Part 7: Gloriavale Re-School – What will the Solution look like?

Opinion piece: Liz Gregory.

(Thoughts, opinions and views expressed here belong to Liz Gregory and may or may not represent the views of the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust, former or current members of Gloriavale.).

Part 7: What is the solution to schooling the Gloriavale children?

As we enter this final stretch, let’s consider what the solution for educating the children from Gloriavale might look like. In the previous blog posts we’ve explained the difficulties the community are facing right now with the school closure and what might appear to be the end of home schooling and/or Te Kura (Correspondence School)

So let’s lay all the options on the table:

Option 1:

Everyone home schools.

My assessment: This will not be an option for the reasons outlines in Blog Post #5 and Blog Post #6.

Option 2:

All primary and high-school students migrate to Te Kura (Correspondence School) and remain at Gloriavale.

My assessment: I think this is less likely given they will still be studying in a “physically or emotionally unsafe” environment without adequate support or supervision. (Basically for all the same reasons they won’t be allowed to home school).

Option 3:
Gloriavale brings in an outside Principal and fully replaces the staff.

My assessment: Gloriavale have tried this and have failed (apart from one teacher). Gloriavale would need to make provision for their housing. And how could they pay the salaries for that many staff? They’d have to increase the school fees… Besides the MOE has moved past the phase where Gloriavale gets to keep the school and make decisions.

Option 4:

The Government brings a Commissioner into the school to replace the board

My assessment: This will not be occurring. The Government has no jurisdiction to put a Commissioner in charge of a private school. (I am pretty sure that if Gloriavale were a state or integrated school, a Commissioner would have been put in place years ago when the first lot of schooling concerns were expressed.)

Option 5:

The MOE “lease” the school facilities and start a new local school on site.

My assessment: I doubt the MOE would want to start a school there and participate in a collaborative arrangement with Gloriavale. Local schools are supposed to be open to all and sundry, but I don’t see Haupiri Valley locals, (which includes former members) sending their children there. I can attest that many people who visit Gloriavale say they sense a heaviness in the air. Spending time off site for these children would do wonders for their psychological and physical health. I know many current members whose behaviour changes significantly when they are offsite – they relax, and can be more honest. When you’re inside a cultic environment your body remains in a hypervigilant mode. I would be mainly concerned about this impact on the children.

Option 6:

Te Kura (Correspondence School) Hub be established offsite. This was mentioned as a possible option in the newspaper statement from the Ministry of Education. They said,

“There are a range of options the ministry is considering within the state system, which includes provision at a local school, establishing a satellite of another state school, a Te Kura Hub or a combination of these.“

Te Kura is already occurring for the secondary school students, but this statement indicates they would provide facilities off site for a supervised hub. This solves the problem of the high-schooling difficulties (see below), but it’s not really the best option for younger students. Te Kura is mainly online these days and requires a special kind of young person (and supervisor) who can sit still for long enough! But it may be a good, quick, temporary option for the younger children while they try to recruit suitable staff for the options below.

Option 6:

Send them to other local schools to join in normal classrooms.

My assessment: This one on the surface sounds like the easiest option. The local schools are 40 mins away by bus (not uncommon for rural kids). But it’s actually not that simple. Think about the local schools for just one minute. Nice little rural NZ schools of 60 – 100 pupils have 100 – 200 new students to accommodate. This influx would totally blow the school out of the water. Aside from the practical elements of classrooms, and physical resources needed, I’m thinking about what it would be like for the local children, the Gloriavale children and the staff. The staff would struggle with the high level of needs of both the children and the parents. It would lead to some very stressful situations pretty quickly! Children who come from Gloriavale have a unique set of behavioural and cultural needs that they need assistance with, and adapting will take time.

Option 7:

Send the primary school children to local state schools but create an educational hub for them to start in, until they are ready to be integrated into normal classrooms. This would be managed and run by the local school.

My assessment: Yes, now we’re talking! Especially if it’s temporary and the families know it’s just for 1-2 years until they can make longer term decisions about where they might live and how they might educate their children. (At that stage it will also be clearer what Gloriavale’s long-term future is and more families might feel braver to stretch their legs and head to greener pastures.)

This option is brilliant for various reasons:

• It moves the children off the Gloriavale site for six hours a day. That can only be psychologically positive.
• It removes all control over education from the leadership at Gloriavale
• It makes use of existing schools and their infrastructure
• It offers an opportunity for managed integration into the classrooms
• It offers socialisation opportunities with shared play , lunchtimes, and other schoolwide activities
• The schools are closer to main centres where more suitable housing can be found for the new staff
• It helps blow apart the myth that outsiders are evil. The parents will be exposed to more outsiders as they hopefully engage with the wider school community.

