SWSF News

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Swindell) — 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.

Children Start School Too Young

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:55:00 +0000

From The Times
October 16 2009
Children start school too young — wait till they are 6, experts say

John OLeary

Formal schooling should be delayed until children reach 6, according to the biggest review of primary education for more than 40 years.
The Cambridge Primary Review, published today, says that five-year-olds should continue with the play-based curriculum used in nursery schools. Trying to teach literacy and numeracy at such an early age is 'counterproductive' and can put children off school, according to the committee that produced the report.
Professor Robin Alexander, the report’s editor, called for a debate about whether to raise the age of compulsory schooling, which has been set at 5 since 1870. But the review was more concerned about the style of learning offered in state schools.
Successive governments’ insistence on the earliest possible start to formal schooling went against the grain of international evidence, he said. Children who started school at the age of 6 or 7 often overtook English pupils in tests of reading before the start of secondary education.

Most continental countries start school later than in Britain, preparing children for formal classes through extended nursery education. The review proposes a similar model for England, continuing the current Foundation Stage for an extra year and following it with a single stage of primary education taking children to the age of 11.

The suggestion was not supported by the Government or the Opposition.
Dame Gillian Pugh, who chaired the review’s advisory committee, said: “If you introduce a child to too formal a curriculum before they are ready, you are not taking into account where children are in terms of their learning and their capacity to develop.”

A separate review, by Sir Jim Rose, that was commissioned and accepted by the Government, called for four-year-olds to go straight into primary reception classes. But Sir Jim recommended that parents be able to defer their child’s entry to school by up to a year if they felt they were not ready.
Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools, who undertook a more limited review of primary teaching for the previous Conservative Government with both Professor Alexander and Sir Jim, said he feared a later start would lead to lower standards: “It is reasonable when children arrive at school for the emphasis to be on socialisation, but I see no reason to postpone the start of formal learning.”
John Bangs, of the National Union of Teachers, described the proposal as an “innovative idea” that deserved support: “We have seen problems with early admission to reception classes. It is an absolutely crucial stage of a child’s development and I think there is merit in extending the Foundation Stage.” The 600-page report, entitled Children, their World, their Education, says that many practitioners believe that the principles shaping pre-school education should govern children’s experience of primary school at least until the age of 6, if not 7. The Welsh Assembly has already extended the Foundation Stage to the age of 7.
Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said that it would be a backward step not to make sure children were learning as well as playing through the Foundation Stage and beyond. “It is vital to get children playing and learning from an early age.”
Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and based at the University of Cambridge, the review took six years and drew on 4,000 pieces of evidence. It depicts primary schools struggling with interference from the Government and its agencies, but remaining “fundamentally in good heart” .
Professor Alexander said: “There is room for improvement but, after 20 years of pretty continuous change and reform, how could it be otherwise?” The introduction of more specialist teachers would help schools cope with the modern curriculum, he said.

Professor Alexander described the “crisis of childhood” as a media obsession and said it was evident mainly among those from poor backgrounds, who were farther behind their peers than those in comparable countries.
The review accuses the Government of abandoning the convention that it did not dictate how children were taught, and imposing a “state theory of learning” through its literacy and numeracy strategies. Such policies’ “Stalinist overtones” had produced an air of pessimism and powerlessness in the teaching profession. Existing tests at the end of primary school should be scrapped, the review says, and replaced by assessment of the whole curriculum, rather than just English, mathematics and science.

It describes politicians’ exclusive focus on ensuring that children can read, write and add up as narrower than that in Victorian elementary schools.Among the changes recommended by the review are longer training for graduates intending to teach in primary schools which, it says, should take two years not one, and a review of special educational needs. Long summer holidays might also be reduced.
Professor Alexander said that the review was intended to inform long-term planning, not “pre-election pointscoring”. The main parties nevertheless seized on the findings.

Nick Gibb, the Shadow Schools Minister, said: “We agree that the wave of bureaucracy over the past decade has been deeply damaging and we must trust teachers more. We also agree that we need more specialist training for primary teachers.” However, the Conservatives would not support a delay in the start of formal schooling.
Vernon Coaker, the Schools Minister, said: “It’s disappointing that a review which purports to be so comprehensive is not up to speed on changes in primaries. The world has moved on since this review was started.”
Mr Coaker added: “We’re putting in place fundamental reforms following Sir Jim Rose’s primary review, to make the curriculum less prescriptive. A school starting age of 6 would be completely counterproductive — we want to make sure children are playing and learning from an early age and to give parents the choice for their child to start in the September following their fourth birthday.

