governments intended focus on ‘getting children ready for education’, we will respond on the importance of regarding the early years as a distinct and important phase of a child’s life, rather than simply a pre-curser to school.
We support the themes and principles of the EYFS, and hope it will continue to provide a play-based approach to children’s learning and development. However, we have found that the statutory nature of the Assessment regulations and Learning and Development requirements have conflicted with many of the well established principles of Steiner early childhood education. This has resulted in a complicated and bureaucratic exemptions process for Steiner teachers and parents. Further, the requirement to assess against the numerous points in the EYFS profile at age 5 holds no value as our children generally remain in the kindergarten until their seventh year when they begin their first introduction to formal learning, in line with many other countries with highly successful education systems throughout the world.

As our schools have to apply for the second round of exemptions in 2011, we hope that a mechanism can be put in place to allow for the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship to make a collective application on behalf of all our settings. We also hope that issues related to the new-style funding formula will be resolved in a way that allows practitioners to continue their vital work for young children.

Young musician hopes to bring aid to Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:23:00 +0000

Silas Beardslee had graduated from High Mowing School and was ready to enroll as a theater major at The University of New Hampshire four years ago. Instead, he took a detour and went to the college of life — in Zimbabwe.
by By NICOLE S. COLSON, Sentinel Staff, Thursday June 03 2010 - see original article here.

Beardslee, 21, of Keene, performs Friday at The Starving Artist in Keene to raise money for a project he envisioned during that 2006 trip to Africa.

That summer, he attended a camp in northern New Hampshire where a man from Zimbabwe was sponsored to work for the season. “We had an incredible connection I couldn’t put words to,” Beardslee said of Balance Chibangwa, who later became like a brother to him. “He described his triumphs and struggles, the landscape and the people (of Zimbabwe),” Beardslee said. “He told me his life story and I told him mine.” Chibangwa invited Beardslee to stay with him in Zimbabwe. “I saw it as an incredible opportunity,” he said.

He deferred his college application and saved up some money, and was able to visit Zimbabwe for four months from December of 2006 to March of 2007. Chibangwa was getting married in December, and asked Beardslee if he’d be his best man. Of course, he accepted.

“It made me realize I wasn’t ready for school,” he said of his experience in Zimbabwe.

Although Beardslee said he still is in love with the arts and has a far-off vision of becoming a drama teacher, his experience in Zimbabwe made him realize

there was much more to what he was wishing for.

Beardslee now has a house in the rural village of Rimbi (population 3,000) in Zimbabwe, a brick and plaster thatched roof, one-room circular hut. He built it next to Chibangwa’s small three-room house. He learned the native language, and helped his friend run his small grocery store in town and with his wedding preparations. “I had no agenda other than to immerse myself as much as possible in the people and the culture.” He was even given a Shona name by the village chief.

Beardslee noticed early on there are a lot of starving people in Rimbi, but it’s not because there’s not enough food to go around. Because the people of Zimbabwe have endured such hardship, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, people tend to think about their own families first and foremost. Because so many families are affected by the disease, often there is only one parent left to farm land and feed the family.

“Working together isn’t really a thought,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and attention whereas most time and attention is focused on getting meals for the family.” There is also a lack of work in Zimbabwe, which means many leave to find jobs and cannot farm their own land.

Beardslee and Chibangwa came up with the idea to start a community farming project wherein people of Rimbi could farm shared land and share the harvest from that land.

Beardslee said he left Zimbabwe a totally changed person with full knowledge he’d return. He didn’t feel ready to take the project on then. Instead, he travelled for two years, including to Sweden, where he led a youth initiative project that focused on social change. The connections he made there and the skills he learned from his studies, he said, gave him the tools and ideas to put his vision for the Rimbi Farming Project into motion.

He went back to Zimbabwe last year for a five-week internship, during which he asked villagers in Rimbi what they thought of the idea for the farm. They were very receptive. The farm will be biodynamic — a method of holistic organic farming created by the founder of Waldorf education. Beardslee attended the Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene.

The project is still in its visioning stage; in the meantime, Beardslee formed a non-profit organization to accept donations. He hopes to raise $30,000. So far, he has been using his musical talents toward that goal. He began playing guitar two-and-a-half years ago because he had written poetry about his first trip to Zimbabwe and he wanted to put it to music. He has performed a few shows in the area (there is one tonight in Jaffrey also) and he plans to do more.

