Drawn out into the sheen, the shine, the glisten and the gleam,

It would be easy to be lost into a dream.

So I must rouse myself and start

To conjure forces of the heart,

Which live within me truly and will bring

The strength and majesty that make me like a king!

Amidst the glory of the sense-world, everywhere displayed,

In sunlit grove and glen and leafy glade,

It is the human heart that rules and reigns supreme!

Dear GHSS Families,

Spring Fair The time has arrived! Dust off your best fairy costume! This weekend we have our Spring Fair and Open Day and we look forward to welcoming all our families to celebrate everything wonderful about our school and Steiner education!

Spring Fair-ies, Laura Egan & Kate Groves have been working closely with our class carers, however we really need a last ditch push to ensure a great day! We invite families to please commit to filling the vacant spots on our rosters as many hands make light work!

Classes 2, 3 and 7 have been baking up a storm of biscuits, slices, muffins and cakes to sell at our Morning & Afternoon Tea stall. Our Spring Fair is known for its delectable home-baked treats, so if baking is your thing, then we will happily accept donations from all school members!

Swimming Lessons start on Monday! Students are to come to school with their bathers on under their uniforms. We shall only be having a single lesson each day due to the shortage of swimming instructors. All students in Class 1 - 7 will attend swimming, regardless of if they are swimming or not. A reminder to remember to pack a towel and dry underwear to put on after swimming, when changing back into your dry clothes!!

Jacqui Hollingworth

Principal

Our uniforms have arrived and they look great!  The impulse for uniforms came from the students and parents of our current Class 7 students.  With the new rebranding of Steiner Education Australia, we chose to reflect the unique colours in our High School uniform.

The uniform is not compulsory but will be necessary for some excursions.  Polos are $35.00 each and hoodies are $45.00 each.

Please see office staff to purchase.

Mechanics main lesson:  

What a great Term Four so far for Class 7 with the combination of our Mechanics main lesson and the sailing camp.  Throughout our Simple Machines main lesson, students have been engaged in hands-on activities to experience the mechanical advantage of simple tools.  From lifting heavy rocks with levers, rolling logs up inclined planes and using pulleys to lift their own weight up trees, the class has encountered the reduced effort required when using simple tools. Our Mechanics main lesson is designed to go alongside the sailing camp to give students rich practical examples of using these tools and further develop their understanding of how they work.

Sailing camp:

What a pleasure it was to take the class on the sailing camp.  The camp provided a great opportunity to challenge students in a safe and adventurous environment.  As the class cohort enters their teenage years and begins to explore outwards, the camp provides an opportunity for them to experience the freedom and adventure of sailing, being in control and the responsibility that comes with it.  This was further advanced by the challenging conditions and high winds that we often faced.  It was great to see the class persevere to overcome challenges, demonstrate great teamwork and step up in difficult conditions.

Recycled Car project:

The class has been very excited to start their recycled car project this week.  This will combine our Electricity and Mechanics main lessons and challenge students to create a moving vehicle out of recycled materials.  I look forward to sharing the completed cars. 

It’s hard to believe our first year of High School is in its last term.  It really has been a wonderful journey thus far and very rewarding to see young adolescents so supported and engaged.

The students began the term in project mode as they began using their research to produce their Renaissance Projects.  A lot of planning and preparation occurred at the end of Term 3 and it was lovely to watch their intent come to fruition.  Their projects consisted of a biography of their chosen Renaissance artist, a self-drawn portrait, cover page to reflect their artist and/or era and a 3-minute oral presentation.

I was very impressed and very proud of the level attained by the students and attached are some of the finished works.  Class 7 study the Renaissance as it is reflective of significant change, which is very prominent for adolescents in their 13^th year.

In Week 3 the Class 7 students set off on their second camp for the year.  The camp consisted of a four-day accredited sailing camp to tie in with their Mechanics main lesson.  We stayed at the Rotary Youth Camp in Little Grove and set sail on the Princess Harbour under the guidance of instructors from the Princess Royal Sailing Club.

