It may be a timely coincidence that the Resolution proposed by the SNP’s Policy Convener, Toni Giugliano, gets the floor on World Mental Health Day, given his extensive work on improving mental health in schools, putting it on the political agenda and collaborating with Upstart campaigners on the motion to raise the school starting age.

Then again, luck probably had little to do with it. That is saved for pupils hoping their local primary has adopted the play-based guidelines hailed in Realising the Ambition: Being Me.

‘An early start to formal education is linked to the development of social, emotional and mental health problems’ the Resolution notes. Acknowledging Scotland is a global outlier with such a young school starting age, it continues: ‘children under six should not face the pressures and structure of the formal school system.’

In the primary classroom, the benefits of kindergarten and a later school starting age are profound.  Children aged six have greater wellbeing markers such as: more confidence, intrinsic motivation, social-emotional ease, and the ability to adapt to transitions and unexpected changes. 

The difference in readiness for learning is striking.

The Herald: Creative classes such as dancing, art, singing, clay modelling, knittting and painting can determineCreative classes such as dancing, art, singing, clay modelling, knittting and painting can determine (Image: Creative classes such as dancing, art, singing, clay modelling, knittting and painting can determine)

Academically, greater physical and neurological integration through more play in kindergarten and additional time to grow, leads to significantly greater abilities in the primary classroom for listening, focus, self-initiative, perseverance, and creative thinking.

‘You can’t force a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly and you risk doing a lot of damage if you try’ wrote James McEnaney in his chapter ‘The School Starting Age’ from Class Rules: the truth about Scottish schools.

An international chorus of voices from the corners of neuroscience, child psychology, children’s rights, social justice, health, the play sector and, of course, early learning practitioners are harmonised in expressing this real concern, both on their educational success and lifelong wellbeing.

Yet Steiner Waldorf schools are a lonely beacon of this approach in practice in Scotland.  

Upstart Founder, Sue Palmer, finds this unacceptable: “Whilst there are positive examples of flexi-schooling in outdoor settings and Froebelian practice in the state sector extending into P1/2, the only school in Scotland where a child can stay in a kindergarten until they are 6 is in a private school like the Steiner Waldorf or Montessori School. That is just not right and not fair.”

The Herald: Steiner Waldorf pupils enjoy an excellent, all-round educationSteiner Waldorf pupils enjoy an excellent, all-round education (Image: Steiner Waldorf pupils enjoy an excellent, all-round education)

The short culture-change documentary Now We Are Six (nowwearesix.org) by award winning education filmmaker, Saskia Anley-McCallum delves into why Scotland has failed to turn the CfE’s play principles for 3 – 7s into practice over the last decade.

The pressures to achieve within an exam-based system, kickstarting with the hugely controversial Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) in literacy and numeracy, completed online by school children in Scotland in P1, P4, P7 and S3, inevitably devalues time spent on integrating other important learning opportunities.

Parents don’t have to emigrate to give their child more time in a Kindergarten. Edinburgh Steiner school, and its sister school Drumduan in Forres, have a long-established curriculum that does not start formal learning until children are in their seventh year, in line with most of Europe, and the world and the norm in all 1,200 Steiner Waldorf schools in some ninety countries.

SNSAs are consciously not part of a Steiner Waldorf curriculum. In fact, there is no standardised testing until National 5s. Our schools successfully apply for a pass, providing the learning environment that gives space for those other skills that children – ‘pupils’ – can learn when they are young to play out.

We have all the time in the world to teach facts, but only this very limited window to develop the will and integrate the senses through the imagination, so that when children come to the classroom, they are capable of concentrating.

The Herald: P1-aged pupils play in kindergarten, not the classroomP1-aged pupils play in kindergarten, not the classroom (Image: P1-aged pupils play in kindergarten, not the classroom)

Co-author of Play for health across the lifespan, Julia Whitaker, writes: "Play and creative doing. Without it we are depriving children of the opportunity to protect their own mental health”. A parent of Edinburgh Steiner School, Julia states: ‘Play, and having a playful attitude, not only enhance lived experience, but can also determine how well – and even how long – a person might live.”

At the root of parental deliberation when considering a kindergarten or classroom for their child as young as 4.5-yearsold is the notion of holding them back. The Resolution is quick to reassure us this is not the case. It reminds us: ‘Since the international PISA comparisons began, countries with later school starting ages have performed better than those with earlier starts.”

Whilst Drumduan School is championing an innovative alternative educational passport to summative exams with the Integrated Education suite of qualifications, derived from the ACTS project, our school in the Capital offers a blend of both; with our Early Years provision recently ranked ‘very good’ in a Care Inspectorate draft report on their unannounced visit in September. 

At the other end of the young person’s school career, ESS pupils’ exam awards position the School favourably among Scotland’s independent schools. This is even more impressive when you consider that the school does not select pupils on the basis of academic ability.

At a time when mental health disorders in children have grown to worrisome levels, isn’t it time that we take a wider field of vision, and instead allow young children time to complete the development they are meant to have, rather than the pressures to achieve academically before they are ready?  

edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk

www.drumduan.org

 

Lisa Gordon and Alistair Pugh are Steiner Waldorf Teachers, each with over twenty years at the chalkface. Lisa completed teaching placements in P1, P2 and P3 across Edinburgh primary schools before joining Edinburgh Steiner School as Class 1’s teacher; whilst Alistair – co-chair of the College of Teachers (the non-hierarchical School’s equivalent to a Head Teacher) is also the longstanding SQA Coordinator.