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SIMS Alternative

Like it or not, schools seem to think they HAVE to have Capita SIMS when it’s not actually a government requirement - but there are plenty of up-to-date alternatives now, and some which offer a lot more functionality  - like Pupil Asset for instance, which has browser access, text messaging and decent assessment / behaviour tracking straight out-of-the box.

Those not quite ready to make the leap to a fully integrated solution can choose from other larger providers like RM with Integris, or Progresso, both of which have found favour among ex Pearson e1 users.

Whichever way, heads are starting to realise that they don’t have to put up with SIMS just because it has a monopoly sized share of the market - and the sooner local authorities and other large groups also see that in most cases better and often cheaper (when you consider the services bundled in) alternatives exist, the healthier the competition will be - with happier teachers a not un-welcome by-product.

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The founder of Khan Academy tests the theory that you should praise effort rather than easily gained achievement on his own children.

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Allowing Students to Create Their Own Individualised Learning

Interesting thought experiment by MIT: how to allow students to create their own individualised learning > http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/are-courses-outdated-mit-considers-offering-modules-instead/54257

Those two competing and seemingly diametrically opposed notions of what makes good education come sharply to blows again, namely:

a) education should ideally be targeted specifically to individuals - for one only learns masterfully if intrinisically interested in the subject, and these are likely to be what you want to do with your life in any case

b) education should be a guided tour of your ignorance. It's not there to teach everything, but to tell you a little bit of everything that you may want to learn so that you can then pick the bits to concentrate on in detail.

Do these two things need to be mutually exclusive? Really? 

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Detailed analysis / write-up of the Newnight report of Steiner schools

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Settling for the lesser of two evils is not only a false defense, but a mindset of the enslaved.

I wish the parents of Norwich Steiner School could see this.

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On Child Rearing

We want our children to be kind, biddable, "good" - and yet we desire they grow into strong, free-thinking, creative adults. People do not see the dichotomy - more common seems to be the belief that the former (if done "properly") leads to the latter!

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Threatened Family Leaves Norwich Steiner School

The toxic management culture within Norwich Steiner School has once again led to serious parental complaints being met with outright abusive, threatening behaviour - with no attempt to address issues. The parents involved have been forced from the school, but not without circulating an e-mail to existing parents with a devastating assessment of their treatment (reproduced below with permission from the author).

After repeated occurences of remarkably similar incidents - all centred around complaints related to child safety - the question that surely now needs to be asked is whether the School's leader - Sandie Tolhurst - can continue to be considered a fit and proper person to be running a school.

From: Jon Heeds Subject: My Experience & Concerns 5th April 2013

On the 4th December 2012 I received an email after school closing hours which I found very disturbing. It was from the school to inform me that after a complaint from another parent regarding my daughters interactions with her child (her attempts to engage him in play) that the school had decided to implement a new policy. This policy had been developed overnight and was to put it politely deplorable, if enacted it would certainly have caused distress to my daughter and I was horrified to be reading it. This new policy, which was to be started the very next morning and without any form of discussion with Rachel or myself stated that if she were to even speak to the other child it would be viewed as an act equal to hitting him and she would be sent home. Obviously this was completely unacceptable so I wrote an in depth reply outlining most of my many objections to it and absolutely forbidding any action to be taken or any mention of it made to my daughter. I received no direct response to this and the first opportunity I had to raise this issue with anyone was the next morning as I dropped my children off at school where I initially attempted to speak to Ms Scaife and get some confirmation that no member of staff would proceed with any such silly actions as outlined in the e-mail from the school. Ms Scaife was unable to speak to me and directed me to speak to Sandie Tolhurst which I did immediately.

