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A Verse for Our Time
We must eradicate from the soul
All fear and terror of what comes towards man out of the future.
We must acquire serenity
In all feelings and sensations about the future.
We must look forward with absolute equanimity
To everything that may come.
And we must think only that whatever comes
Is given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom.
It is part of what we must learn in this age,
namely, to live out of pure trust,
Without any security in existence.
Trust in the ever present help
Of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do
If our courage is not to fail us.
And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves
Every morning and every evening.
-Rudolf Steiner
Dear Parents and Carers,
Many thanks to those families who are in a position to assist the school, by choosing to keep children at home in the lead up to the school holidays, during this uncertain time of COVID-19. It is significantly assisting staff with managing social distancing in the classroom, ensuring classes are best managing good hygiene, and providing staff with the much needed space required to prepare lessons for both the classroom and for those of you taking on distance learning at this time. The staff offer their gratitude to you all.
Can I reiterate that if your child is sick in any way at this time, please keep them at home.
We appreciate that distance learning can be challenging, especially if this is not something you have done before and certainly a juggle where there are 2 or more at home. You can’t replicate a school situation and we recommend that you do not try. Staff are preparing up to two hours of “formal” learning activities and then a myriad of suggestions on home based activities that can be completed according to the interests and time and resource availability of families. Rhythm and routine are important at this time for everyone. In a time of uncertainty, knowing what is expected at the start of each day is grounding and reassuring.
Staff are preparing tasks as best they can but may need a day or two to get everything together before it will be ready for collection. Please keep in contact with your respective class teachers via email. We can also post packs if people are not able to come into the school to collect. Should there be extensive school closures, email will be the most reliable method of exchanging information. As a staff, we are also exploring the range of ways we will be staying in touch should this period extend beyond the holidays.
Attached are 2 links that parents may find useful. The first is information for parents and carers in relation to setting up a distance learning environment. This resource comes from the NSW Department of Education but we believe it is still applicable to a Steiner distance learning setting.
The second link is from a US Steiner school in relation to how to speak with children about COVID-19. I hope this is helpful.
https://phillywaldorf.com/talking-to-children-about-covid-19/
Sending blessings to all our families at this time.
Warmest regards,
Jacqui Hamblin
Principal
While the school fulfils its obligations to meet the directives of the Health and Education departments in relation to actions the school must take in relation to COVID-19, it is also important to remember to maintain perspective and calm during this unprecedented time.
Here is a link to a great article about managing fear during the Corona Virus outbreak that was shared with us from Steiner Education Australia.
https://elemental.medium.com/how-to-manage-your-fear-during-the-coronavirus-9a7cdca13122
The front office build is progressing nicely, here are some pictures as of today 23rd March!
Summer goodbye, summer goodbye
You may no longer stay,
Autumn is on it’s way
Summer goodbye, summer goodbye
Roses sweet petals shed
Apples are turning red…..
At the Equinox (on Friday 20th March), day and night are of approximately equal length, and it’s the time that often heralds the change of seasons (rather than the beginning of the calendar month), with cooler weather and rain, Djeran/Autumn is here!
The leaves on some of the deciduous trees are turning gold, the swamp bottlebrush is blooming and the first fungi are popping up out of the ground. For the Karri Kindergarten children the rain heralds excitement as our water course begins to flow, rubber boots are pulled on and they love to wade in the “river” or go “fishing” from the bridge.
This is traditionally a time of harvest, thanksgiving, and preparation for the cold weather, as well as a time for looking at balance within our own lives. It is a time of the year when we are naturally drawn more to indoor, quiet activities and longer periods of rest. It is a time when we must gather our courage and strength to overcome the challenges of longer hours of darkness, cold and storms, and the inevitable winter illnesses that occur every year.
This year we will need to be more courageous than ever as we face a health crisis that is already creating much disruption, panic and fear. For the time being though, our Karri Kindergarten rhythm continues, with greater awareness of personal hygiene, something that is always an essential part of our daily rhythm anyway.
In our kindergarten, as in all Steiner kindergartens worldwide, a strong rhythm is a fundamental aspect. Having a predictable daily and weekly rhythm of activities helps children to feel safe and supported as they know what will happen next, which enables them to relax into the presence of what they are doing. Then there are seasonal rhythms, celebrated through preparing festivals, gathering and displaying treasures from nature. This week we planted some wheat grains in a dish to create an “Easter garden”, planting the seeds for what is to come…
Warm wishes to everyone,
Denise
What a wonderful adventure we had discovering all the consonants in the land of the Wise Enchanter.
At the end the five most magical letters were found – the vowels.
These are the letters that allow words to be made and almost all words have at least one vowel - even our names!
Next we are finding out about the mystery of numbers and what types of things they get up to.
Our story follows the characters Peter and Lucy who we met when we first started Class One.
Peter and Lucy had to learn a lot to be ready for Class One and have helped us learn how to learn.
Our beautiful brightly coloured skeins of wool have been wound into manageable sized balls by walking round and round chairs on which the wool is resting – see the photos!
Weaving our recorder bags is a favourite time of the day for many of us.
There are lots of patterns that we need to check for, such as the pattern of the wool colours we have chosen, and the patterns of the wool through the threads on the loom.
We showed our Hearts of Kindness at assembly one week.
Our classroom kindness elf has a heart of kindness. Here is the song from our kindness elf.
Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the blossoms, kind deeds are the fruits.
So tend your kind gardens and pull out the weeds,
leave room for kind thoughts and kind words and kind deeds.
Class 3 and 4 have just finished a wonderful main lesson on Local Surround, which forms part of the Geography learning area. Each child completed a family tree and we mapped where our parents and grandparents were born including ourselves. This proved quite interesting as only one child was born in Denmark, Ilya. Interestingly all our grandparents and parents were born out of the Great Southern region, only moving into the area in the past 20 years. We learnt about the many states and capital cities within Australia, which tied in beautifully with our Possum Magic writing exercise as Hush and Grandma Poss ventured around Australia to make Hush Visible again.
We then looked at our classroom from a birds eye view. Looking at the shape, where the furniture was positioned and where we all sat, this was mapped with much precision. We followed this by venturing out into our school and mapping the buildings and play areas as close to portion as we could. Finally we made our way into town with our measurement wheel to find out how far it was from school. A little game of ‘guesstimation’ proceeded our journey and a few wobbly wheel walkers ensured a few extra metres as we calculated the final tally in metres. Each child received a map from the tourist bureau and we began to map where we all lived and our proximity to each other and town central.
It has been very interesting and lots of fun.
In craft both class 3 and 4 have been working on separate projects. Class 3 have completed their felt pencil cases and are currently working on their knitted gnomes.
A little quote to reflect on during the next few months...
“At many times throughout their lives,
children will feel the world has turned topsy-turvy.
It’s not the ever-present smile that will help them feel secure,
It’s knowing that love can hold many feelings, including sadness,
and that they count on the people they love to be with them until the world turns right side up again".
Fred Rogers
Many thanks,
Robyn
Message from Lou...
I have decided to postpone my speaking tour in Perth until we can hold gatherings with the same ease as before. I really desired to move ahead next week, but it is a very uncertain and changeable time, and within schools.
It will be lovely to come when we can all breathe in and out with ease.
Please note these events are not cancelled, just postponed until we know a new date in term 3 or 4, or earlier (depending on changing circumstances).
All events will remain the same, just a new month.
I will be in contact again, once we can make a new date with certainty.
Sending many blessings to all schools, families and teachers and teacher-trainees.
See you in 2020!
Lou Harvey-Zahra