Two schools win right to ditch early years curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:33:00 +0000

from Times Online Friday October 2nd 2009

(Richard Pohle)
Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent

Children at Steiner schools do not use electronic technology until they are seven

Two schools have won the right to opt out of the controversial early years “nappy” curriculum after ministers dropped a commitment that no pre-school child would be exempt.
After their successful appeals, the two Steiner schools will no longer be required to meet the Government’s targets, including making children aged 3 and 4 write simple sentences using punctuation or start to use phonics.
The two schools, which are the first to be allowed to opt out, argued that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) clashed with the Steiner philosophy, which does not believe that children benefit from the formal teaching of subjects such as English language until they are 7.
They also do not introduce “electronic gadgetry” until children reach that age

When ministers first published the curriculum, which contains 69 different measures for the progress and development of under-5s, they made clear that childminders and all nurseries and schools, state and private, would have to implement it.

The assessment criteria includes being able to dress and undress, sounding out letters, children writing their own name, and using some electronic equipment.
Victory for the two schools, the Wynstones School in Gloucestershire and North London Rudolf Steiner School in Haringey, means that the 40 or so other Steiner schools seeking an opt-out are likely to be given the go-ahead.
Their success has also stiffened the resolve of the many preparatory schools who oppose the curriculum.

John Tranmer, chairman of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, said that it would back any of its 600 members who wanted to opt out.
“We are keen to support any member in asserting their independence, their right to determine what is best for children in their care. If that involves disapplication from EYFS they will have our backing,” he said.

Critics say such a prescriptive set of measurements is not suitable for young children because they develop at such different rates. Most unpopular is the expectation that children should be able to write a sentence with punctuation by the time they reach 5.

Professor Richard House, spokesman for the Open EYE campaign against the curriculum, said that he hoped the victory would open the floodgates for others to opt out.
“When schools share the views of these Steiner schools about literacy and numeracy for such young children it will be hard for the Government to treat them differently,” he said.
“We hope it will also help form a more general legal challenge against the Government’s decision to set compulsory goals for children below the compulsory age of education.”
He admitted that the Government had made the appeal process so difficult that a school would have to be very determined to see it through.

Schools must win the backing of more than half their parents, warn them that funding might be cut and state why they are incapable of meeting each of the targets before they can even get leave to apply.

Edinburgh Pupils Excellent Chemistry result

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:54:00 +0000

AN EDINBURGH school pupil is celebrating after achieving the highest possible mark in her GCSE chemistry exam. Olga Alapiki, 17, from Merchiston, who is a pupil at the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School, scored 400 out of a possible 400, gaining an A* grade, in the examination she sat in June. The AQA examination board congratulated Olga on the result, describing it as a "very notable achievement".

Source: The Scotsman
Location: Edinburgh
Related Topics: Teaching

'Nappy curriculum' suffers setback as two schools allowed to opt out

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:00:00 +0000

The "nappy curriculum" of strict learning targets for under-fives risks being undermined after some schools were allowed to opt out of it.

By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent, The Telegraph
Published: 6:00PM BST 13 Sep 2009

The kindergartens, which follow a philosophy of not beginning many elements of formal education until children reach seven, will no longer have to make sure pupils can meet the Government's strict reading and writing targets.
Experts say the decision to allow some exemptions from the Early Years Foundation Stage for Steiner schools will make it difficult for civil servants to refuse requests from other nurseries.

The more providers who are allowed to opt out of some of the 69 goals, the harder it will be for the Government to follow the educational development of pre-school children.

Dr Richard House, of the Open EYE Campaign, said: "The EYFS's existing shortcomings are largely due to the Government's single-minded intransigence in insisting that key, controversial aspects of the framework be compulsory and essentially non-negotiable, instead of being empowering professional guidelines.

"However, what was previously only a hypothetical possibility of exemption from some of the EYFS learning requirements has now become a welcome reality.

"On equity grounds alone, therefore, it will in future be very difficult, if not impossible, for the DCSF to refuse exemption applications from other, non-Steiner settings who also have principled philosophical or pedagogical objections to the EYFS literacy, numeracy, ICT and other requirements - whether it be from nurseries, childminders, or from parents themselves."

The Early Years Foundation Stage, known as the "nappy curriculum", was introduced last September as a way to track the progress of children before they turn five.

Every childminder and nursery school teacher, both state-funded and private, is required to monitor all of their pupils' reading, writing, counting and problem-solving schools.

They must assess children on whether they can write in sentences, use punctuation and operate television remote controls.

But some education experts say it creates too much red tape for staff and stifles young children's ability to play and explore the world around them.

The framework runs counter to the approach of education providers such as Steiner schools, which do not start teaching the three Rs until children are seven and instead emphasise social and creative development.