Challenges that will need to be thought through

• Prefab buildings will quickly need to be moved onto existing school sites, with careful provision for a safe toileting, and rooms that can act as spaces for learning support teams, social services agencies and hopefully something like a whanau room for parents.
• Do the children still wear their blue uniforms? I would suggest it’s best they didn’t. But this might be difficult to enforce in schools where there is no uniform code. Assimilation is the key, and the blue dress is a reminder of a dark period in Gloriavale’s history. By expanding the child’s wardrobe, you are actually helping the parents and the children in the long run. Making daily decisions can be difficult, and parents could start to practice with something as simple as clothing.
• Finding appropriate staff with such short notice. This one might hit a few snags. If the school announcement was made two months ago, the schools might have been able to advertise for quality and appropriate staff for this special project. But I would suggest it’s a bit late in the year to get the cream of the crop to start Term 1 next year. The staff ideally need to have a faith-background, be nurturing, mature, full of energy and wisdom, with a background in special needs. More than that, they need to fully understand the Gloriavale culture (or be willing to learn), they need to understand the impacts of cultic harm and spiritual abuse and be trauma-informed. Pretty much the best teachers in NZ need to be employed! (and definitely no one who just wants the job because they have stars in their eyes. This will be difficult and complex work).
• Workload increase for existing Principals. This is a real issue. Setting up a new hub would require enormous planning and energy. Which might be fine except for the short time frame!
• Parents might not be able to be involved in the life of the school due to the distance, and their own lack of drivers licences or access to vehicles.

Option 8:

Similar to option 7, but more bespoke to meet more needs. A satellite school, charter school or faith-based integrated school is established an old local school site or community site, or suitable privately owned space, or a current school. This group manages the school, finds the staff, and designs the programme to meet the unique needs of this population. The MOE will just pay the money! It would be a temporary option for 18 months – 2 years maximum with the ultimate aim to move all primary and high-school-aged children into the local schooling network, or other alternatives, as soon as they were ready.

My assessment: I have always been in favour of this one for many reasons because Charter Schools and Integrated Schools have more freedom to employ faith-based teachers, and have more open and integrated conversations with parents and students. It would expose the children and the parents to more healthy Christian values and behaviours. It would of course focus on educational achievement and attainment, but would create a safe place for parents to dialogue about educational and faith issues, with the hope they will start to think differently, and develop more parental autonomy.

We need to remember that every single belief that someone from Gloriavale has, is entwined with a religious belief that has been instilled from childhood. It’s essential the staff have freedom to have those conversations – especially with the parents and older children – as it will help move them towards a healthy reconstruction of their beliefs, which would set them up for integration into society when that time comes.

We know from personal experience of having contact with over 300 people who have left Gloriavale, and our connection with a lot of other ex-cultists from various groups, that the only way people leave is when their hearts and minds have been moved. It’s incremental with some. They often ponder leaving years ahead of actually leaving. Their doubts mount up, and you never know what the catalyst might be that sets them free. We don’t want parents having fear and anxiety and breakdowns over the violation of their consciences because of a drastic change, but rather a slow, supported and nurturing process. Leavers have stated that they think this option is by far going to be the least traumatic for the children and the parents.

We attended a church in Nelson yesterday, and the sermon was excellent. It spoke about the difference between knowledge about the Bible, and the wisdom and insight required to apply it in your life. Leavers say that in the Gloriavale context they had learnt a lot of stuff (regurgitate Bible verse ad finitum), but they had no insight and wisdom, and no real opportunities to apply it and learn. You were just told a lot of stuff by people older than you over and over and over and you were expected to obey. A school with top-quality staff could provide an environment where insight and wisdom could be observed and then hopefully applied.

Leavers have also expressed that the staff should be new staff who are not already known to the children (ie no current or former teachers, or relatives due to their entangles family histories and connections).

If it were on a new site, it would be ideal if it were 15-20 minutes away from Gloriavale (rather than 40 mins away) to encourage more interaction from the parents. They might pop in and become more involved in the schooling of their children (attending school events etc). This would be assist with trust development between staff and parents and allow for the important conversations to occur.

However, making use of a current school site has the advantage of the children interacting with other school children, making new friends and integrating them into the local school with more ease.

We would like to see a social service hub operating from the site (educational assessments and specialised support, physical health assessments, social workers running activities and parenting courses, counselling rooms etc.. I see a whanau hub, and a day-care centre. Meeting rooms and a driver licence school. I see trusted relationships developing and a very exciting opportunity for a supported, linked up services.