At this point I was hoping that the school would apologise for acting so rashly and without thought and reassure me that until we could meet for a sensible discussion no action would be taken. Sadly I was wrong as the very first thing I was told by Sandie was that she had not bothered to read my concerns as listed the email, which I sent the previous evening, because she felt it was an overreaction. This was a huge issue to me as this meant not only were they willing to act in such a thoughtless and potentially damaging manner but they were willing to completely dismiss my parental concerns. Undeterred by this I insisted I had valid points that needed addressing and went on to explain, unfortunately every point I raised was met by the same response from Sandie of denying that the email said what it very clearly did. Again and again I was confronted with blanket denials and a refusal to accept any of my concerns. In order to make any headway I had to insist that she access the email in question and I quoted it directly whilst running my finger across the words. However, Sandie still just dismissed me summarily and refused to accept that there was any issue to be dealt with at all, using phrases like “I am sorry if that is what you have read into it”. At one point she also tried to escape any responsibility by saying “I didn’t write it” and I was forced to remind her in this instance she was the school’s representative. I found this evasive and cowardly attitude extremely frustrating and upsetting to deal with and already late for work I demanded a meeting to discuss the whole debacle and had to leave without any reassurance and hope for the best. Eventually I was able to get her to agree that to treat speaking to someone as being equal to physically assaulting them was ridiculous. I also had to point out to her that on many other occasions when concerns were raised regarding either of my children I had come in and discussed the issues with them; I had helped develop strategies to deal with those issues that had been successful, therefore she should have asked me to come in and discuss this issue as well. I should not have to be informing you of your own policies that you are seemingly unable to act upon. I demanded that we arrange a suitable time to have a meeting under conditions to be set out by [redacted child]’s mother. I expressed my disappointment and anger at the situation and left. During the course of that same day whilst I was at work I did receive notification of a date and time to meet and resolve the issue. However at the end of the school day as I picked the children up I was handed 2 letters from the school, the first was a mere 7 lines long apologising specifically for sending me the e-mail and nothing else, it was as apologies go lacklustre. Much more effort had been put into the second letter which was 27 lines long attacking my behaviour and accusing me of conducting myself in a threatening and aggressive manner during my talk with Sandie. This letter also imposed upon me severe restrictions on communicating with staff at the school. Now at this point I am extremely concerned, the erratic behaviour of the school has been followed by a total refusal to acknowledge this and then a personal attack on my character combined with an attempt to gag me. There was a serious issue here (it is important to note that with just a little cooperation from the school it could have easily and quickly been resolved) and the schools only reaction was to cover it up by all means necessary. So a few days later came the aforementioned meeting and another chance to put things right. Unfortunately even after a few days to think of sensible solutions to the original issue the school had failed to come up with any sensible suggestions. I had a few suggestions which they agreed to consider and feed back to me afterwards. I expressed my displeasure at the way the school had handled both the initial problem and my complaint but for a brief minute felt we were getting somewhere. Then at the end of this meeting I was informed that the school had raised a child protection issue against me concerning improper sexual conduct with my daughter. I don’t think I either need to or even could accurately describe how I felt upon hearing this. I still now even weeks later cannot truly believe that an organisation that deems itself fit to look after children could stoop to such disgustingly low standards. I demanded all the details of this allegation be sent to me and left in a highly disturbed state.

The basis of this was that I run an online adult shop and have done for the last 5 years, the school have been aware of this for the whole time and have accepted products from my shop as prizes in fund raising events previously but now 4 days after I make a complaint seem to think it is a child protection issue. I also work for a community mental health team and so I have lots of involvement with vulnerable adults, adolescents and occasionally their children so I had to take action on this allegation. Firstly I called Social Services and informed them of what had happened and asked them to investigate me; I also called my line manager and informed him. He met with the human resources department and made them aware of the allegation so I was still clear to work. That same day I received a letter from the school confirming there was an allegation and saying it would be reported that day but with none of the details I had asked for. Just before 5pm Social Services contacted me and informed me the school had not reported anything to them and that after looking into it upon my request they had no concerns regarding myself with either of my children. Okay so now things have taken a very sinister turn, either the school have a valid concern that a child is being sexually abused and have chosen to do nothing about it or they have made a spurious allegation in response to my complaint. Let me assure you it is not the former. To make an erroneous allegation of sexual abuse against me is a totally unforgivable act and could only be perpetrated by somebody with no moral standards of any description. How they feel they are suited to run a school when they are willing to sink to petulant, childish and downright repulsive behaviour I cannot fathom. At this point I wrote many e-mails to the school demanding explanations and copies of documents which should have been kept according to the schools own policies in particular an explanation of why they had not reported to Social Services. I received nothing from the school other than being directed to take all further communications to Chris Mitchell who is a member of the trustees. Since then the school management team have said and done nothing to address this scandalous behaviour. So all my hopes of a resolution now lay with this trustee Chris Mitchell whom Rachel and I met with alongside the new teacher Jeff. He promised that there would be an investigation into all our concerns conducted by Jeff and this evidence presented to a complaints meeting. He would then inform us of what actions the school need to implement as a result. By this time [my children] had been in limbo for too long and  Rachel and I decided that the bond of trust with the school had eroded too far, nothing was in place to prevent the same things happening again, so we took the sad decision to enrol our children in an alternative school.

