Reflecting on the term as it draws to a close, it has felt like an extra busy one. This is perhaps due to the fact that Oona, our regular school bursar has been on leave (and has just finished walking the Bibbulmun track!). A massive thanks to Jody for taking up the finance reins while Oona has been away. I feel very grateful that Golden Hill is fronted by a very capable and solid admin team, who still manage to hold it all together even when we are one (wo)man down! We look forward to Oona’s return next term and to hearing all about her Bibbulmun adventures.

The last few weeks have seen the inception of a few interesting extra-curricular events. Our Class 8 group has taken on the running of the Friday afternoon GHSS markets as part of their mathematics and C&C learnings. We are now two markets in and growing each week. Thanks to all those who came along and supported this community-building venture. Our high school after school ‘rock band’ sessions have also been coming to life under Rusty Lynch’s expertise and guidance, and the teenagers are enjoying the experience of ‘plugging in’ and playing music as a band. We are all excited to see what these clever kids come up with.

Due to inclement weather forecasts, last week’s winter festival was cancelled and moved to this Thursday- the final day of school. Let’s hope the weather behaves this time,  as we have no school days left to move it to!

 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. While some festivals can be a fun-filled, raucous affair (spring!), the winter festival is quite unique in that although it is a community event, it provides a space for quiet reflection. The winter spiral represents 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.

To help build an atmosphere of stillness and awe on the night, please leave mobile phones in the car/ at home, and stay as quiet as possible during the lantern and spiral talk. Parents and children will have the opportunity to chat during soup time. Looking forward to seeing you all there on Thursday evening.

With many of our students and families off travelling far and wide for the long(ish) winter holidays, I’d also like to wish everyone safe travels and a wonderful three-week break with family. See you next term!

Eliza Allan

GHSS Principal

Please see below the Program and Songbook for this year's festival... 

The GHSS market is a venture to build a school community and connectedness. This is run by the Class 8 students, and held each Friday afternoon from 3 pm during the school term. See you at our next market on Friday, 25th July!

As a school, we have begun to re-establish our connection with the residents and staff at the Blue Wren Lodge, a nursing home facility within the Denmark Hospital. The doors are certainly open, and we are being met with much enthusiasm from the residents, their families, and staff.

On their recent trip, Class 6 sang songs, spoke verses and even celebrated a resident’s birthday with a birthday song in their honour. Classes 3 and 4 also visited and sang songs, and shared some activities from their morning circle. Last week, Classes 3 and 4 sang alongside Bruce and their teachers. 

Our visits have been met with much joy and certainly make the residents smile. It also brings a smile to the children to see and sense how much their visit and performances bring to the residents.  

Intergenerational relationships have benefits for both the young and elderly; it has certainly been a positive experience for the children. 

We are so fortunate to have a lovely care facility so close, and the new school bus making our visits logistically friendly.

Moving forward, we plan for all classes to visit each term, fostering this wholesome connection within our community. 

Robyn

Class plays are an important part of our curriculum. Class plays bring about a shift in our usual routine and offer the children many new opportunities. For some, it is a big step out of their comfort zone, for others, an opportunity to bring life to a character. The play is a collaborative exercise that encompasses many elements of our overarching subjects. I have copied the below article from the ’Waldorf Journals ' (2022). It sums up ‘the why’ perfectly.

Robyn

For almost every grade in most Waldorf schools, there is a class play. This is an exciting event and means a great deal to everyone: the teachers, the students, the parents, and the extended families of students. Interestingly enough, Rudolf Steiner never indicated that every year should have a class play! This is a tradition built in the ensuing decades of the last 100 years of Waldorf education. Doing plays is a happy tradition, but not a necessity in the curriculum!

The class play gives a teacher many chances to build social strength in the class. It often also reinforces aspects of the curriculum. It changes the routine in a stimulating artistic way that provides relief from the steady rhythm of the days and weeks, and months of the school year. This relief returns when the regular rhythm returns and the class feels the ordinary soothing events of life replace the dynamic and artistic tension of preparing a play and performing it.

