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Troubador Publishing Ltd - Rosalyn Spencer

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72 pages

English

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At the start of Why I Started a Small School: A nurturing, human scale, approach to education and parenting, we see the emotional turmoil Rosalyn experienced when she received a letter indicating that her son's difficulties in school were more likely to be the result of her parenting skills, and life at home, rather than having anything to do with the way he was being educated. Her own school days were filled with feelings of failure and low self-esteem, but she overcame many hurdles to become a teacher herself. In this time, she witnessed again and again the damage that the education system was inflicting, not only on some children, but also on their parents. Driven by a desire to ensure that her son should suffer no longer than he had to, and in an effort to help others in a similar situation, she was determined to find a solution.After months of hard work, a new parent-run school opened with 12 children aged from four-11 years. It had seemed that the impossible had come true, for at the time the school opened, there was virtually no funding! Lives were changed forever. Within weeks of the school opening, some of the children became almost unrecognisable as their grim outlook on life was replaced by a confident stature. The learning difficulties that some of them had experienced were far less of a problem in this new nurturing environment. As well as the children changing, their parents became more confident and outgoing too - for many of them had been made to feel inadequate before the project started.Why I Started a Small School: A nurturing, human scale, approach to education and parenting tells the amazing true story of what Rosalyn achieved, and how that dreadful letter was proved to be utterly and totally wrong.