The report came back and it was a sorry state of affairs. It repeatedly broke down issues into such tiny chunks that they appeared negligible or evaded the real issue and addressed something else instead. It is a catalogue of evasion and misdirection that leads to the conclusion that there were no issues with the school at all, only my behaviour and that of Miss Anka (both of whom are now gone conveniently) were called into question otherwise it gave the school a big thumbs up and a nice pat on the back. Well turns out I am not the only person that has been treated this way upon attempting to complain about a problem at the school. I have since this become aware of several other people who have been treated in a similar manner, people who have been ignored, had their characters attacked and been reported to Social Services by the school at the slightest hint of criticising the school. Also I have become aware of the details of a previous incident at the school in 2005 which also displays a lot of the same shortcomings by the school management team which resulted in both legal action being taken against the school and a large number of parents withdrawing their children and so a large amount of important revenue being lost. The number of issues this raises is mind boggling, if you have a problem with the school this could happen to you. It has happened before and the school and governors have continually covered it over. There is nothing to stop it happening again and if it does you have no way of appealing as you can easily be ignored and dismissed at every level. This is unacceptable and I feel a duty to tell you this as being forewarned is the best defence you will have at the moment. There needs to be a way of holding the school to account for its decisions and since 2005 the open steering group which was the only parent participation has been closed down there is now no way of parents exerting any influence over any aspect of the school. This is not healthy. Nor is the board of governors resistance to dealing with issues, my experience and that of those before me is that they wilfully ignore your concerns and minimise, deflect and scapegoat in an attempt to whitewash the whole situation.

 I firmly believe that this also needs changing. Parents must have a powerful voice in the school and the management team needs good governance to keep it on track.

Sorry to contact you all with such bad news but I feel there are some very important issues here which just cannot be ignored. Thanks, Jon Heeds.

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0% Accountability Leads To Another Family Being Threatened and Leaving Norwich Steiner School

Norwich Steiner School reacted to a parent concern in late 2012 surrounding a bullied child by threatening to involve Children's Services questioning their parenting. This is not the first example where the threat of Social Services has been used by the school's management team as a means of silencing or removing parents who raise what appear to be legitimate complaints - particularly around bullying or child safety issues.

The family involved has now pulled out of the school (as of Feb 2013) after Trustees failed to get back to them following a meeting where they outlined their concerns.

We are requesting permission from the family concerned to publish more details.

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It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Albert Einstein

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Sympathy with this:

Let’s pretend that the last 5 years have not clearly shown us that efficient market theory is threadbare as an ideology, and consider the argument of those like Prof James Tooley who believe the way forward for raising standards in education is to bring market principles to bare.

Their claim is...

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New National Curriculum for 2014/15 a Retrograde Leap

The National Curriculum is set for a huge overhaul (underhaul?) in September 2014 (see http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/a00210036/sosletter for details). This time-warp curriculum is set to turn the clock back to an age that focused on rote "learning" in the core subjects, removing any emphasis on creativity and growing to love & understand subjects in favour of a simple regurgitation of facts.

Take for example Mathematics. Pupils will be required to mechanically churn out long division, long multiplication, column addition (from Year 1!) - which almost everyone agrees is terrible for inspiring an interest in the subject. Simply teaching these anachronistic methods is bad in 3 ways:

Firstly, they are completely irrelevant in the modern world

Secondly, they teach you nothing about how the maths actually works - simply a mechanical process for deriving an answer. You might as well use a calculator - which is what pretty much everyone will do when they leave school

Thirdly, it risks turning those who children might be budding mathematicians off with such a dry and uninspiring curriculum (which, speaking as a mathematician is criminal since there is SO much to love about Maths)

The same is repeated in English - with a focus on grammar, spelling and punctuation exercises at the expense of creative writing and Speaking & Listening - which is completely sacrificed. What of the incredibly bright dyslexic child? They will be abandoned by this new regime - tarnished as a failure and left to fight against this stigma or give up.