Plays in a Waldorf school are called “pedagogical” dramas for a very good reason. They are aids to the class teacher in developing skill and capacity in students, strengthening the sense of interdependence in the whole class, and brightening the creativity of the class through drama. Some teachers elect to do a play only every other year or every three years. This is entirely at the teacher’s discretion. A certain class might need uninterrupted rhythm or concentrated work on a subject, for example, instead of a play. The teacher decides on the play and the casting. Often, an unlikely candidate for a lead part in a play or an obvious leader for a small part can surprise everyone, unlikely roles to all but the teacher! The teacher might be looking to stretch a child’s ability.

Sometimes teachers engage students in papier maché, painting, and dying for set design, or sewing and fabric arts for costumes. Music and dance are often included in plays.  Singers and instrumentalists alike are included. The range of possibilities is many in a class play. This presents a good rationale for doing a play, the combining of many artistic undertakings to make a beautiful play.

Dramatic arts are also used by teachers in several non-performing ways. Sometimes a teacher will write a short piece for an assembly, not meant for high performance, that is only seven to ten minutes long. These are often designed to bring an academic point home strongly. Sometimes a teacher will ask a class to remember a story by acting it out. A box of silk pieces and belts, and capes can enhance this experience.

The whole artistic approach for Waldorf teachers includes all the arts: music, drawing, painting, sculpting of all sorts (clay, beeswax, wood, stone), music making and singing, drama, speech formation, dance, and collages of several of these arts. The class play is one significant opportunity for a collaboration of the arts.

As with all the arts, confusion about the product and the actual goals can occur. We do get confused in Waldorf schools about the “best paintings,” and the “most beautiful sculptures,” or the most stunning main lesson books, the most beautiful singers, the most talented instrumentalists. Using all the arts carries the goal of clear thinking and deep inner experience during experience. The displayable results are mere vestiges of the child’s artistic experience that brings the meaning home to the sensibilities of the young artist. In the culture of North America, the preoccupation with “talent” and “genius,” or the personality-driven aspect of our culture, can make it very hard to stay with the essentials of why we actually do play in Waldorf classes.

Of course, one wishes for a good play with high drama or effective comedy. If a casting decision is to give an unlikely candidate a prized part, the results could be less satisfying dramatically than it might be with the “most talented” in a class. Reviews by Vanity Fair or The New Yorker standards might name the class plays a flop! But it might just be a very effective pedagogical play.

If the teacher gives the play away to a theatre professional and auditions are the way to cast the play, the artistic merit of the play by worldly standards might improve, but the pedagogical impact will certainly suffer. The participation of parents in the class play can be a complicating factor as well. Sometimes parents have strong feelings about the part their child should have, or about the play the teacher has written or chosen, or about how the production should go. This adds stress to an already creatively stressful process and is often driven by cultural expectations and not by the pedagogical ideals mentioned already. And surprising things can happen: one part a performer had was as Nana, the dog, in a rendition of Peter Pan, who had no lines and brought the house down with the comedic gestures of the canine nanny.

The ultimate satisfaction of a class in its play is the successful immersion into the characters and the story of a play. Once the play is performed, the audience’s comprehension of the story, the laughter, and the tears the performers feel for one scene or another from the audience are like icing on a well-baked cake. Children do learn to depend on each other in a new way from the ordinary, and students do change after deeply entering into a character unlike their own. Students find new voices in themselves, new motivations, new friends, and a new appreciation for each other through interaction on stage. Sacrifice is needed for a good play: the sacrifice of one’s personality for another, the sacrifice of preference for the good of the play, the sacrifice of friends to interact with unlikely companions for the play, the sacrifice of many preferences for the sake of a good play. And the sacrifice of repeated rehearsal might be the biggest sacrifice of all!

In the end, a class play is a lot of fun and excitement, the rewards of many weeks of hard work. Unlike other arts, it is such a social art and is shared socially with the whole community. Live theatre is always thrilling because, unlike a film, no one knows what is going to happen on stage nor how the actors will react. Many times, the class teachers instruct, “Whatever happens, remember who your character is and respond in that character, no matter what!” It brings lessons for life with these facts. It isn’t so much what happens — things will always happen — it’s how we respond that makes the story so compelling! So, practice for the play begets practice for life, a gift well beyond a performance or two!

