Recently I learnt that the school I attended had gone into administration and would be closing at the end of this school year. It's a rather sad occasion and many former pupils and teachers from the school have been reconnecting and sharing memories in a Facebook group. Emotions have been running high, particularly for those with children currently at the school. Questions have been raised about why things have failed.
This school I went to is a Waldorf school. It's a private school, but this particular one was a bit special, in that it was purposely situated in a deprived area. The goal was to bring Rudolf Steiner’s education philosophy to children who might normally have never been able to afford it. The teachers worked for minimum wage and were driven by their belief in the teaching methods. Families paid a percentage of their earnings and helped out at the school when they could or they paid the full fees, whichever worked out the most financially viable for them. The school was not for profit and funds were raised via school fetes.
Sometimes students would come to the school from the state (public) school system and were funded by the state because this school would often be able to reach them when the state schools had failed. A real community existed there and for many former pupils it's hard to hear that it won't be there for future generations.
They have always struggled financially, but for many years have managed to pull through. Unfortunately, times have changed and they are no longer free to teach as they always have and must now bow to the government regulators, Ofsted. They were already taking a financial hit and then Ofsted stepped in and deemed that they needed to make further improvements to avoid being shut down. Something they couldn't stretch to.
One of the reasons I've wanted to start something like The Life Relearnt Project, was to be able to, one day, step forward and offer financial help to providers of education in times of need, just like this. Sadly, I am nowhere near being able to offer that level of assistance. So I must, sadly, stand by and watch this sad loss unfold.
Maybe this is my reminder and wake up call to get back to the project and start putting more effort into building it further. After all, the woman who inspired this school to be built, may not have seen it happen in her lifetime, but it did, eventually, happen. So I'll start building and dream that one day it will be powerful enough to help in a bigger way. Until then, we can help in smaller ways.
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