No matter how much money he raises, he will go back to Zimbabwe in October to live and get the project off the ground. The village chief donated five hectares (equal to about two-and-a-half acres) of land villagers will be able to farm, and the money raised will go toward tools and the building of a barn. The focus crops will be maize (corn), a food staple in Zimbabwe; watermelon, squash and pumpkin.

Sadly, Chibangwa died early this year as a result of injuries he sustained in a car accident. Although Beardslee said he is still processing his friend’s death, it only fuelled him to continue. “This incredible human being would not want me to stop the work he shared the vision of,” he said.

Why British children are pushed too hard

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:59:00 +0000

British children are pushed too hard, too early at school. One writer explains how daughters read less but learnt a lot more in Africa.
From The Times, January 5, 2010 by Penny Marshall

When we took Jessie, our four-year-old daughter, away from her reception class at a London primary school and plonked her in a school in South Africa, we knew that the contrast would be drastic. We didn't know how fundamentally it would change her - and change our views on primary education.

Jessica, like her two younger sisters, was of course destined for the best secondary school that we could find, and that had meant early precision planning almost from the moment of conception to get her into the best primary feeder school for secondary success. For that success, whether in the state or the private sector, doesn't come easily.

So we moved house into the catchment area for the best state school and also took Jessie, then aged 3, to be "tested" at a series of private London day schools. I remember her being led away from us by a kindly elderly lady in a two-piece woollen suit to be interviewed on her own. She was still almost a toddler.

The pair disappeared behind a large oak-panelled door and I was left in the hall, thinking that the assessor had power over my daughter's entire educational future.

When Jessie was "selected" for the private day school, we accepted the place and I was certain that we had set her on a clear path to adult success. She soon started at the single-sex hothouse school, which "guaranteed" excellent entry results to many of the leading London day schools. I felt that I could relax: job done.

Jessie had been unable to read at all when she started school four months after her fourth birthday, but she sprinted through the Biff and Chip books that she brought home faster than I could tick them off on the parental reading chart. Faster, I noticed with some satisfaction, than many of her little classmates with whose mothers I discreetly compared progress each day in the playground.

I dismissed Jessie's morning tummy aches as normal pre-school nerves that she would soon grow out of. Neither did I think it odd at the time that one of her four-year-old friends was being taken to and from school in a pushchair, frantically sucking her thumb and stroking a muslin cloth. Her mother explained that the long school day "left her too exhausted to walk".

When my husband was offered a job in South Africa in the spring of Jessie's first school year, the only downside seemed to be that, for the two years we would be there, our daughters would miss out on their excellent English primary education. I remember promising Jessie's head teacher that she would keep up her Oxford Reading Tree commitments when she started her new life under African skies. The need to stay "on target" for that 11-plus, even in Africa, was paramount.

In return, the school said that it would keep Jessie's place open for her until we came back to Britain. All I had to do was to hire a tutor for her in South Africa because formal education there doesn't begin until the age of 6 or 7. Jessie was facing a two-year "book-free zone" - a potential academic disaster.

In fact, it didn't take me long to realise that two years without books was the best gift that any mother could have given a child emerging from that early English educational experience.

From the day Jessie was assessed in South Africa, it was clear that we had a problem. In London she was judged "highly academic". In South Africa she was designated "special needs". Pretoria, the state capital, was teeming with the children of diplomats and NGO workers from all over the world and educationists there were used to dealing with the offspring of their international visitors. "Don't worry," the child psychologist told me, "we see this all the time with children from your private and public [state] schools. Your system just doesn't develop the whole child."

There was I, bursting with pride because Jessie was practically reading Harry Potter at the age of 4, being told that there was a problem because she couldn't stand on one leg and maintain balance for any length of time with her eyes closed.

It took us four months of swimming, tree-climbing and sunshine to get Jessie out of the "monkey puzzle" room (their term for special needs) and a further two months of bush walking, beaches, African singing and trampolining to forget about the tutor altogether and donate all her Oxford Reading Tree books to charity.

Jessie, like her sisters, learnt nothing "formal" during her time in South Africa but absorbed more than she needed to through play to keep abreast - and, at times, ahead of - her peers back home. She and her sisters started school at 8am, kicked off their shoes outside the classroom and returned home for lunch at 1pm for an afternoon of more play, this time outside and unstructured.