Two Steiner kindergartens have now been granted exemptions from some of the requirements of the curriculum, under a lengthy appeal process overseen by the Department for Children, Schools and Families but also involving local authorities.

Two schools ahve been given exemptions so far. A further 17 are waiting to hear if they too will be granted opt-outs, and in total more than 40 are expected to do the same.

Wynstones School in Gloucester and the North London Rudolf Steiner School in Haringey will no longer have to follow reading and writing goals including the study of phonics, the linking of letters and sounds. The London kindergarten has also been granted exemptions from the ICT targets.

Janni Nicol, early years spokesman for the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, said: "The majority of Steiner early years settings will be applying for exemption.

"The hold-up has been through local authority involvement but we are hoping that this will be sorted out and they will all have applied by the end of the first term.

"I am very pleased to see that there is an understanding of the Steiner ethos and practice."

The Schools Minister, Diana Johnson, said: "Recent surveys from important workforce stakeholders tell us that the vast majority of early years providers broadly support the EYFS. Testimony to this is that almost a year since its implementation, only 19 providers, out of over 85,000 have applied for any form of exemption or modification.

"We are delighted that providers are embracing this framework which echoes what the best have been doing for years."

Related Articles
> Schools should be allowed to drop parts of National Curriculum, say MPs
> Childminder defies 'nappy curriculum'
> Pre-school children to start work on 'nappy curriculum' of 69 education targets
> Toddlers to be taught about human rights

Tories to fund Montessori and Steiner schools?

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:36:00 +0000

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23716828-details/Tories+to+offer+alternative+state+education+at+Montessori+schools/article.do

Interesting article by Tim Ross on the London Evening Standard Website.

Hunting for a Pre School

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:18:00 +0000

http://www.globalmama.com/2009/03/19/hunting-for-a-preschool-part-2-waldorf/

Hunting for a pre-school, Steiner Waldorf.
Interesting and informative American blog article that looks at Steiner Waldorf kindergarten practice.
Global Mama weblog, published March 2009

Response from the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship to the Cambridge Primary Review Special Report on the Primary Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:32:00 +0000

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship would not normally comment on Professor Robin Alexander's Cambridge Primary Review, as our schools teach the international Waldorf curriculum and are therefore not affected by changes to the National Curriculum. However, we are very interested in anything that affects the quality of childhood and we are also, since the inception in September 2008 of the Steiner Academy Hereford, part of the state education system.

Were Dickens alive to rewrite Hard Times for our own hard times today, he would undoubtedly cast Mr Gradgrind in a senior education policy role: "Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!"

It would take a writer of the calibre of Charles Dickens to convey a full picture of what has happened to primary education over the last twenty years or so, but Professor Alexander does his best:

"In these severely utilitarian and philistine times, it has become necessary to argue the case for creativity and the imagination on the grounds of their contribution to the economy alone... We assert the need to emphasise the intrinsic value of exciting children's imaginations."

That Professor Alexander should feel the need to remind government of these things is tragic, but he is hardly a voice in the wilderness. The report of a 10-month inquiry from the National Association of Head Teachers in 2007 said that tests and league tables are "deeply damaging" the quality of schoolchildren's lives and their education. According to the NAHT, the obsession with national assessment that has seen pupils in England become the world's most tested is putting huge pressure on children, stigmatizing them as failures and forcing teachers to narrow the curriculum.

This report was hard on the heels of another report from the influential Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which listed a series of "damaging side effects", including teachers drilling children to pass tests and the "unreasonable pressure" of continual testing.

The Cambridge Primary Review confirms these earlier findings and goes on to argue that the education of many primary school pupils has been "impoverished" because key subjects - such as dance, music, PE, history, geography and science - have been squeezed out of the curriculum. From the Steiner schools' point of view, it is good to see Professor Alexander's recognition that the aims of primary education should be grounded on evidence of children's development, in contrast to the Rose Review's alarming proposal that summer-born children should start school in the September term after their fourth birthday

Professor Alexander implies that micro-management by the DCSF and confusion between national agencies and national strategies have been deeply unhelpful. The net effect in some schools, though not in all, is that rigid concentration on the three Rs and teaching to the test for 11-year olds have taken away from pupils what should be a given - a broad and balanced curriculum.

Education doesn't have to be like this.

Steiner schools work with a model of child development which considers the period from birth to six years old as being of critical importance in establishing the learning attitudes that children will take with them throughout their lives. Only when a child is physically, mentally, socially and linguistically ready should he or she be considered properly ready for formal education. In many cases, children are not ready before their seventh year.