Apparently this curriculum will bring the UK into line with "high-performing jurisdictions" such as China. And yet China themselves are actively looking to move away from rote learning, since they are producing great factory workers but few of the free thinkers that create genuine innovation. Why do China have no Apple? Why do we seek to become like these countries & produce pupils capable of passing specific tests but nothing else?

On the one hand, the government praises free-thinkers and innovative rule-breakers such as James Dyson as champions of our economy. Yet on the other, they produce this guidance for schools that utterly quashes any such desires in children.

This is an outrage - and every respected head teacher & advisor I have spoken with (and I speak with quite a few) will tell you clearly that this is the wrong direction to head in. We should all be up in arms - speaking out about what is a patently destructive, ill-conceived ideological approach to education based it seems almost entirely upon what members of the cabinet were subjected to as children. Yes, it did do you harm. No, I don't want my children to turn out like you if that means pushing this kind of rubbish on their offspring.

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Can Norwich Steiner School Really Justify Their Move Into Secondary By Comparison With Ringwood?

As noted here before, Norwich Steiner School are attempting to develop into an upper school. The parents who run the school are understandably driving this as their children get older, but there is a growing consensus that this move could put too much strain on the rest of the school's already stretched resources and budget.

In order to gain support for this extension, comparisons have been made with another Steiner school that is also moving into upper years - the Ringwood Waldorf School in Hampshire. A cursory Google however reveals a gulf between the positions of the two schools (e.g. see http://www.steinerwaldorf.org/downloads/newsletter/2009AutumnNewsletter.pdf ):

School Foundations : Ringwood has been running for 35 years (30 years more than Norwich), own their own grounds and purpose built buildings and have access to the facilities at the nearby Sturts Farm Camphill community as well as at their neighbours The Sheiling School.

In contrast, the Norwich school has a rented building and we understand has had to negotiate to pay only half the rent until 2014 when they then have to pay the full rent and arrears.

Pupil Numbers : Ringwood already have 27 students divided between Classes 9 and 10, and a core staff of 5 - whereas we currently estimate that NiSS have 3 pupils in year 7 and 4 in year 8. We are unsure how many teachers are being sought to support these children.

Planning and Funds : Ringwood have been planning for an Upper School since 2001 and have purportedly already collected over £20,000. They have also arranged several moneyraising activities for this year.

Long-term Sustainability : Due to lack of space, NiSS have stopped their Parent & Child (P&C) groups, forcing the teachers of these groups out of the school and hoping that they will function on their own. P&C groups are clearly an essential school feeder - and Ringwood - like most others - run their own. Why would Norwich cut off the roots? Do the leadership simply hope that their children will bear into fruit before the whole tree dies?

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Opening an upper school in Norwich seems so inadvisable right now, it has to be asked what advice has been given to the school, and by whom - or whether the leadership is simply willfully ignoring this. If the latter is the case, it can only be concluded that the management's blatant self-interest is jeopardising the future of the school. Are the Trustees simply rubber-stamping plans without consulting budgets (or common sense)?

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Premature move to upper school may spell end of Steiner in Norwich

Norwich Steiner School are preparing to do something that many more established Steiner schools have failed to achieve - launch an upper school.

The parents who run the school now have children who are at the age where they require a high-school education, and so are naturally wanting to continue with the Waldorf approach. But can they effectively expand to accomodate their own children's needs without negatively affecting the long term viability of the school and the other children in it?

It seems that to make space for the upper years, the decision has been made to remove the Parent and Child (P&C) group, and potentially Kindergartens in the future. This sounds like a decision that benefits the top class, but cuts off a vital feeder of new intake imperative for the long-term viability of the school. There are two points to note:

1) Successful new schools are built on a thriving P&C group and then Kindergardens, and without them, they almost inevitably/universally fail; 

2) Throughout the history of the Steiner-Waldorf movement, many many schools have failed because they have overextended themselves by opening upper schools when it wasn't remotely viable. 