There were no tests, no talk of "correct pencil grips", no enforced "writing" at tables dividing them into the "bright" and "not-so-bright" ones (don't tell me that children don't know the difference between the "triangle" and "circle" groups. Our adult codes conceal nothing). And, crucially, there was no pressure.

We stayed there for six years instead of two, and our daughters all returned to the English system enriched by their "lack" of education and able to fit right back into the academic classroom without any fuss. They were aged 10, 8 and 6 when we came home and "caught up" within a term. Jess even passed the dreaded 11-plus that was her promised portal to a "leading day school". But she didn't go: there is more to education than Biff and Chip.

One of the best experiences that the girls had in South Africa was learning African music, singing a cappella with a Zulu teacher at a Rudolph Steiner school, although they didn't attend the school full-time. The teacher would not let me, or them, see any sheet music or read any lyrics as we learnt the songs - something that I found extremely difficult and they didn't. "The children must use their memories and ears only," their teacher told me. "Music must be learnt in the heart and not in the brain. In your country, you know only how to learn with the brain."

When we came home to England, we, like our daughters, had been changed by the experience and looked for alternatives to that "brain-only" approach to learning. We decided that Jessie would not return to the pressurised hothouse from whence she came. She and her sisters went instead to a local church primary With the eyes of a newcomer, I could see that pushy parents wanting results were as much a part of the problem as the targets and testing that their children were being forced to endure. In conversation with other parents at dinner parties, I was horrified by the competitive obsession with secondary school entry.

But what else is there in this country for parents who, like me, shun the targets, testing and early academic pressure?

In the private sector, high-profile schools offering alternative approaches, such as Summerhill in Suffolk, are still mostly considered options for the rich and eccentric only. But there are a growing number of private Steiner and Montessori primary schools emerging to cater for parents seeking a different approach. Among the 32 Steiner schools in Britain is one in Greenwich, southeast London, that is run by a group of parents who were so determined to offer their children an alternative primary education that ten years ago they founded their own school. It now has 47 boys and 39 girls.

The Steiner movement also has its first state-funded school, established last year in Hereford. Recently the school appeared in the national league tables for 11-year-olds' test results - at the very bottom. But that's because it doesn't believe in testing and so opted out of SATs.

Steiner schools offer an alternative approach to learning. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher who established his first school in 1919 for the children of workers at the WaldorfAstoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. He argued that children's creative, spiritual and moral dimensions need as much attention as their intellectual one. Schools bearing his name begin formal education as the child reaches 6 or 7. Their founder also believed - before Jamie Oliver told us so - that children could not learn well without a healthy, cooked midday meal.

Critics of Steiner schools see them as soft, suspiciously spiritual and woolly places lacking in academic discipline. They claim that they are staffed by idealists and attended by the children of the "knit-your-own yoghurt" brigade. Enthusiasts counter that these are not schools where children are allowed to do what they like but schools where children like what they do.

Those in the Steiner movement believe that more state-funded Steiner schools are likely as the debate about primary education intensifies here. There are also plans for the first state-funded Montessori primary in inner-city Liverpool. It's not so much that the Government is championing either of these educational approaches: rather, the argument is that if choice is available for those who can pay, it should be offered to those who can't pay as well.

Those seeking alternatives for their children can also choose primary schools that dare to put happiness before league tables - which is what we did when we came home. They can also join me in praying for a much-needed backlash to this obsession with early academic success.

The increasing calls for SATs to be scrapped suggest that this backlash may already be happening - as does the recent Cambridge Review of Education, a carefully researched report written by Professor Robin Alexander. This was the most significant review of primary education in 40 years - and among its recommendations is a call for a later start in formal schooling (age 6 rather than age 4), such as my children had in South Africa. It also recommends a less academic focus in the early school years.

Our daughters are now at three different secondary schools - and have finally stopped walking barefoot down our West London street as if they were still in the African veldt. Jessie is 16 and enjoys all that it means to be a young woman in the city. She attends a church comprehensive where she is doing her A levels (including music) and is planning a summer of volunteer work in South Africa. And she, like her sisters, can also still stand on one leg for a long time with her eyes closed.

