From the deepest part of my heart, I hear

The voice must be heard,

The mighty-sounding Word:

"Let light within you, bright and clear,

In thoughts and actions, shine.

Then will you truly be a child of mine."

Dear GHSS Families,

The holidays are fast approaching, with just two weeks left of term.  We have had lots of sniffles and sickness amongst students and staff alike lately, and I suspect everyone is looking forward to the three-week break to rest and recover. 

During the winter holdiays, I will be travelling to Noosa Pengari Steiner School to participate in Restorative Practises facilitator training for Steiner schools.  Restorative Practices focuses on the importance of healthy, mutually respectful relationships in classrooms, faculties, staff rooms, teams, playgrounds and the wider school community.

GHSS favours using restorative practises and open communication to navigate any upsets or confusing social dynamics, rather than punitive or 'blameful' methods.  In my own practises as a principal, it is not unusual for me to check in with students on a regular basis, often facilitating restorative conversations between students in my office, away from the bustle and busyness of the classroom. 

Our code of conduct at GHSS (available on our website) states that everyone has the right to feel safe, be treated with honesty, be spoken to and treated with respect and dignity.  The GHSS community is comprised of a diverse range of students, parents and staff, all with different life experiences, personalities and belief systems. We aim for genuine inclusivity, making room for all in our school community.

As educators, we have a responsibility to help the children navigate the often complex social dynamics in a classroom.  What is often mislabeled as ‘bullying’ is in fact often a breakdown in communication.  Often, when a student is being excluded socially, there are some reasons for this, and restorative conversations can play a big part in bringing any behaviors that are not serving them to their attention.

A classroom is like a microcosm of our society - in it, the children might meet someone they admire, someone who pushes their buttons, someone who makes them feel uncomfortable, someone who makes them laugh.  As we are all aware, there are many types of people in the world, including those who may trigger us.  Learning how to navigate the challenges and emotional upsets that come with this, without the children losing their sense of self or compromising on their own values, is a huge part of coming to school.  Additionally, a classroom is a great opportunity to bring awareness and a sense of responsibly for one’s own behaviors - for those on BOTH sides of the social spectrum.

However, this cannot happen without safe, honest and open communication.  Most children require some guidance in how to recognise their feelings and express these safely without resorting to blame / reactivity.  I’m sure that many would agree that this is indeed a lifetime’s work!  Restorative practices such as this can feel somewhat uncomfortable at first, but they get easier with practice.  Many times, I have witnessed children leaving the conversation with a big sigh, smile on their face and a weight off their shoulders.  If problems are simply bottled up, or children ‘frozen out’ or ignored, an opportunity is often lost for both parties, as there is little room to learn and practice these skills out ‘in the real world’.

I hope the above points shed a little light on our approach to social upsets within the school, as well as any ‘visits to the principal’s office’.  I look forward to returning from the Restorative Practises Facilitator training with a host of new skills in my toolkit! 

I'd also like to wish everyone a safe and happy winter holiday break.  May you all find time for rest, recovery, and perhaps even have a little adventure or two (I hear the whales are out in case anyone is in need of some adventuring inspiration!).

Eliza Allan

Principal

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Week 7 of this term was Reconciliation Week and this year we were honoured to have Aunty Averil Dean and her son Lindsay come on Thursday 30th May to share their cultural knowledge with us.  Lindsay also brought along two of his sons for a cultural learning day.  Aunty or Gabbarli (grandmother) Averil is in her mid-eighties, so it was indeed a special opportunity for the Koolungar (children) to spend time with such a senior and respected Elder of our region.

The day was forecast to be very wet, so at the start of the day Class 1 to Class 8 gathered around a special Kaarl (fire) down at the forest campsite for what was planned to be a 20 minute Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony.  However, the filtered light of Ngaangk (the sun) came shining through and Gabbarli Averil and Uncle Lindsay were enjoying the ambience so much that they chose to stay down there until morning recess time. 

After we had sung several songs in Noongar language for them, Gabbarli Averil shared stories of her life, including the joys and hardships of her early days at Gnowangerup Mission, her time growing up in Tambellup and her experiences as a trainee nurse in Broome.  Uncle Lindsay shared many traditional tools he had brought and gave the children an opportunity to ask any questions they might have.

It is heartening to see, and noted by the Elders, the mood of respect with which the children listened and participated in such an extended session, especially the younger classes.  Our children through their schooling seem to be naturally responsive to the presence of First Nations Elders, and it is not culturally out of place for them to sit quietly while the Elders share their stories and wisdom.