Classes 4, 5 & 6 brought the Civic Centre house down at this year’s Festival of Voice!

Singers, pianists, guitarists, percussionists and recorderists all featured throughout the diverse repertoire, and all were met with grand applause and admiration from the audience.

A massive shout-out to GHSS teachers Ashley, Ric & Lisa for helping to pull all of this together, all whilst using their own various musical talents to launch us up!

Also, a very special mention to Samuel from Class 6 for leading us by introducing each song. A daunting task for anyone, and he did so with great composure, humour, and charisma.

Next year, we plan to have a set list together and begin rehearsals from Term 1! Watch this space for exciting musical times ahead at Golden Hill…

Blake, on behalf of the GHSS Music Committee

• Design- imbuing a sense of quality for colours (becoming familiar with tonal shades, complementary and contrasting colours)
• Fine motor skill development
• Problem solving- counting/observing/patterning
• Instilling patience, persistence and fostering delayed gratification
• Instilling capacity for creative processes
• Rhythmic consistency and repetition

As Makuru settles in with its cold mornings, we find ourselves nearing the conclusion of an enriching semester. Reflecting on our journey thus far, I am deeply proud of the remarkable growth Class One displays each day.

In recent weeks, Class One has journeyed further into the realm of numbers, encountering delightful characters who speak the curious and beautiful language of mathematics. Each new discovery brings fresh words and concepts, teaching the children not only to count and group but to embrace the magic inherent in numbers. Skip counting has become a natural part of our days, and we've delved deeply into the mysteries of even and odd numbers.

We recently enjoyed a delightful visit from the Monkey Baa Theatre Company, where the children immersed themselves in various acting skills and captivating stories. Following this enriching experience, we embarked on our first excursion to the Albany Entertainment Centre to watch the enchanting production of "Josephine Wants to Dance." The performance left us filled with awe and excitement, creating lasting memories of creativity and inspiration.

We've also been busy crafting our winter lanterns, with songs of the season quietly weaving through our days. The children carry these melodies with warmth and familiarity, often guiding us in how to embrace what the season asks of us—what to notice, what to honour, and how to prepare.

This seasonal festival marks more than a celebration; it is a moment of quiet reflection, a time to feel the rhythm of the year and our place within it. The children of Class One are developing a deep connection to the land and its seasons, becoming more attuned to the gentle wisdom it offers. Currently, we are immersed in our first Local Surrounds Main Lesson, where the children explore winter, or Makuru, through their senses. Our local environment has become a source of deep inquiry and inspiration.

Under the gentle guidance of Kat Spargo, we've embraced yoga as a regular practice. Through stories where they embody creatures such as those of the sea, the children find joy in being present within their bodies. We are grateful to Kat for creating a space where mindfulness and movement harmoniously blend, enriching our Monday afternoons.

As the winter winds gently embrace us, may each of you find warmth and peace in the quiet moments of these holidays. Let the soft whispers of nature's slumber guide us towards rejuvenation and reflection. Wishing you all a restful and joy-filled winter break, surrounded by the love and serenity of family and friends.

Bree

During Semester 1, Class 2 have been enjoying a main lesson of Animal Tales on a Thursday morning. Over the course of the semester, the children have enjoyed Indigenous stories from Australia and around the world, Fables from Aesop and a taste of some animal characters from children’s literature. Through the various tales, the children are able to explore various qualities of human behaviour, some noble and virtuous, others foolish and unkind, as expressed through the animals' characters.

As well as a focus on developing their writing skills, each story is illustrated by the children in their main lesson books.

Here is a selection of their beautiful artwork.

Bruce

Forming part of our Mapping and Geography Main Lesson, the Class 4 children had a very interactive and immersive experience led by GHSS Bush School expert, Kristi.

Beginning at the ‘hall-end’ of the river, Kristi taught the children varying ways to map the GHSS river using compasses and stick-markers. Along the way, Kristi also spoke to the children about river suitability and environmental conservation. In the true Steiner spirit, the children used their ‘willing’ bodies to trek through parts of the river, and also teamwork to help cross over one part of the river that became too deep to continue through! It was both encouraging and entertaining to watch the children use their collective problem-solving skills to find their way across, thus also creating a unique class-bonding experience.

