Schools That Shun Tests May Come into the Fold

CONTROVERSIAL teaching methods which place less importance on tests and the National Curriculum could be introduced into state schools, it emerged yesterday.

Ministers are looking to forge closer links between mainstream primaries and secondaries and the Steiner schools movement.

The schools’ teaching methods are based on the philosophies of Austrian educationalist Rudolph Steiner, who did not believe in forcing children to conform to a rigid educational programme.

They consider youngsters’ spiritual and emotional development just as important as their ability to master the three Rs and believe it is counterproductive to push formal learning too soon.

Therefore they do not teach reading until the age of seven and do not make students sit national tests.

All 23 Steiner schools in England are fee-paying. Yesterday, the Government published a report into the possibility of bringing them into the state sector.

The report, by Professor Philip Woods of the University of the West of England, said there were many areas in which the state sector could learn from Steiner principles.

He highlighted Steiner schools’ broad curriculum, in which children learn about science and humanities throughout their education, and pointed out that they often teach foreign languages from an early age.

‘The Government has in recent years begun to accept that you can’t just have a curriculum and teaching which just works to tests and measurable targets,’ he said.

‘Steiner schools are one example where you don’t have tests. But they still do develop the capability of pupils so that they are able to take GCSEs and go into further and higher education.’ Ministers are moving towards letting the schools into the state system-by granting them daily funding.

One, in Herefordshire, is also being assessed for city academy status.

But Professor Woods recommended that Steiner schools should not be forced to teach the National Curriculum and should be allowed to use ‘alternative’ methods of assessment to national tests.

The Government says its interest in other teaching methods reflects its commitment to parental choice.

Yesterday it emerged that the Department for Education is putting Pounds 40,000 into a project to help struggling Gorton Mount Primary in Manchester adopt teaching principles similar to Steiner.

Under the Montessori method, pupils learn at their own pace and choose what activities to do.

Head Carole Powell said the move would ‘raise attainment’ and make pupils ’rounded citizens for the 21st century’.

How they operate

STUDENTS enjoy hands-on learning through practicalactivities such as gardening alongside classroom lessons.

READING is not taught untilthey are around seven.

PUPILS are not usually entered for National Curriculumtests at 11 and 14,though many sit GCSEs and A-levels.

THE first two hours of the day are devoted to broad themes, such as ‘trees’, which pupils study for up to four weeks.

ALL students learn ‘ eurythmy’, a form of co-ordinated movement, and are encouragedto give eurythmic representations of drama and music.

TVs and computers are discouraged among young pupils.

PUPILS have the same class teacher between six and 14.

INSTEAD of a head, schools are run by a ‘college’ of teachers.