I went on a sailing camp to the Princess Royal Sailing Club.  We stayed at the Rotary Youth Camp.  All the girls were in one dorm.  It was lots of fun and we did a fashion parade.  I really enjoyed being at the camp.  Hanging out in the dorm was so much fun.  Robyn put us in groups to make the dinners.  My favourite thing was to play cards with Robyn, Cedar and Violet.

The food was different and delicious.

Sailing was interesting, and we did it every day.  Well, we missed one as it was too windy.  But sailing is not my thing I decided.

The best part was going on a cruise in the big boat the Responder on the harbour.  Oh and a hot shower.

Milly Marshall

In week 3, all the year 7s at Golden Hill Steiner School (minus one), went to Albany on a sailing camp.  We arrived on Monday at the Rotary Youth Community Camp, in Little Grove.  It was a camp space with a large-ish lawn separating the girls and boy’s dorms (thankfully).  It was beside the Princess harbour, and it was very, very, windy!

The Princess Royal Sailing Club (PRSC) was close to the camp, and pretty much directly across the harbour from camp Quaranup.  We were taught by some really great instructors, Chris, Geoff, Brayden, and Rachel.  They taught us to rig, de-rig, work as a crew, and most importantly, sail!!!!  In crews of 3, we sailed kind of big boats called GP (general purpose) 14s.

My favourite day was the last day, where my crew and I did sailing out on the Princess Royal harbour, unassisted, and won (well, technically came a draw) a sailing competition the instructors set up.

Chris took us out on a tour of the harbour.  There is a shipwreck called Chains 2, that we saw.  

It was an amazing camp.  It was a great experience, one of the funnest I’ve had this year, and I think it was really helpful for the people who were scared.  It was a very scary experience, only until you realized that you could do it, and after that you would enjoy every second of it!

My favourite bits were sailing fast, feeling the wind and water on my face, feeling totally in control as we sailed over 25 knots!!  Making guacamole back at camp, eating Robyn’s birthday cake, and not capsizing!

I learnt a lot from that camp, like how to rig a boat in 10 minutes, and how the cold water (which is somehow colder than Greens Pool) is definitely worth it.  Definitely.

By Sophie Wybenga

We arrived at Rotary Youth and Community Camp on Monday at 8:30 am and quickly dropped off our bags.  We hung around for a while and then we jumped on the bus to head over to the Princess Royal Sailing Club.  We met the sailing instructors Chris who was the main instructor, Braydon was the assistant instructor.  We sat down and they explained the points of sail then we hit the water for some fun paddling while the other person steered.  We linked up with the power boat and got towed, we also did a capsize drill - our team were the fastest with a time of 63 seconds. After, we headed back to camp for some chill time and dinner.  Then were forced into an early night by Sam.

On the second day we did some tacking, Archie, Reeve and Zavier crashed into us twice!  (Not Reeve’s Fault!!)  We then had lunch and got back on the water.  Geoff took us out past the Marina with him at the tiller and one extra person.  We got back to camp and I messed about.  When it was time for bed Sam let us talk, we did this for an extended period of time about things I am not legally allowed to disclose in public.           

And now it’s the third day it turns out it was too windy for us to go sailing.  So instead, we played sailing games and did some revision work.  We had a big competition with our sailing crews for a first-place flag, we did knot tying, naming the parts on a yacht and naming the knots.  My crew ended up drawing for first with Sophie’s crew and that basically ended the day.  We returned back to camp where I played ping pong and beat most people.  After dinner we went to the dorm and talked about things, I am not legally allowed to disclose in public, this is after we played spotlight.          

We have arrived on the last day of camp, a Thursday.  We got to the club knowing what to expect, we were going out past the marina with no help.  We rigged and reefed the main sail which made it smaller, so we hit the water and started to sail out.  At the start we were the best at following the Gray Rib but Sophie’s crew were getting better and we soon dropped behind.  We didn’t have it the worst though, Julian, Tami and Lachy ‘s boat capsized TWICE!!!

We finished the sailing with everyone still alive.  After lunch we went on the Responder to do a tour of the harbour, I got soaking wet and had to change clothes.  From my personal experience I would go back to the camp and continue sailing.