No Easy Answers in 21st Century Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:11:00 +0000

From 'Children & Young People Now', 10 December 2009 by Howard Williamson

UK Youth hosted a conference at Windsor Castle at the end of November on the future of learning. Chaired by yours truly, it sought to examine and debate what kinds of learning young people need for the 21st century, including "non-formal" learning.

Keynote contributors were Guy Claxton, author of What's the Point of School? and Richard Pring, leader of the Nuffield 14 to 19 education review and co-author of the recent Education for All. Tim Loughton, the shadow children's minister, took part in a panel debate. Though only a small number of people were physically present, it is estimated that 20,000 individuals followed the proceedings closely.

The ideas produced were very different from the developments around academies, the preferred educational trajectory of both the government and the opposition.

These flagship schools were meant to promote both economy (through private sector investment) and excellence, but seem to have done neither. There has been a triple whammy of negative publicity in recent weeks. First, the United Learning Trust, which runs 17 such schools, was banned from taking on any more until standards in its existing schools improved. Second, many of the sponsors who were meant to pledge in the region of a tenth of the overall investment in a new academy have actually contributed nowhere near that amount. And then - the icing on the cake - the new primary school league tables report that the school with the worst average point score (nil point!) is an academy: the first publicly funded Steiner school in the UK, the Steiner Academy in Hereford.

Paradoxically, Steiner is on a bit of a roll at the moment. The Cambridge Review of Primary Education, the first of its kind for 40 years, appears to have endorsed much of the thinking and many of the approaches that have always been advocated in Steiner education: learning through play, not starting formal school until the age of six, a commitment to a broader curriculum, a resistance to teaching to the test, and attention to an individual's spiritual and emotional needs. This approach, traditionally dismissed as rather wishy-washy, has recently been applauded by shadow schools secretary Michael Gove, for producing commendable and credible education outcomes. The Tories appear to be leaning towards closer engagement with the Steiner movement and an interest in its "nurturing capacity".

So how will the Tories deal with the Hereford scenario? We don't know, any more than we really know the school's level of educational performance. Although the sponsors applied successfully for academy status, the parents refused to let their children take the national tests. Will this remain an isolated incident or the start of things to come? Have parents and others (like many at the Windsor conference) finally had enough of politically inspired knee-jerk educational nonsense? We'll see.

Howard Williamson is professor of European youth policy at the University of Glamorgan

Steiner 'cult' is an ethos that fosters humanity

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Published in The TES on 11 December, 2009 | By: Catherine Paver

Last week the very first state-funded Steiner school in England appeared in the national league table for 11-year-olds' test results - at the very bottom.

But the school is not ashamed, nor should it be. The parents of pupils at the Hereford Steiner Academy had wanted their children to have a Steiner education, and that means no uniforms, no hierachy among the teaching staff - and no tests. So the parents simply withdrew their children from the Sats.

Many myths are circulated on the internet about Steiner schools, which can make them sound like part of a sinister global cult. But while some of the philosophy behind them can seem hippy-ish, the myths are usually unfounded. I know, because I taught in a Steiner school in South Africa for three years.

There was no head and all the teachers were paid the same salary. Equality was a tangible thing: pupils, teachers, cleaners and parents all chatted at the staffroom kettle. Pupils at the school generally liked what they did. But they did not do whatever they liked, and lessons were compulsory. Each child has the same class teacher for seven years, so the teachers gain authority from knowing the pupils so well.

Being taught formally from the age of seven, rather than earlier, did not lose the pupils anything at all. I was delighted to see Steiner schools in England gain an exemption recently from the Early Years Foundation Stage requirement to teach literacy before the age of seven. Certainly at the school where I taught in South Africa, the pupils' handwriting was clear and fluent.

The academic curriculum also suited the development of the child in ways that I found sensible, not flaky. In history, for example, the pupils studied revolutions at the age of 14, when they themselves are in the grip of violent hormonal conflicts. They related to the topic at an emotional level, which helped motivation.

So why, then, did Plymouth University axe its undergraduate course in Steiner teaching earlier this term? It gave a "lack of interest" as its reason for dropping the only course of its kind in Britain.

I can't help wondering if it was the weirdness of anthroposophy, the Steiner form of spirituality, that may have put applicants off. As one mother wrote online: "I'd sell my granny to send my kids there if it wasn't for anthroposophy!"

