Parents outraged over plan to merge regular, Steiner classes

PARENTS of children at a government school offering the controversial Steiner method are outraged over a plan to merge the classes.

PARENTS of children at a government school that offers the controversial Steiner method are outraged over a proposal by the school to merge the mainstream and alternative senior classes.

Footscray City Primary School, in Melbourne's inner west, has been plagued by bitter disputes between parents since it decided to run a Steiner stream in the primary school in 2001.

The alternative curriculum advocates that children should not learn to read and write until age seven and critics say it also includes spiritual instructions that do not belong in a public school.

The principal of the school has told parents they are now looking to merge the Grade 6 Steiner and mainstream classes next year, after enrolment numbers for the alternative stream declined.

It comes after the school received more than $70,000 for additional literacy and numeracy coaches, which parents believe were used to help the Steiner students meet government education targets by January next year.

Parents told The Australian that such a move to merge classes was against the school's own enrolment policy and would disadvantage children in the mainstream classes.

They also fear that their children will be subject to up to two hours a day of Steiner teaching despite their opposition to the alternative curriculum.

"I am very concerned for my son and the development of his literacy and numeracy because the Steiner children have been deliberately delayed in that area," said one mother, Susan Menzies. "They (the curriculums) are so very different . . . how is one teacher going to cope?"

Ms Menzies, whose son Josh is going into Grade 6 next year, said she was considering pulling her son out of the school because she was so concerned about the move.

She also thought it was a joke that the school had received so much money to keep propping up the Steiner stream, including literacy and numeracy grants.

"It's just outrageous," she said. "They are funding a collapsing system. When is it going to stop?"

The principal's report - seen by The Australian - shows that the school received $38,000 for a numeracy coach for the children and $33,000 for a literacy coach.

Principal Natalie Bakai said the school was canvassing a number of options for the Grade 6 classes and would work with parents before making a decision.

"I am currently looking at classroom structures for the next year," she said.