After morning break everyone gathered in the hall for an artistic activity. After singing the official song of Reconciliation Week 2024, ‘Blackfella Whitefella’ by Warumpi Band, Uncle Lindsay talked about the significance and role of totems in Noongar culture.  He then invited the children to choose for themselves a totem animal or plant that is significant to them.  Classes then took it in turns to paint on a large canvas sheet their chosen totem, while Uncle Lindsay also taught some traditional dance moves to the older classes.

GHSS Winter Festival - Thursday 20th June

The Winter Festival is one of Golden Hill’s most anticipated events of the year.  There is magic in gathering in the darkness by the warmth and light of the bonfire, walking with our lanterns through the hushed silence of the forest amidst the enchanting fairy houses, and the simple pleasure of coming together on a cold night for soup and a story.

The school community and parents can help create an atmosphere of reverence and awe in the following ways:

• Please leave mobile phones and cameras at home.  There will also be phone boxes in classrooms if you would like to leave your phone there during the lantern walk.  A school photographer will be documenting the night and photos will be shared with the school community.

• Please stay as quiet as possible during the lantern and spiral talk.  Parents and children will have the opportunity to chat during soup time.

• Please discourage your children from running around in the dark.  Instead, we will leave the grounds in quiet reflection at the end of the evening.

Thankyou for your cooperation in ensuring that our winter festival is as awe-filled and magical as possible.

What is the Winter Festival? 

Celebrating festivals are an enriching part of our school's cultural life and brings awareness to the rhythms of nature and the world around us. There is a ‘mood’ or underlying tone for each festival; Autumn is permeated with a sense of gratitude and abundance, while the spring festival is a time for ‘reawakening’ - a day that is marked with lots of frivolous fun, socialising and dancing.  

The impulse of the Winter Festival is quite different again.  This festival provides a space for quiet reflection, with the Winter Spiral representing the inward turning we experience as the night grows longer, encouraging self-reflection and introspection.  It also reminds us of our ability to bring light into darker times.

Components of the winter festival include:

THE WINTER SPIRAL

Once the lanterns have been lit, children and parent will proceed in single file towards the winter spiral, which happens to be in a surprise location this year!  The spiral allows for a rekindling of our inner light during a time of darkness; where we experience the longest night and the shortest day of the year.  It is the balance point within the year, for slowing down and taking time for introspection.  This time then becomes the turning point, as the days start to lengthen again and we walk from the darkest time back into the light, moving with nature towards spring and summer.

The Spiral reminds us of the fact that although there are dark times, we are not alone, and if we reach inward to our inner resources we will meet the changes ahead with renewed strength and resilience.

THE LANTERN WALK

Proceeding through the spiral, the children will continue their lantern walk through the candle-lit forest, past the fairy houses created by Class 6 children.  Thank you for refraining from using phones or chatting during this time.  

THE BONFIRE

This is a special occasion for our Class 6 students, who will light the bonfire with their own torches.  They spend much time learning and reciting a special verse/poem for the night, which is then followed by whole school songs. 

Busy Bee - this Saturday!

GHSS Parents & Carers, we'll meet you at the hall from 9am - 12pm to give the GHSS school owl hall some busy bee love.

Busy Bees are a great opportunity to meet some of our community and to contribute to your parent participation hours.

Bring your: Brooms, Buckets and Gloves (if you have them).

We'll wind up the morning with a sausage sizzle outside the hall. Cakes and bakes to share are always welcome!

Please let the office know if you are able to come along so we get an idea of how many we are catering for.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Much has happened since our last addition to the Quill.  We have welcomed Sterre Quakkelsteijn, Remy Perisic, Robin Keath and their families to Class 1.  We have wished Juno and Amaya Marshall Buen viaje (bon voyage) as they travelled to their second hearth, Chile…and we have since celebrated their return.  We have lost teeth, pets and loved ones, stumbled with our feet and even our words but golly have we grown!  While we continue to lay the foothills of literacy and numeracy, our hands too are becoming nimbler, our feet are jumping higher and our voices are becoming clearer.  We are learning to breathe together and to move together.  These are complex and demanding tasks, and we strive to do this with care.  Care for others, for our spaces and for ourselves.

I’d like to share some pictures that have emerged this semester that have helped us garner a feeling for some of our learning.  Perhaps there is something in this for us all.