Kai Taylor

We arrived at the Rotary Youth community camp at 8:15 am on Monday of Week 3, Term 4. When we got there, we all got changed into our wetsuits and got onto the bus, we then drove to the princess royal sailing club (PRSC).  We talked about what we would be doing for the 4-day sailing course.  After that we got into our crew teams and chose a boat and launched them without sails. We paddled around in a marina for about a hour and a half then we paddled into shore and had salad rolls for lunch.  After lunch we all connected our boats and got towed out of the marina and I nearly capsized.  Then we all jumped out of the boats and got towed back in to shore, by now it was 3:30pm.  We all washed down our boats and drove back to camp then we all played around for a few hours and then had spaghetti bolognaise and went to sleep.

On day 2 we all woke up at about 6:00am and had breakfast and played ping pong for a while before we got our wetsuits on and drove down to the PRSC.  We participated in a tacking drill and went out onto the water and sailed for a few hours, then we had salad wraps for lunch. After lunch we went out with two of the instructors and sailed around on the princess royal harbor.  Once back on dry land we washed the boats and drove back to camp and basically did the same thing as the day before but after dinner we played spotlight and I won every round.

Day 3 was too windy to go sailing so we did theory and played a lot of sailing games and quiz’s. Once back at camp we mucked around and had hamburgers for dinner.

Day 4 we all rigged our boats and sailed out of the marina and I capsized twice, then we all sailed back to shore and had lunch then our whole class went out on the power boat called the Responder.  After that we came back to the shore and went home. 

Lachy Berry

Class 5's have been learning about Ancient Egypt.  Last Friday we were lucky enough to have David Stockdale come in and share the beauty of using clay as a medium to build pyramids.  The uniqueness and varying interpretations in which the children formed the pyramids was fascinating to see!

Sometimes mess equals learning, and we sure had heaps of mess!

We look forward to using clay in our next main lesson, when exploring geometry and delving deeper into shape.

Thanks for teaching us David,

Class 5/6 

There has been a heightened air of discovery and inquisitiveness in Class Four this term.

We began with the History of Writing main lesson and were transported back in time to ancient lands to find out how writing began.  We put ourselves in the shoes of those of long ago and discovered how pictures, pictograms and symbols came to represent language.

Our curiosity was aroused as we found out what different things could be used to write on and write with; from clay tablets and parchments made from animal skins, to paper made from rags and leaves. 

We became familiar with reading and creating timelines from BC to AD.  We wondered at the beauty of ancient scripts such as Mesopotamian cuneiform and Chinese characters.

We made predictions and formed hypotheses about how we could mix matter to create ink.  We had fun making our own bamboo reed pens in woodwork with Gill, creating our own inks with Sophia and making our own paper and feather quills in class.  The highlight of this main lesson was receiving our own fountain pens to use in our main lesson books and to practice fine handwriting and calligraphy.

Then it was on to our second Mapping main lesson.  This main lesson revises our skills of map reading and following direction.  We remembered the compass points and the need for scale and a legend on a map.  We then practiced using grid coordinates to create maps of our own.

We have been considering the Kwoorabup boodja where we live and what a map of the area would have looked like 1000 years ago.  Following the water cycle and contour lines we can see the geographical features of our environment.  We learnt the Noongar names for prominent geographical points of interest we know.

With the coming of European people to the area the map has changed with roads, bridges, farms, vineyards and buildings.  This week we are off to visit the Denmark Historical Museum to investigate the people and activities who have impacted the area over the last 200 years.  Then we will be off to Ocean Beach and Prawn Rock Channel to enjoy water and beach activities with Brad and Sandra, as we observe the way people have impacted the natural environment over time.  Finally we will meet up with Noongar Minang man Lindsay Dean, who we met on our camp earlier in the year.  He will share with us his families stories and knowledge of the land around our town.  We are looking forward to seeing him again and have been practicing some songs in Noongar language to share with him.

There is a very special moment each morning whereby Class 1/2 sit together and recall, share and receive small gems of news.  Weekend delights, wildlife spotted from the bus window, morning surprises, curiosities, chicken, duckling and guinea pig updates to name but a few.  It oils conversation, draws children together, nourishes the sense of belonging and lets us find and make opportunities to laugh and to share laughter.  These past few weeks, Sophia has shared her adventures with a Tree Martin Nestling which she saved.  We’ve come to know this little one, its first flight after a couple of wobbles and its return.  The children speak and ask of it with great affection and care and we look forward to share in its next stages of life.  

