Could We be Saying Farewell to Waldorf Education?

This weekend has been the farewell gathering for my old school, which has now closed. I couldn't be there, as I'm on the other side of the world, so I can only see the photos and videos from the event after the day.

The school was a Waldorf school which applied the Rudolf Steiner education philosophy and isn't the only one to have been hit hard by the latest Ofsted regulations, which clash with their teaching methodologies. This open letter to the head of Ofsted explains the concerns many have with the Ofsted regulations which could end up destroying a path of education which has been more suited to many who don't do well in mainstream education.

Looking back, I have, like anyone, good and bad memories from my school days, but with the experience I now have of the mainstream schooling system from my daughters’ attendance, I can only imagine that I would have been one of the many failed by it.

Waldorf education doesn't teach by rote, it teaches the child. It assists them to learn in their way and have a full understanding of the subject at hand, instead of memorising facts which we may not necessarily understand how to apply. For the early years, up until the year they turn 7, they believe in education via play. One of the things Ofsted has criticised has been the Waldorf practice of not formally teaching reading and writing until that age. Yet the schools have found this to be a much more responsive age for teaching literacy. There are those children who are ready sooner and will have already picked up some literacy before this age anyway and this is certainly not discouraged. However, it is not something which they believe in forcing onto children before they are ready.

Before attending the Waldorf school I had gone to a state school, so I had already learnt to read. Once literacy lessons started at my new school, I had the freedom to follow the lessons however I wanted. I could read books or join in with making pictures incorporating the letter of the day. This freedom and time to learn at my pace, allowed me to come to an understanding of how the written English language worked in a way that never had to be explained to me. Things that I had to explain to my own daughters while they were in the mainstream education system, I had the time to figure out myself by effectively “playing” with words and sounds. Those who struggled a bit more with understanding got guidance and help from the teacher and no shame was attached to this or to asking questions.

Each teacher took a class all of the way through primary school and this allowed them to get to know each child individually. They knew who might need some more help to keep up and who might need things explained in other ways. They could work with every child to their strengths. In the upper school one teacher would take the class as the homeroom teacher for the last 3 years and each of these was a specialist in an area of education, so they also taught that subject. Once again, they got to know their students well.

In the western world we are in the enviable position of having free education up to the age of 18, but what happens when that free education is no longer an education that we are free to choose? As more countries start to ban home education, then our hope lies in being able to choose a form of education which will best suit our children. Yet Ofsted’s regulations seem set on removing our options and government applied standardised testing could well be causing our children's learning more harm than good.

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Artwork by @svitlaangel