In moments when we need to listen (to receive, sometimes with our whole body) we refer to the opening up of our elephant ears.  Each morning we sing the roll, we sing each others name in full, for example, “Lyra Andersson, are you here?”

And now we are at the point where each child will respond courageously all by oneself: “Yes, I am here!”  We then sing to our room or the different spaces that we find ourselves in and we open our elephant ears to listen to their characteristic voice.

The second picture, is that of the jellyfish – swaying and moving with the rise and fall of the waves.  We take up this image in moments that ask for inner or outer flexibility or both.  There is a palpable power when we take on these images as a collective.

Marie Limondin (who has an incredible ear) came to visit our class after Class 1 had just discovered the letter V.  She shared the story of how she came to find her Violin (beautiful and captivating, well worth asking Marie when you next meet).  She invited us to ponder what music this Violin (or Violon in French) may have played in its long lifetime or by whom.  She then gifted us a tune and in return we drew.  Marie was struck by the childrens receptivity, and the character expressed in each childs rendering of her Violin.

In the coming weeks, we will work together to re-enact nature stories of birds in our local setting and preparations are well underway for our Winter festival.  Class 1/2 and I look forward to being with you all as we try to evoke the wonder of the darkest part of the year and remember the treasures that glint and glow deep within us all.

We recently finished our Building main lesson in which our main project was to continue working on the chook shed in the orchard. The first step however was to ensure that the orchard itself was made safe for the chooks. We are very grateful for the assistance of Matthew, our grounds keeper, who organised materials and supported our work with expert advice and instruction.  There were 3 steps that we undertook, and which have now been completed.

Next term we hope to continue the project with the construction and installation of nesting boxes, roosts, and a chicken door.  Then we can welcome the new arrivals!  If anyone has any chicken wire or timber that would be suitable for these purposes that they would be willing to donate to the project, we would be very grateful.

The children also had a wonderful time constructing shelters down by the creek using found materials.  Everyone worked so well together, and the results are very impressive!

We have begun our final main lesson for the term, part two of Tales of the Hebrew People.

CLASS 8

Following the Class 7/8 Shakespearean Play,  the Class 8 students began their novel study on Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice', written in the early 18^th century.  Austen wrote six novels in total with her final two being published after her death at 41 years of age in 1817.  As a class we have delved into the rich and at times quite comical language of Austen through the eyes of protagonist Elizabeth Bennet.  Robust discussions around the social etiquette of the period have been quite entertaining as we have identified examples of the way Austen wields her extensive vocabulary; her use of irony, humour and other literary devices to engage her readers in a complicated social environment.  Austen’s fluid compound sentences and choice words makes you want to take a ‘turn about the room’ and reminisce of days gone by.

The students completed a biographical story of Austen, complete with portrait. Character studies, identifying Austen’s most popular adjectives and adverbs, personal notes written with Austen’s flair and an analytical written piece have also been drawn from the novel study.

Dear Mr Smith

I will offer you the upmost discretion in this matter however this does not hold you accountable. Nay, you should not have emphatically engaged with my daughter in such a way indeed you have become quite pitiable and conceded. I find myself at a conjunction as to whether to banish you. I will wait with indifference of your response.

With the utmost respect,

The Duke of York

By Kai Taylor

My Dearest Lizzy,

Your invitation sounds exciting, and I would be glad to attend. However, my dear mother hath fallen impossibly ill. It is inevitable that I shall fall ill with the same tiresome sickness. However, I do owe you a favour. I have enclosed a box of apple pies for you to amuse your guests with. Please do not visit, I am uncertain whether it is catching. You may write as much as you wish.

Yours truthfully,

Charlotte Lucas

By Sophie Wybenga

My Dear Charlotte

As it is a cause of such celebration one month from now. I should wish for you to receive this invitation to my favourable high tea lunch. I shall wait impatiently for your reply to come into my possession. I do hope this satisfies you dearly.

Yours respectfully

Elizabeth Bennet

By Cedar Ettridge

CLASS 7  - ART

As part of our visual arts program in Class 7, the students partake in portrait drawing.  We have been fortunate to learn from local artist and school community member, Fran Rosenthal.  Fran worked with the students in Term 1, beginning with chalk as the preferred medium and learning about the importance of measurement, scale and profiles.  The students, to complement their studies in medieval history and William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, chose a picture of which to bring to life their profile and personality.

CLASS 7/8 DRAMA

We were fortunate to have school community member Sally Jarvis take photos of our recent performance of ‘Shakespeare’s, A Comedy of Tragedies’.  Please see below.