The timing of this and of the birth and growth of the schools ducklings coincided with Class 2 completing their Bush Bird cut-outs.  They will share these at our upcoming Assembly before finding them a home by the new Bird Bath.

Our writing skills are blossoming in our Story Hub sessions – a time and space for each child to create and share their own stories.  Now that our origami creations are ready for the Spring Fair, we have begun our preparations for our class Advent Calendar.  As we near Advent, we are singing Christmas Carols in our combined sessions with Shamara, accompanied by her Harp, and each child has made their very own “Carol Book”.

Class 1 have started preparing for their class play performance of “The Shepherd Boy’s Flute” for Week 9.

Each newsletter we will be sharing a virtue that will be the focus in our school over the following three weeks.  

What is Purposefulness? Being purposeful is having a clear focus, instead of being confused or unsure of what you are doing or why you are doing it.  You are acting purposefully when you have a goal you are working toward.  You concentrate your mind and your efforts so that something good will happen as a result.  Some people just let things happen.  A purposeful person makes things happen.

Why Practice it? Without a sense of purpose, people scatter their energies and their attention.  Without knowing why they are doing something - the purpose - they easily give up.  When you choose to be purposeful, you can achieve great results.  Motivation comes easily because you know why you are doing something.  You have a positive attitude and don't let obstacles stop you from doing what is important.

How do you practice it? Being purposeful begins with setting a vision or a goal for what you want to accomplish.  Knowing why it is important is your purpose.  With your goal in mind, do things one at a time, with as much care and concentratation as you can.  Don't let yourself get scattered in many directions, trying to do everything at once.  Stay focused on your purpose.

Signs of Success Congratulations!  You are practicing Purposefulness when you...

• Have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish.
• Know why you are doing it.
• Focus on a goal.
• Get back on purpose if you get scattered or distracted.
• Do things one at a time and finish what you start.
• Persevere until you get results.

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."  Lewis B Carrol

"Always act, always walk, always proceed.  Neither stand still nor go back..."  St. Augustine

Please enjoy the following soup recipe from the book - The Waldorf School Book of Soups.

Butternut Pumpkin Soup

dash olive oil

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 medium red onions, chopped

2 medium butternut pumpkins, peeled and chopped into chunks

4 heaped tsps vegetable stock powder

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of ground ginger

salt and pepper to taste

water

sprig of rosemary

In a large saucepan over a medium heat, warm olive oil.  Add garlic and onion.  Saute.

Add pumpkin.  Add spices and stock powder.  Cover with water; place rosemary in pot.

Bring to boil and simmer until squash is easily pierced with a knife.

Remove rosemary and ladle into blender.

Blend and serve.

Serves 6 easily, but can be thinned out to accommodate more.

Our school calendar can be found here - 

GHSS Calendar

Silvia Lehmann and Jeff Atkinson are calling all lovers of oral story-telling from the Denmark region and beyond to be part of an ongoing story-telling circle. 

An evening of story-telling, open to the public, will be held on Sunday, 19 November 2023 from 5 - 8pm at the Denmark Arts House.  This is where we will unveil the project and its aims and gather feedback on the level of interest.

As well as a feast of traditional, mythopoetic stories, there will be a simple, light meal provided.  We're seeking $10 - $15 sliding scale donation to cover costs of food and venue hire.  Please RSVP to Silvia or Jeff by Thurs Nov 16th so we can gauge numbers for catering.

Please note: the proposed storytelling circle is an adult storytelling space - children can accompany their parents, but there will be no censoring of story material to make it child-friendly, and the children need to be old enough to be attentive listeners rather than a difficult disrupter energy for the parents to manage. 

Looking forward to seeing you there and please spread the word through your networks! 

Great Southern Storytellers

Re-enchanting the world through the magic of story.

Jeff Atkinson: 0431 211 887 / justquietly1978@gmail.com

Silvia Lehmann: 0435 006 228 / iotheatre@iinet.net.au