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Education

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	15 août 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781789012224
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2018 Rosalyn Spencer
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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ISBN 978 1789012 224
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Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
For Alf, without whose dedicated help and support the nursery and small school would not have been possible.
‘Everybody has intelligence …
it’s just a matter of finding the right door …
and then finding the right key to unlock it!’
Professor Tim Brighouse
What people are saying about Why I Started a Small School…
“In Rosalyn Spencer’s first book of her planned series of three, she takes the reader through the process of setting up a new school with the flair of a natural storyteller. Why I Started a Small School is an informative and entertaining read.”
Martin Ouvry, Novelist and Editor.
“In this book Rosalyn Spencer narrates a powerful story of transformation in education. In the age when schools have lost their way this book shows that great ideals of education can be put in practice by parents, teachers and pupils joining hands and working together. I recommend this book to all educators wholeheartedly.”
Satish Kumar, Editor-in-Chief of Resurgence & Ecologist, and Founder of The Small School, Hartland.
“‘Looking back now’, writes Rosalyn, ‘the story is hard to believe’. And it is, but it’s true, and written by someone who lived the idea that ordinary people can do extraordinary things – not just for themselves, but for others as well.”
Kevin Holloway, Senior Lecturer in Education
“Rosalyn Spencer experienced a truly epic journey through our educational system, first as an apprehensive student, and later as a devoted parent and inspirational teacher. In her book, she weaves her experiences together to give us an inspiring case not just for change, but also for hope.”
Ann Hickey, Social Worker and Parenting Specialist.
“ This account of Rosalyn Spencer’s struggle with the education system, on her own and on her children’s behalf, leads her to take positive action. Today the government has at last come round to supporting groups of parents who want to start their own schools. That is in great part due to people like Rosalyn who were not prepared to accept a second-rate education. I am gratified to have played some small part in her inspirational story.”
Colin Hodgetts, Former Headteacher of The Small School, Hartland
“Rosalyn Spencer’s courageous establishment, in 1993, of an inclusive, nurturing, human scale small school, was a much-needed exemplar of change in education-provision, in what is now, a socio-ecologically fragmenting Britain. Were such qualities used, to inform the development of Government-funded, parent-and teacher-instigated Free Schools, this would greatly benefit future, UK social cohesion.”
Stuart McBurney, Freelance Lecturer and Author of Ecology into Economics Won’t Go (Green Books)
“Having taught in comprehensive schools for twenty-seven years I am aware of the problems that can arise, particularly in the transition from primary to secondary school. Rosalyn Spencer’s account of her experience of school both as a student, then teacher and parent, highlights in a clear and balanced way the potential challenges and failings of the state system. Her vision and determination to seek a viable alternative in providing for her child’s needs when the system had clearly failed, is admirable.”
Steve Gosse, Former teacher
“Whatever position one takes in debates about parental choice, school structures and home schooling, or on controversial initiatives such as the introduction of Free Schools and Academies, Rosalyn Spencer’s intensely personal and compelling narrative about her battle to establish a new type of school two decades ago marks her out as an innovator ahead of her time.
She reminds us of the importance of building schools and learning communities that embrace and engage parents and students as active partners and engaged citizens, rather than as distanced clients and complaining customers; this is the essence of any education (and any education system) that aspires to be human in scale and spirit.”
Tony Breslin, Chair of Human Scale Education (2010-2014)
“The focal point of the book is that we all blindly follow the system despite its faults and failings but few, if any, of us have the courage to challenge it, moreover the guts to do something about it. Despite barriers, setbacks and opposition Rosalyn Spencer showed tremendous determination to give her children the best possible start in life, something every parent should aspire to.”
Geoff Needham, Senior Executive, Regional Development Agency
Author’s Notes
Apart from my own son and daughter (who are both in agreement), the names of other children have been changed to protect individual identities. Wherever possible, people who are mentioned by their actual name in the book have been contacted, and have given their consent to being included.
This book tells the story leading up to the opening of a new small school, and is the first in a trilogy. The next book: The Small School Years is about what actually happened during the years the school was running, and how lives were changed forever. The third book An Educational Journey is based on a ten week caravan trip I made around England and Scotland, with my two children (then aged seven and twelve), visiting seventeen different human scale small schools.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
1. The Letter (1992)
2. How it All Began (1966 – 1978)
3. Teaching (1978 – 1983)
4. New Beginnings (1983 – 1984)
5. The Nursery (1985 – 1993)
6. Growing Concerns (1988 – 1992)
7. Finding a Better Way (November 1992)
8. The Ball Starts Rolling (December 1992)
9. Media Attention (December 1992 – September 1993)
10. Gathering Momentum (December 1992 – February 1993)
11. Getting to Know each Other (March 1993 – September 1993)
12. The New School Opens Against all the Odds (September 1993)
Epilogue
Useful Contacts
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Foreword
by James Wetz
(Director of Human Scale Education 2011-2014)
This contribution from Rosalyn Spencer is extremely timely.
In the current policy environment with so much intense debate about the design and organisation of our schooling system, this book reminds us of the importance of parents having a voice in the shaping of schools for our children. It is a reminder that whilst parents have been cast as ‘stakeholders’ and ‘consumers’ they have a real and urgent part to play as ‘learning partners’ having a voice in the way children are raised and educated, and in the way our schools should be designed and organised.
This book makes a compelling case, as the narrative about how we might design our schools differently, is based in real experience. Rosalyn Spencer shares with us her upbringing and formation which led to her becoming a teacher, and with stories of real children and families illustrated with feeling and sensitivity, she shares with us almost unconsciously (in this first book in her trilogy), her passion about why we need to be rethinking our offer of schooling to children. The book tells of her dedication and courage to challenge the status quo and to argue for a different approach. Through the book, the values that inform the policy and practice that might be at the heart of a small school shine through – the importance of relationships, the place of creativity alongside rigour, the advantages of scale. It makes the argument which Human Scale Education supports: that while scale is important, size alone is not the predominant factor, rather, it is what we can do differently when using a smaller learning environment that is important.
Rosalyn Spencer’s account of her journey – from childhood to professional training; becoming a parent and bringing up a family; and her career as a teacher – which were the necessary foundation of her struggle to develop a small school, is deeply personal and engaging. It is also a story where, implicitly, she acknowledges the importance of how small schools can create an experience of community that young children need to have if they are to become citizens of the future. Above all, it argues for an experience of schooling where the parental voice is strong, and which knows that what it wants from a school is not an institution where children are forced to conform to a system, but a community which responds to, and affirms, the interests and possibilities within each and every child.
For me this book captures essential truths espoused by two of the leading pioneers of the small school movement in the USA: ‘You cannot teach a child unless you know that child well’ (Ted Sizer – Horace’s Hope ) and ‘Let’s keep it simple so we can concentrate on the complexity of children and the complexity of the ideas we want them to engage with’ (Debbie Meier – The Power of their Ideas )
This book is a reminder that there is an alternative to factory schools, and the warehousing of children in the name of education, and that individual parents with energy, vision, courage, perseverance and commitment, can make a significant contribution as part of a movement which argue