News from the Camphill Schools

Michaelmas 2008

After the storms raged following our celebration of Michaelmas, calm returned today and we can begin to look forward to the October break.

Although the term was short, it has been very full with many different activities. High on the list was the opening of the sculpture workshop on Murtle. For many a year Albertino, the workshop master, worked with his hammer and chisel in his open tent outside Coracle, inspiring and engaging co-workers and several youngsters in the art of stone sculpting, so to now have a proper workshop where they can work, thanks to a development grant from the Scottish Executive, is a real boon to one and all. It is wonderful to have this artistic work properly recognised with a building fit for purpose.

A few days before this we celebrated Friedwart 80th Birthday together with his family, and were treated to a beautiful cello and piano concert in the evening. Friedwart has been a co-worker here in the Schools for nearly 60 years and has been central to all the developments as Camphill moved from its Aberdeen base to an international community.

This term has also seen an increase in the number of referrals, and admissions of children and young people, particularly from Aberdeen, and we are hopeful that we have now re-established a partnership with the City. We are continuing to have high-level meetings with City officials in an effort to see how best we can support each other and hence the children of the locality. To this end, the St Andrew’s project has interviewed its first child and the Culter Satellite group, now known as ‘Bringing Us Together’, has received funding to continue its early years’ work with local children.

Three meetings took place specifically for parents; the first session of an ongoing course introducing parents to different aspects of Camphill School’s life, the first session on Waldorf Education facilitated by our teachers and the first parents/Camphill liaison meeting. All these initiatives will be continued and we will be informing you when they will take place.

A large number of parents attended a pilot parents’ evening on Camphill Estate and heard a talk about the Waldorf Curriculum and had the opportunity to participate in either pottery, painting, eurythmy or felting before meeting with their child’s teacher. This was felt by all to be a great success and so Murtle and Camphill teachers are preparing for parents’ evenings on both the estates next term.

In the liaison meeting the question was raised regarding there being a formal ‘parent link’ person identified from within Camphill. This is a task similar to that which I have been offering informally for some time and so I have now agreed to take this on formally with the following remit: to be a gateway between Camphill and the parent ‘body’; to be a gateway for individual parents into Camphill should this route be helpful for the parent, and to be of assistance to any parent should it be appropriate to do so. The next liaison meeting will be in spring 2009.

You may recall that we mentioned in the last Parents’ letter that we are working on a new development plan for the Schools. We are committed to involving as wide a range of relevant people as possible and as parents we think you have a unique contribution to make. At the Parents’ Liaison meeting last month there was some enthusiasm for getting involved in the process. Consequently, at the next Parents’ Meeting on Friday 31 October, in Witiko, Camphill Estate at 10.00am, Paul Henderson, our Training Co-ordinator, will facilitate a session aimed at involving you in the process of creating the Schools’ development plan. We hope as many of you as possible will feel able to join in and we look forward to your help with this initiative.

The following parents’ meeting will take place on Friday 12 December at 10.00a.m. in Mignon, Murtle Estate. All parents are invited to both meetings.

The Open Day on Camphill Estate was a great success with hundreds of visitors passing through. A new activity this year was group drumming and for the last hour the drums reverberated throughout the estate. We are grateful again to the Culter Pipe Band for the entertainment they provided and to Ernst and Young who sponsored the climbing wall for a second year. With help from some parents and friends we were able to offer nourishing activities to many young families and our impression was that there were many new people among them.

There has been a new intake of international co-workers again this autumn with 14 beginning the BA and 31 the Foundation Year. The BA Honours in Curative Education is becoming more established with Stages 1 and 2 of the new programme up and running and Stage 3 coming on board at Easter 2009. There are however some major challenges ahead as the Home Office is changing the visa system for non-EEC students which will require some re-thinking on our part as to how we, together with Aberdeen University, manage the course.

The Annual Report 2007-8 is running behind schedule but will be distributed before the end of the year.

The Local Public Enquiry into the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road is now well underway and we are expecting to present our submission in a few weeks’ time. The Reporter should present his decision in the spring.

As we look towards next term, of note is the invitation we have received to run a workshop and share our good practice in working with parents, at the HMIe sponsored conference ‘Going boldly’ which is aimed at celebrating good and improving practice in special schools. Vincent will do this on our behalf and Terri will also participate. Also at the end of this term one of our co-workers will be in South Africa presenting workshops on working with children with Autism. I share these two events as examples of the growing amount of requests we receive to offer our insight and experience to others.

Laurence Alfred