As John McCartney wrote in his famous song, Imagine, “You might say I’m a dreamer“. But I’m also practical. It’s better than the multi-agency groups that sit in Wellington and have talk fests and write reports! This is on-the-ground practical stuff. And it’s completely achievable.

Who is going to pay for all this?

All it will need is $ from the Government (that bottomless pit…) , a suitable group to approach the MOE to express their willingness to run such a venture, and a property to lease. “Nothing is too difficult” and to be honest the Government owe this to the children of Gloriavale. They have saved a lot of money over the years by not providing a local state school for the children, so just consider it savings in advance of a big spend!

Some people might say, why should the tax-payer pay for this? Have a heart! Because these kids are worth it. End of story. And it you want a pragmatic answer, then consider the amount of tax-payer money already being funnelled into the community, and think about the cost-benefit analysis.

Oh I missed TWO very important components

Whether Option 6/7/8/9 is selected, the key to all of them includes in input from survivors to help train staff and provide suggestions for a framework that would be successful, and educational navigators to work with each family.

Survivor-Led Experience is Essential

Those who have left Gloriavale are the only people in this country who have lived experience of being both in the community and integrating into NZ society. The understand the beliefs and the psyche. They also understand where different ones are along their journey. They understand the range of different educational options available. They have cultural expertise. This will be essential in helping train new staff and the programme design.

Leaver’s cultural training could be the key to a painless transition for the children and the parents. We have leavers willing to assist.

As mentioned most of the ideas above came from listening to leavers, and trying to find a bespoke solution for the best possible long-term outcome. We were grateful to the MOE for funding a report on schooling options for Gloriavale Leavers (a brilliant report written by D & G Consulting) and well worth a read. This was in response to the need for more support for children leaving Gloriavale, but many similar principles will apply.

Educational Navigators:

Regardless what option is selected, we believe that every single family should have an educational navigator working with them. Former MP Ruth Dyson explained to us that when the mental health institutions closed across NZ, and those needing residential care were migrated into the community, it was a slow and careful transition. People said it couldn’t be done. But it was done. She said the key to success was a navigator being assigned to each family. Together they slowly and carefully made a bespoke individual plan for each person and family. It wasn’t until the plan was in place that they started the transition. THIS IS ESSENTIAL!! People in Gloriavale have in many ways been institutionalised. The Royal Commission confirmed it. Bespoke and supported solutions are needed.

The navigators would need to be familiar with schools, Te Kura, and even home-schooling, have a heart for the people of Gloriavale, and would act as a quasi-social worker and mentor. Again, ideally they need to have a deep understanding of faith issues in order to assist the parents with decision making. If the family decides to migrate on to other schooling options or leave Gloriavale altogether, the same navigator would assist – having built up a trust with the family.

I believe the success of whatever solution is found lies in the role of the educational navigator.

Where did these ideas come from?

Many leavers have contributed their ideas to the above bespoke solution in the eventuality of a school closure. We have also worked with educationalists and cult professionals to design a workable solution. Around three years ago, initial ideas were given to the MOE, which outlined all the options, including a school closure, and we encouraged them to start planning. There has been plenty of time for the them to plan. We just hope they are given the resources required.

Challenges

The keys to success actually lie with the parents.

Children pick up the emotional vibe their parents radiate. If they are scared and anxious about the new schooling options they will take that fear with them into the new situation. If the children actually enjoy the new option, but feel guilty about doing so, they might well start to develop two identities – one for the school environment, and one they know their parents are insisting on. Incongruence will develop, which will lead to the deployment of survival tactics to keep their parents happy, and an unhealthy cognitive dissonance will form. This is psychologically harmful and impacts character development and the ability to live with integrity. I hope the parents can stay away from the game of tug-of-war.

Who makes the final decision?

This is actually an interesting question. The MOE will eventually decide how they want to design the alternative and sell if to Gloriavale, but they can’t force the families to attend it. The families may pursue other options – which include leaving Gloriavale and possibly continuing with home schooling, or move town and select another school, or move country (more on that in another blog post). I do not believe they will stage a rebellion and force the truancy officers to act. In the past Gloriavale always makes a lot of noise, says they are standing on principles, and then they acquiesce.

Due to the community history of being unable to find solutions for their problems, it’s likely they will end up complying, and will send their children to the solution that is presented to them.

We just hope that solution takes on board some of the knowledge and hard-earned insight and wisdom from others who have left the community. Otherwise, it might be yet another missed opportunity.