So what is anthroposophy? First, it is never taught to pupils. Meaning "wisdom of man", it is Rudolf Steiner's description of human development, seen in spiritual terms such as the "astral and etheric bodies". Steiner was an Austrian philosopher and reformer, who founded his first school in 1919 for the children of workers in the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. An inspired thinker and reformer, he was still a man of his time: the era of European transcendentalism.

His philosophy ensures that children are treated as rounded individuals rather than measured as units of production. Meanwhile, since freedom is crucial to the Steiner philosophy, they - and the teachers - are free to think his spiritual views are bonkers.

I was once told that a baby should not be taken on an aeroplane because its spiritual and physical bodies have not yet combined. Well, I suppose you would cry too if you had left your soul on the runway. While such claims may be odd, the latent spirituality behind them gives these schools a valuable breadth of sympathy. It's what Steiner called "receiving a child with reverence" and "solving its riddle, from hour to hour". It taught me the value of lateral thinking and keeping calm in conflict resolution.

Take Peter's story. "Right now, his soul is black," said his teacher. Weird - but it was said with compassion, and freed up discussion on how to help him. In time, we found that angry Peter loved making puppets, which improved his behaviour. Would discussion of mark schemes have done the same?

Not all Steiner teachers are anthroposophists. How many teachers share the spiritual beliefs of their school's founder? I never have. And most beliefs look odd from a distance. I have worked in a Catholic school, whose kind, sensible teachers wore miniature instruments of torture (crucifixes) and pretended to drink blood (Mass). It didn't bother me because they were nice people.

Steiner schools are not a "cult", because a cult wants to be a religion when it grows up. Steiner's ideas simply serve the good of the child.

Nik Voigt, a filmmaker and photographer, attended a Steiner school and then a mainstream school as a pupil. He attributes his chosen career to his very first lesson at the Steiner school. "The teacher said, 'Everything is made up of lines and curves.' It may sound simple but it opened my eyes." In a state school, he felt he lost contact with his creativity. "In art lessons we were told, 'This is how you draw a jam jar.' What can you do with that?"

What Steiner schools cultivate is something that underpins creativity and imagination: humanity. Steiner wrote that "the new generation should not just be made to be what present society wants it to become". A valuable statement today, when sometimes it feels as if that is all we are doing.

Catherine Paver, Writer and part-time English teacher.

Steiner schools - has their time come?

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:30:00 +0000

Steiner schools are hoping the time could soon come for them to be given state funding. Are they right?