Class 7 Healthy Human Being Main Lesson

Class 7 are in the middle of their Healthy Human Being main lesson with children so far learning about fundamental life processes of muscles, the rhythmic and digestive systems. The class has been completing strength-based exercises and breath mediations each week to highlight the importance of exercise and learn more about our bodies amazing feedback mechanisms. This week the class dived further into digestion, uncovering how our bodies break down and extract the nutrients it requires. 

Wholly local excursion and Class 7 Golden Hill Cafe

On Friday the class visited Wholly Local in Denmark to hear about the shop's philosophy, the importance of eating seasonal fresh produce and to gain tips on making a healthy nutritious take away meal.  This helped deepen their understanding of digestion, whole foods and the nutrition the body requires.  The class will use this information to create their own healthy takeaway meal for the Class 7 Golden Hill Cafe.

Class 8 Algebra Main Lesson

The Class 8 Algebra main lesson focused on consolidating and extending the children's skills from their first algebra lesson last year.  These skills were then used to create an algebra toolbox that students could use to solve practical problems involving unknown numbers, money, time, area, distance and speed.  A highlight of the lesson was students speed investigation where the class timed themselves running over different distances and then calculated and compared their average speeds.

GHSS would like to request that wherever possible, parents inform children before leaving home each morning of whether or not they will be on the afternoon bus.

It can be stressful for bus monitors and children alike when the buses roll in and children are unsure of whether or not they are being picked up or are to get on the school bus.

Although we undertand that plans can change, informing children in the morning wherever possible also reduces the amount of running around that admin need to do in order to deliver last-minute bus messages.  Should it be unavoidable that you do need to contact the office with a bus or pick up message, we would appreciate this being before 2.30pm if possible.

Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation on this matter. 

These July school holidays, Golden Hill Steiner School will be offering a week-long drama holiday workshop. The program culminates on the last day with a wonderful play for parents and friends to enjoy.

This year, children will be performing ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Teachers will work with the children to take the show from first read to final performance. The students will spend the week making new friends, memorising their scripts, singing, dancing, and exploring their characters. Students will help create sets, costumes and props, learning about all the essential elements that come together to make a show.

DATES: 8th – 12th July 2024

TIMES: 9am – 3.30pm

WHERE: Steiner School Hall

COST: $350 for the week

WHO: Children aged 8-13 years. Non-GHSS students welcome; all experience levels welcome

WHAT TO BRING: drink bottle, snack, lunch, wear comfortable clothes

SHOW: 12th July @ 2pm (Tickets on sale at the start of the workshop week for family and friends, $10 each)

• To align with the tech-free nature of the Steiner primary school curriculum and ethos, we will not be using stage lighting or recorded music for the play

All proceeds from this workshop will go towards the GHSS school bus fund. To book in or if you have any questions, please contact office@goldenhill.wa.edu.au or on (08) 9848 1811.

Big congratulations to our Golden Hill students and alumni on their performances in the recent Albany Eisteddfod and Showcase Concert held from May 20th to 23rd!  River Duggan and Michael Perrella, both from Class 5, did extremely well in their violin categories.

The boys received:

• equal 1st U11 fiddling 
• highly commended Grade 3 classical 
• River also: 1st for his U12 fiddle/ guitar duet

River was also selected to play the fiddle/guitar duet in the Eisteddfod Showcase concert on Friday 24th of May, which is a very big honour.

Class 8 student Sophie Wybenga placed first for her fiddling piece - congratulation Sophie!

Class 4 student Arcadia Atkins entered for the very first time - well done Arcadia!

GHSS alumni Sienna Collyer (playing piano), Evie Francis and Poppyanna Fisken (playing violin) also won their categories and featured in the Showcase concert.

Fantastic violin playing and music making everyone - the school is very proud of you!

The school is running an informal book exchange on the filing cabinet shelf in the front office. Staff, parents, students: If you have any books ready for a new home, bring them in and swap a book for another one! Fiction, non-fiction, all books welcome (they don't have to be Steiner related).

We already have a selection to choose from, come check it out!

We have a bookshelf in the front office full of Steiner related books that parents are welcome to borrow for a two week period.

Please come in and browse the selection!

Our school calendar can be found here - 

GHSS Calendar

Please check the calendar regularly as new events may be added or sometimes events need to be changed.  

The calendar also includes term dates and holidays for planning purposes.