In Steiner schools, the teacher is allowed to be a professional, trusted to take each subject of the Waldorf curriculum and recreate it anew each day. There is no divide between "the basics" (protected) and the rest of the curriculum (viewed as dispensable). Instead, education itself is seen as an art and each subject is taught in an artistic way, whether it be reading, writing, maths, history, science or languages. Teacher appraisal is done by one's colleagues, while formative and summative assessment of pupils is carried out by the teachers. Discussion on all aspects of teaching, the sharing of professional experiences, child study, curriculum development, subject research etc, take place in the weekly meetings of the College of Teachers. There is no head teacher, and "distributed leadership" is the norm.

Steiner schools believe that they have much to give to the maintained sector as well as much to learn. The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship wishes to develop workable ways of exploring mutual dialogue and learning between the Steiner and maintained sectors for the benefit of all our children.

What do Ed Balls and Sir Jim Rose know about early childhood that most European education experts don't?

noreply@blogger.com (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Christopher Clouder, on behalf of the Executive of the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, has issued the following statement in response to the interim report of Sir Jim Rose's Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum:

"The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship would not normally comment on Sir Jim Rose's interim review of the primary curriculum, as most of our schools are independent and therefore not affected by his proposals. However, we are very interested in anything that affects the quality of childhood and we are also, since the introduction of the Steiner Academy Hereford, part of the state education system.

"We are therefore pleased to note that Sir Jim has come up with some interesting proposals to overhaul what is taught in primary schools. For example, Steiner schools already introduce the teaching of French and German at an early stage - consequently we support his call for pupils to be offered one or two languages from the age of 7.

We also think that there is greater scope for creative and thorough teaching through a more theme-based approach to the curriculum, especially if this allows children to become more deeply involved in what they are taught. The 2-hour Main Lesson on a topic lasting several weeks has become one of the most successful and distinguishing features of Steiner teaching, for it allows teachers to cover the curriculum intensively and economically, and for pupils to develop their skills and capacity to focus on a task. Furthermore we are delighted with the recognition of the importance of play, although the fact that play is also joyful and not only utilitarian has been omitted. The proposal to strengthen the SEAL framework across the curriculum is both timely and vital.

"We have some reservations, however, about some of Sir Jim's other recommendations. While we understand the thinking behind his proposal that summer-born children should start school in the September term after their fourth birthday, if their parents wish it, we note the research evidence that indicates there is considerable variation in the age at which children are developmentally and neurologically ready to read and write. Boys are often later than girls in developing fine motor and language skills and the ability to sit still. Children born prematurely, or children who are born during the summer months can be 9-12 months younger than their peers in terms of neurological development.

Steiner schools work with a model of child development which considers the period from birth to six years old as being of critical importance in establishing the learning attitudes that children will take with them throughout their lives. Only when a child is physically, mentally, socially and linguistically ready should he or she be considered properly ready for formal education. In many cases, children are not ready before their seventh year.

"To give just one example to bear this out, a recent research study in Northern Ireland (where children start school at 4 years old) quoted by Sally Goddard Blythe of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychiatry (INPP) of 339 children of 5-6 years old showed that 48% of them had immature physical skills. In a study of 400 8-9 year olds, 35% of them still showed signs of physical immaturity. Northern Ireland has the lowest compulsory school starting age in Europe (4 years old). In most of Europe, with the exception of Malta, the Netherlands, Scotland and England, the starting age is at 6 years old or 7 years old. This includes Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden, in fact those countries with the most successful economies.

"We believe that it is quite possible for teachers to identify when children are physically ready for formal learning – balance, posture and motor skills provide indications of maturity in the central nervous system of the developing child and can be assessed at key stages in development. Steiner school teachers are trained in these techniques and use them to assess when children are ready to leave Kindergarten and move into Class 1.

"Children who are delayed in their physical development need more time involved in general physical activities before being ready to integrate fine motor and visual integration tasks. The consequences of not giving children the time to play and become ready for formal learning can be disastrous for their future ability to make the most of their education. Scotland and Wales have examined the evidence and both countries are moving towards the Nordic model of a later start to formal education. In Wales, the starting age is now 7 years old."

The question to Ed Balls and Sir Jim Rose must be: what do you know about early childhood that most of Europe, including Scotland and Wales, don't?

"The other huge issue, which is not addressed by Sir Jim, because it was excluded from his brief, is the whole question of the national curriculum SATs tests for 11-year olds. Are teachers going to have the time to give to Sir Jim's ambitions for improving, for example, children's speaking and listening skills, when they expect to devote hours to coaching children for the tests? The use of the tests for the publication of national performance tables means that schools are judged on the results and it is unrealistic to think that schools will not continue to give a very high priority to preparing their pupils for them."