The irony is that the justification behind the "need" for an upper school (and to justify the removal of the P&C) is about it being financially necessary, because the school needs to retain those families. Has this succeeded in hoodwinking the community?

In any case, I doubt very much that a severely resource constrained high school will be appealing for as many families as the administrator seems to claim either, due to a mix of concerns about:

Their ability to teach a broad range of subjects at a higher level to any degree of competence

Their ability to sustain the high school right through to graduation (and it failing mid-term would be disasterous for the children)

Their ability to keep the school open once the top class has graduated (again, disasterous for the children still part-way through)

Their ability to keep debts sustainable

What the value of a Waldorf  Diploma is in the UK, and the limitations that would place on my child's own choices for the future after that

Others will probably think hard about some of these things also. Of course, on the other side will be parents who do not believe there is any alternative, now that they have started out on the Steiner route. I'm not sure what the drop-off rate will be, but with the additional burden of cost required by the upper school (outside teaching resource etc.) it is likely to outweigh the income gained from retaining families - and that's even before the reducing income through taking an axe to the school's roots.

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Sue Palmer on Radio 4

Sue Palmer (author of Toxic Childhood) has managed to get on Radio 4 this morning, explaining from her expertise in early years literature how it is both unnecessary and potentially off-putting to teach children as young as 5 to write.

Commenting on the changes to the Early Years framework (EYFS) she conceded that some change away from a testing culture has been made, but in still giving 5 year olds pencils to write with, we are pushing them too early and potentially damaging some of the childrens' experience of literature - scars of "can't do" that can hang around until many years later.

The Scandinavian approach, of focussing on play and personal/emotional development until around the age of 7, allows children to develop in the way that they would naturally - she argues - and by the age of 8 these "late starters" have caught up with their early-starter counterparts, even developing a genuine love of reading and writing that means they often overtake those peers.

Great to see the BBC covering this important viewpoint. Go Sue!

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Norwich Steiner Education - why Norwich Steiner School should not be granted Free School Status

Norwich Steiner School should not be granted free-school status with it's current management, since they have proved unable to run a school in an ethical manner.

The current management team - led by parent Sandie Tolhurst - were responsible for the bullying of Whistleblowing teacher Miss Jo Sawfoot (see tribunal outcome) including unfairly misleading Social Services about her.

The overseeing body (the SWSF) have taken no action against the school, and indeed as a consequence of the case have suspended their own complaints procedure. This means that outside of going to court, parents have little ability to hold the school to account.

The Schools Inspection Service (SIS) is also not doing it's job (or has been mislead by the school) since numerous serious parental complaints were ignored or not seen by them.

Furthermore, the trustees of the school have moved to make it more difficult for parents to hold the school to account by removing the automatic right of all parents  to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). Parents are no longer automatically included as part of the school association and it seems only "approved" people will now be able to attend AGMs etc.

These factors should be taken into account by the New Schools Network if they do not wish to see highly embarrasing management failures at one of their free schools splashed across the news in future. Certainly, if I were Mr.Gove I would be demanding some serious changes at the top of the school before this is allowed to progress.

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Advent Spiral, 27th November

ADVENT SPIRAL

  4.30pm, SUNDAY, 27TH NOVEMBER

Kirby Bedon Village Hall

Please join us this day to celebrate the beginning of Advent.

In the tradition of the Christian church, one candle was lit for each Sunday until the 4 candles of light heralded the birth of Christ. In a wider context Advent represents the bringing in of light during her darkness of Winter as well.

Advent is also about a time of preparation and reflection, and so we make a spiral pathway in which our children can walk into the centre of the spiral to the light, place a light of their own along the pathway, and out again. This happens while advent songs are sung and a lyre is playing.

Although it is for the children to enjoy, it is also about allowing children to experience the reverence of such an act and what it can mean, so the ceremony will be undertaken in a calm and quiet way with no talking. The children will be encouraged to take part individually in turn, and then leave the hall once everyone has taken their turn to walk the spiral.  Parents are very welcome to walk with their children if they or their children wish.

We will try to start on time, so please if you can, be punctual to prevent any disturbance when entering the hall.

We hope you will enjoy this as much as we have done over the many years we have taken part in this beautiful celebration.

We look forward to seeing you!