DEECD vs alternative education

The following is a message from Jacqui Horwood on some recent events at Footscray City Primary School, as well as some broader commentary on the nature of DEECD's move in relation to those events. You can check out the FCPS campaign site at: http://savefcps.org/


Jacqui Horwood;

Footscray City Primary School has operated for the past 10 years with a Steiner stream running alongside regular mainstream classes. My son is in Grade 1 and is the the mainstream classes. There have been intermittent issues with Steiner over the years but for the 6 months everything's been going well. A couple of weekends ago, the school held a festa with all parents - Steiner and mainstream - contributing and coming together to raise over $20,000.

Last Wednesday, all the kids were given a letter to hand to their parents. This two page letter from Katherine Henderson, Regional Director of the Western Metro Region of the Dept of Education and Early Childhood Development, stated that the DEECD considered that it was 'no longer in the best interests of student learning to run a dual-stream curriculum at the school' and that Steiner would cease as of the end of the school year.

There has been no consultation and no warning. There is no transparency as to the basis of this decision. The WMR has also put an application the Minister for Education to have the school council dissolved. The council has parents from both streams and operates very well.

The kids in the playground all play together. The parents mix well. My son's best mate is in Steiner and his parents and I and my partner have become great friends. My partner's bike riding buddy is a Steiner parent. The potential for a third to a half of the kids to leave FCPS is huge, and will impact on the community in a million different little ways, as well as impact on the school's reputation and future.

The website is: http://savefcps.org/ and we also have Facebook pages. Any kind of social networking and conversation is welcomed.

Thanks
Jacqui

More about FCPS and the decision by DEECD

In 2001 Footscray City Primary School introduced a dual-stream model. On the one hand there was the standard, mainstream education model, and on the other a stream using the Steiner model of education - a more spiritual take that, like many other models, also places a great deal of care on allowing children to learn at a more individual pace.

Like all education models in Victoria, it is subject to the VELS standard, ensuring that no model fails to teach what are regarded as the essentials of a modern education. For education geeks, who groove on the details of this more than I do, feel free to check out: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/prep10/aim/index.html

Between 2006 and 2007, some parents of children at the school became involved in a media stoush about the quality of the Steiner stream. This minority made a big noise about the more fanciful aspects of the Steiner model, while other parents with children inside and outside the stream supported it. Now, in 2011, that controversy is long forgotten. The agitant parents' kids have moved on, and by many accounts - as Jacqui has indicated - the majority of parents are happy with the coexistence of the Steiner and mainstream models at the school.

Enter the DEECD (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for the non-Victorians), who last week decided to radically shake up Footscray City Primary in what turned out to be a particularly callous and shoddy way.

When the kids of FCPS came home last week, they were carrying letters notifying the parents that the Steiner stream was to be cancelled, that enrolments already taken for next year were not to be honoured, and that starting the following week, the School Council was to be disbanded and replaced by a new Principal.

Given that the highly publicised problems of the Steiner stream at FCPS evaporated when the parents making the most noise about it moved on, it's hard to see what has prompted this sudden, and scarily draconian action.

On any level, it seems inordinately heavy-handed. Parents were not consulted, school staff were not consulted, even the kids themselves missed out on having a say. Of particular worry is the fact that on the tail end of October, moving your kids to a different school that suits your needs is going to be a nightmare if not close to impossible. All of these are issues the DEECD could have, indeed should have dealt with.

The DEECD must provide some insight into or explanation of their actions. There are anxious parents and upset children who have one simple question - why? The Department owes these parents and kids an answer.

Even if you are a critic or outright opponent of the Steiner method, you cannot agree that the way this action has been undertaken is anything less than secretive, authoritarian and incredibly callous. And it is not just the parents and kids of the Steiner stream at FCPS that are affected, or the friends of parents and kids at the school. It is a scary message sending waves of uncertainty among families that also use this - and other - alternative educational models.

For the Steiner program to be shut down in such a perfunctory way sends ripples of unease through religious schools, home schoolers and other alternative methodologies like Montessori. The DEECD have said that the decision was nothing to do with the Steiner program itself (it also runs in Collingwood College, Bentleigh East Primary and Briar Hill Primary) but that the decision was purely focused on how the program ran at FCPS specifically. Given some of the testimonials coming out of the vibrant culture at FCPS, it's hard to see what the Department are on about.

It is a simple case that if DEECD do not answer the parents question of 'Why?' then many more parents will start asking another question - 'Are we next?'