From The Guardian, Tuesday 1 December 2009, by Adharanand Finn

"Children should start school at six", screamed the national newspapers a few weeks ago on the day the biggest review into primary education in 40 years, the Cambridge Review, was published. It was a strange moment for the 31 Steiner schools across the country. Here was a central plank of their philosophy, which on every other day of the year was regarded by many as marginal, woolly and even backward, being proclaimed to the nation as the answer to its educational woes.
Of course, the Cambridge Review was about more than the age children should start formal education, but those headlines rang like a great call to action through the Steiner community. The Steiner Fellowship, the umbrella organisation for the mostly fee-paying schools, immediately issued a response welcoming the report.
"We are convinced that a later start to formal learning allows children to experience the joy of learning without unhealthy stress or the risk of early burn-out," it said. "We hope the findings [of the review] are taken seriously."
Theresa Trapp, a kindergarten teacher at the Exeter Steiner school, was less diplomatic. "It's about damn time," she said. "Children learn so much through play. It's about time we realised that."
The Cambridge Review also seemed to concur with the Steiner approach on a number of other issues, such as the need for a broader curriculum, less focused on "the three Rs", and that testing pupils for the sake of school accountability, namely Sats, was detrimental.
Everything seemed to align further when, a few days later, the archbishop of Canterbury condemned the English education system as "oppressive" for prioritising test marks over children's spiritual or emotional happiness. Steiner has long trumpeted its aim of addressing the needs of the "whole child", including its spiritual and emotional wellbeing.
The optimism all this generated in Steiner schools was only slightly tempered by the immediate rejection of the Cambridge Review's key findings by the government and the Tory party.
But behind the scenes the Conservatives had been making friendly noises towards Steiner schools. The shadow education secretary, Michael Gove, paid a visit to the Meadow Steiner school in Bruton, Somerset in June and came away "very impressed".
"From my visit today," he said, "it is clear to me that the children at the Meadow school benefit from a very nurturing environment, and while the education is based on alternative principles, they also end up with an impressive record of literacy and numeracy. This is just the kind of environment and parental interaction that we should be encouraging."
This was followed by the announcement of the Tories' new schools policy, which would make it easier for independent schools based on alternative methods to access state funding. The policy is based in part on the successful charter schools in the US, many of which are Steiner schools.
A few weeks ago, the Steiner movement held a special pre-election seminar, Moving Forward, with Conservative special adviser Sam Freedman, who turned up to explain how Steiner schools could benefit under a future Tory government.
To qualify for funding, schools would need to have a business plan, to be non-selective, to be inspected and, for reasons of accountability, reach a certain minimum benchmark in terms of exam passes, he said. The schools would also need to demonstrate enough parental demand. Most Steiner schools would happily meet these requirements.
Sylvie Sklan, from the Steiner Fellowship, however, is keen to point out that though the Tories may make state funding more accessible, the big breakthrough for the public funding of Steiner schools has already happened - when Britain's first completely state-funded Steiner academy became a reality in Hereford last year.
"The precedent that Steiner schools could be state-funded was set then," she says. "And we have to be thankful to the Labour government for that."
Despite long waiting lists for pupils to join the academy, the reason a raft of other state-funded Steiner schools haven't followed in its wake, says Sklan, is not a lack of political will, but "because of resistance from local authorities whose strict regulations are designed for standard schools".
Crucially, however, under the Tory plans authorities would not have the same powers to block new schools opening.
On the same night as the Moving Forward seminar, the world premiere of the film We Are The People We've Been Waiting For took place in Leicester Square. The film, produced by Lord Puttnam, is a critique of all that is wrong with the state education system.
The film argues that by focusing too much on rigid academic skills, schools are failing children. It suggests that, at its best, our education system is turning out foot soldiers who may struggle to adapt. At its worst, it is a "scandalous waste" of young people's talents.
Sklan says Steiner education avoids these pitfalls by not simply focusing on the transfer of knowledge and skills, but on "nurturing capacities and supporting the development of the whole child". This, she says, leads to adults who are able to think for themselves and excel in an ever-changing world.
Along with the Cambridge Review and the encouragement from the Tories, many involved with Steiner are beginning to think of this as a "moment" for the schools. With one state school up and running, it remains to be seen if Steiner can capitalise on this alignment of voices in its favour and make the leap into the mainstream, as it has in other countries such as Germany and the US; or whether, once all the noise has died down, its unconventional methods will remain on the fringes of our educational approach.

Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School pupil success

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:04:00 +0000

Edinburgh pupil ranked joint highest in Higher physics exam

Published Date: 24 October 2009

Edinburgh school pupil Tommy Shinton has been ranked joint highest in Scotland for the mark he achieved in his Higher physics exam.

Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School pupil, Tommy Shinton, has subsequently been invited by the Institute of Physics in Scotland to attend this year's Science and the Parliament event at Dynamic Earth to receive a prize for his efforts.The event, on 11 November, will be attended by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, who will also award the prizes. Tommy gained five grade A band one awards at Higher.

Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.

press release Cambridge Primary Review

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:50:00 +0000

16th October, 2009

Cambridge Primary Review – response from the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, the association for Steiner education in the UK & Ireland, welcomes the findings of Robin Alexanders Cambridge Primary Review. In our view, Professor Alexander has examined the evidence rigorously. His conclusions will not be a surprise to educators in most of continental Europe, nor to many unheard voices here who believe that in the long term, children benefit from a later starting age for formal learning.

Steiner schools provide an educational environment where the young child's innate curiosity & ability to learn can be strengthened through play and through a range of experiences: linguistic, mathematical, practical, social, spatial & physical. Our approach has a long and well respected track record that shows that high quality, but non-academic, early years education lays the foundations for good social & academic skills & for life-long learning.

We are convinced that a later start to formal learning allows children to experience the joy of learning without unhealthy stress or the risk of early burn-out.

Professor Alexander has reached his conclusions out of a deep concern for the well-being of all children & after lengthy consultation & detailed analysis. His report deserves the title 'independent' & for the sake of our future and we hope that his findings are taken seriously.