The St Michael Steiner School
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Primary & Secondary
Post 16
PUPILS
124
AGES
3 - 18
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
Other independent school
SCHOOL GUIDE RATING
Not Rated

How Does The School Perform?

Inspection
NATIONAL AVG. 2.09
Independent Schools Inspectorate
(07/03/2024)
Full Report - All Reports



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£19.95
Per month
Park Road
Hanworth Park
London
TW13 6PN
0208 8931299

School Description

The St Michael Steiner School is an independent non-selective co-educational day school which is a full member of the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. Itwas established in 2001 by three members of the current College of Teachers and moved in 2012 to its present location, a listed building in its own grounds on the edge of Hanworth Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow. There are 102pupils on roll aged from three to sixteen years, of whom five attend the school part-time. Sixteen pupils attend the Kindergarten; nine of them are in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). There are six pupils who have English as an additional language (EAL), and three pupils with a statement of special educational needs. The school’s educational provision is inspired by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. It aims ‘to help the children orientate themselves towards whatever comes to meet them in life, by nurturing in them a deep respect for all human beings and an enthusiastic and active interest in the world.’ The school uses the Steiner Waldorf system of naming classes and these names are used throughout the report. Their corresponding National Curriculum years are shown below. Steiner class name Kindergarten Class 1 (lower school) Class 2 (lower school) Class 3 (lower school) Class 4 (lower school) Class 5/6 (lower school) Class 8 (upper school) Class 10 (upper school) National Curriculum Nursery, Reception, Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Years 6&7 Year 9 Year 11 The school was last inspected in 2010. Summary of main findings: The St Michael Steiner School provides its pupils with a satisfactory quality of education. The curriculum reflects the principles and philosophy of Rudolf Steiner well: it is broad and balanced, and engages pupils’ interests at each stage of their development. The quality of the teaching is never less than satisfactory, and some is good, but the outstanding teaching which does exist is not shared effectively. 3 Teachers give appropriate support to the pupils with special educational needs in their class, but this support lacks effective coordination across the school. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good, although there are limited opportunities for them to take roles of responsibility. Pupils say that they feel safe and well cared for but are disturbed by the poor behaviour of a few pupils both in class and at play times, and complain that not all teachers handle this in a consistent way. The school makes good use of its new premises, but is untidy in places and routine maintenance work is not always carried out promptly for the protection of pupils’ health and safety. All staff have been appropriately checked for their suitability to work with young people and receive basic training in safeguarding and fire safety; however, the more detailed training for the designated safeguarding person shas not been kept up to date. The EYFS provision is extremely well managed, has clear educational direction and gives the youngest pupils a very good start to their school life. There are excellent links with the community. The College of Teachers maintains a strongly shared vision for the school’s curriculum and ethos, but lacks a tight oversight of routine administrative procedures and there is no check on the practical management and implementation of school policies. The school has addressed some of the recommendations of the last report, but a few remain unchanged. What the school does well:  it provides a warm and inclusive community in which pupils can discover their unique talents and grow in an unhurried and supportive environment;  it nurtures pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well; and  the EYFS provision is outstandingly well led and gives the youngest pupils a very good start to their school life.

The St Michael Steiner School Parent Reviews



Average Parent Rating

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“Great School. Note: it's not a special needs school”

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"> My daughter who is in year 1 is very happy at this school. She was given the great opportunity to take her time through her younger years at the Kindergarten and they don't begin formal classroom teaching until age 6/7. By that point you could see the children were eager to move on and were properly ready to learn reading and writing and the creative way of learning with an emphasis on drawing is quite beautiful. They are given lot's of time outside to play so that they can properly settled down in the classroom to learn. I have to point out that that this is not a Special Educiation needs School so the lady who wrote a review and mentioned that they were not teaching in a way that her son could cope with is potentially because her son was in the wrong educational setting. In my experience, the school is equipped for children who need special learning help or have certain disabilities so I don't think that is a fair review.
“I feel blessed to have had my children at this school”

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"> We have been at St Michael's since 2003, which is when I first brought my daughter, aged, 1 to the mother and baby group. Other playgroups had been totally overwhelming for her - loud, overstimulating, kind of one-size-fits-all and as a result she would always cling to my side. But after about ten minutes in this group, she relaxed. I will never forget the feeling of her sliding off my lap and heading off to play. And that was because of the 'space' she'd been given. Even at 1 that mattered - NOT being herded or managed - and that atmosphere and ethos endures right the way through..the teaching is entirely geared to giving the child space and time to find their WILL to learn and, oh my, you should see what that looks like when it's in action! All three of my children have different temperaments, different ways of learning but all three have been so well met by this school, all developing at their own pace but all becoming now age 16, 14 and 11 so fully who they are.
“Warm, wonderful school”

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"> I love this school. Both our children attend and we have been part of this school for over 5 years. Both of them are desperate to get out the door each morning to get to school and we couldn’t be happier with our experience of the teachers and the whole community. I recommend coming to one of the open days to find it about us if you want to find something different for your child. Current parents always attend and it’s a good way of discovering more.
“Bitterly disappointed by this school”

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"> We made a massive mistake sending our son, who has additional educational needs, to this school. We believed that their philosophy would make that school a better place for children, who are different, that they would be properly supported and fully integrated. Nothing of this kind happened, despite he got accepted at the school in full knowledge of his needs, and supported by the local council. There was no pastoral care and support from the beginning to help him make friends in his (very small) class, most of the kids there had been at the school for many years, and there was not a lot of appetite among some of the kids to accept and befriend him and be tolerant of him and him being different, despite my son making a massive effort. Some kids were better than others, and there were lovely kids, particularly among the girls, but on the whole our son suffered massively with a particular group of boys and the tensions between them got worse over the course of the year. In the end he was blamed for most of what had gone wrong, which is unacceptable for a vulnerable child with SEN and what you would not expect from a school, which claims to raise and educate children in harmony with Steiner's philosophy. Sadly, the way of teaching did not accommodate our son's needs either, which made him feel underachieving and frustrated. So everyone, who thinks about sending their child to this school, should have a close look at all this and make sure it would really work for their child. It did not work for us and we decided to take our son out.
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News, Photos and Open Days from The St Michael Steiner School

Last update: 04 October 2022

Open Saturdays

Saturday, 27 January 2018
Saturday, 10 March 2018
Saturday, 21 April 2018
Saturday, 23 June 2018

Open House Events

Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Wednesday, 9 May 2018

The St Michael Steiner School Catchment Area Map

This school is independently managed and its admission criteria may be selective. There is no set catchment area as pupils are admitted from a wide variety of postcodes and, in the case of boarding schools, from outside the UK. Contact the school directly or visit their website for more information on Admissions Policy and Procedures.