Back at the end of the river, Kristi put her Bush School expertise to good use and had the children cook up fresh vegetables and popcorn for lunch! We also began creating a ‘whole-class’ giant map of GHSS, including the river, which we walked and mapped. This is currently being continued back in the classroom!

All-in-all, it’s been very pleasing to see the Class 4 children engaged in all the hands-on experiences that come with Mapping & Geography.

Blake

The day began with Heather, Russell, Abby, and Kim Carter walking the children to their cattle farm. Here, the children were given the opportunity to individually feed the cows, watch Abby unroll hay on the tractor, and ask Russell many questions about how the cows are used and cared for on the farm. We then all had an opportunity to chase Dusty (family dog) around on the hay bales, and finally walk through the ‘cattle sorter’ and pretend to have our ears tagged like cattle!

Finally, after a well-deserved ice-cream at Denmark Diary, we all wrote thank you cards to the Carters; a process which has become routine after all excursions and incursions - to show our gratitude and respect to those who have given-up their time for us. 

This concludes our Farm Animals excursions! Thank you to all the parent helpers who assisted in making these memorable experiences a reality for the children.

I hope these experiences have imbued in the children both a ‘love of learning’ and a ‘love of animals’, as well as initiated many topics of discussion around the dinner table!

Blake

Steiner Voices XYZ is a podcast series produced by Steiner Education Australia. It showcases some of the varied voices of Steiner school communities and their people around the country, of teachers, parents and students.

The Steiner Voices XYZ podcast series is released every second Tuesday. As each episode is released, and you’ll meet some of the many people who make our Australian Steiner schools such vibrant learning communities. The podcast can be found at Steiner Voices XYZ | Podcast on Spotify

Tomorrow's episode features our very own GHSS principal, Eliza!

Many of our school community would know that the Parents & Friends (P&F) group here at Golden Hill are focusing our fundraising efforts this year on raising funds for our new school library. We’re excited to be part of creating this legacy of literature for our children and future students of the school. Our fundraising efforts include our Friday coffee cart, the bush dance, our upcoming quiz night in August, along with our efforts at festivals throughout the year. 

This current fundraising goal piqued the interest of one of our Steiner kinder parents, David Cuthbertson. David is a local artist and has just opened his first solo exhibition at the Denmark Chamber of Commerce art space, found at the Denmark Visitor Centre.

David has decided to generously donate a proportion of his sold works to be put towards the school library fund. In his own words, “I grew up on a healthy diet of literature and would love for all the kids at school to be able to do the same, plus I love the idea of art perpetuating itself and paintings turning themselves into books. It has a certain poetry about it!” David is instilling a love of literature in his own children and is equally passionate about the importance of access to books for all children in the community, as literature has played such an integral part in his own life. 

Remarkably, David has only been an artist for just over 2 years and has created such a captivating collection of pieces that include interesting landscapes (many of our beloved Denmark stomping grounds), and quirky portraitures, the current direction for David’s work. David’s portfolio will be on display throughout June at the Visitor Centre. The Golden Hill P&F committee thank David for his significant contribution towards reaching their library fundraising goal and encourages you to spread the word in your local communities about this good news story.

Words by Katherine Spargo

Words by Kiah

A Draft Kooryunderup/Mount Hallowell Management Plan has recently been prepared by an independent consultant.  The purpose of updating this document is to decide how we as a community expect to use, enjoy, share and look after our much-loved local Reserve into the future.

The Shire is now conducting a last round of public consultation and seeking further feedback from the community before the Management Plan is finalised.  This final public consultation period will run from Wednesday 18 June to Friday 18 July.  

The community feedback received so far has been valued; however, there has been minimal input from people under 30 years of age (less than 2.5% of respondents to the earlier community survey).

To ensure the Management Plan is representative of what the community wants and expects, the Shire is strongly encouraging this younger age group to provide their views.

We are seeking input from parents/guardians and students by asking them to complete a short survey from the link below: 

www.yourdenmark.wa.gov.au/kooyunderup-mount-hallowell-draft-management-plan-review