Steiner schools battle to banish 'alternative' tag

Published on Tuesday 20 January 2009 19:46

TEACHERS and pupils at Edinburgh's Rudolf Steiner School are used to having to explain exactly what goes on inside the gates of their leafy campus in Merchiston.

According to the staff, misconceptions about the school – which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year – are common. The biggest myth, they say, is that pupils are free to do whatever they like, and that they don't have to sit any exams.

"That is not at all the case," explains Astrid Maclean, the school's head of management. "We have a very structured system."

Although lower school pupils do take fewer exams than they would at a mainstream school, the older students generally end up with the same number of Highers or equivalent qualifications as elsewhere by the time they leave. In fact, the school has consistently enjoyed above-average exam results over the last 15 years, with about 90 per cent of its leavers going on to higher education of some sort.

Yet the Steiner system, based on the teachings of the Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner, does have some unique features – the cause, perhaps, of the "alternative" label with which it is commonly branded.

Formal education does not start until age six and pupils start the day with a "morning birth" – group exercises, singing and recitals intended to free the mind and prepare pupils for the day ahead.

Classes rarely have more than 20 pupils, there is no school uniform, and the older pupils are responsible for cooking lunch for the rest of the school.

Farming, astronomy, mechanics and architecture are all part of the curriculum, and are taken in the upper school alongside regular examined subjects.

According to Mrs Maclean, instead of preparing pupils to pass exams, the aim is to instil a love of learning. She says the problem with focusing on exams, particularly when pupils are young, is that children are often not mature enough to face these demands.

"We offer so much more than just exams in order to give pupils a wider perspective and help them mature," she says.

And she thinks the freer reign teachers have in the Steiner system helps them to stay motivated and passionate about their jobs.

"People go into teaching because they want to be creative and offer something to children, but end up working towards what is really quite a narrow goal," she explains.

There are differences, too, in the Steiner kindergarten. Children aged between three and a half and six mix in the same classes and spend breaks doing small chores, like sweeping up leaves in the kindergarten garden.

Alistair Pugh, a geography and English teacher, said this helps pupils to learn to interact with children of different ages and to care for their environment.

What is more, kindergarten pupils play only with "unformed" toys, such as wooden blocks and simple woollen dolls without faces, in order to develop creativity.

In the Steiner system, according to Mr Pugh, "kindergarten is about doing, lower school is about feeling, and upper school is about thinking. You don't start intellectualising the world at four years old – you learn by doing things."

But while the system suits some, it is not necessarily appropriate for all children, and prospective pupils must attend an interview to assess whether the teaching methods would suit them.

Edinburgh's Steiner school, which currently has just under 350 pupils, was established in 1939 in Rothesay Place with ten pupils and two teachers. After being evacuated to the Borders in 1940, it returned to Edinburgh after the war.

Denis Wight, 73, who was in the school's first intake in 1939, says it was regarded as out-of-the-ordinary when his parents decided to send him there. But he, like many former Steiner pupils, has continued the tradition of sending his family to the school, and his two grandchildren are there now.

Seventy years on, there are four Steiner schools in Scotland, and 36 in the UK. And according to Edinburgh's Steiner teachers, understanding about holistic education is gradually on the up.

Admissions to the school have increased by about 20 per cent since July 2008, and Steiner teachers have been working with some Edinburgh primaries to share knowledge about their methods.

More parents, it seems, are prepared to pay the price of a Steiner education.This starts at just over 3,300 a year for lower school pupils and increases to just over 6,500 a year for the oldest students.

Mr Pugh believes the increase in applications is attributable, in part, to Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence, currently piloting in some schools and set to be introduced to all Scottish schools by August 2010.

"When you use the word holistic now, people don't look at you askance, because they understand that it is the way education is going," he said.

Although teachers have welcomed the principles of the new curriculum, the Scottish Government has faced criticism for slow delivery and under-funding the initiative. Steiner teachers say the new curriculum's "joined-up" approach, with less demarcation between subjects, represents a welcome step closer to their methods.

However, the Scottish education system seems to be lagging when it comes to formally accepting Steiner schools. While they operate in 70 countries, Scotland is one of the few in which they receive no state funding.

Last September, a state-funded Steiner school opened in Hereford as part of the expansion of the UK government's academy programme. Mr Pugh, who is also the chair of governors at Hereford, says it was hugely over-subscribed and that the next project is to open one in an inner-city area.

In Scotland, state-funding is a long-term aim, so that a Steiner education can be available to all regardless of ability to pay.

And as for the "alternative" reputation, Mr Pugh believes the gap between Steiner and the mainstream is being bridged. "The Steiner system is not alternative," he said. "It is the way education is meant to be."