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Finally the rain has arrived to herald in winter and provide relief to our dry landscape – and those volunteer firefighters who have been kept busy of late! In two weeks’ time we will be holding our Winter Festivals.The Early Childhood Winter Festival will take place on Thursday June 20 from 5pm and the Winter Festival for the whole school will take place on Friday June 21st. This year, our Festival will be held on the Winter Solstice. At noon on this day, the sun will reach the lowest zenith it reaches all year, the shadows will be the longest noon shadows, the sun will set at its earliest time and it will be the longest night. We will gather to celebrate the miracle of light and to remember how much our lives depend on the light.
The spiral is a universal form written into the script of nature: from the shell of the humble snail in the garden or the sea shell by the beach, all the way to the vast trail left by mighty galaxies moving through immeasurable space, the spiral is an image of a path to the centre. We walk the spiral as an image of this path we are all treading. The spiral is a circle seeking its centre and each of us is on a journey to our own centre. When we find the inner light at our centre, our essence, we also find our future, and the spiral brings us out again to meet the world where we follow our destiny path and join our lives to those with whom we are united. So our Winter Festival will be an evening of reverence and reflection when we gather to mark not just the movement of our planet around the sun, but also the pattern that underlies our lives.
This year we have made some changes to the running of our Golden Hill Steiner School Festival, so I invite you to read through the Festival article further in the newsletter to familiarise yourself with the new format.
Before the Festival
Whole School Tasks
- Our spiral will be outdoors this year and form part of the evening proceedings so could all families please make an effort to supply greenery for the spiral. It can be delivered to the oval from Wednesday. Please place it either near the fire pit, at the base of the limestone wall, oval side, where the bus drop off is.
- Class 3 - 6 Carers to arrange parents to make 2 to 3 soups for the classes (depending on class size) and plus 3 soups for the hall to feed parents/siblings/guests. Please include a list of ingredients with the soups prepared.
- Class 1 -2 Carers to send cup and spoon for children to have their soup in the classroom.
Class Tasks
Class 1/2: Class 1 -2 Carers tp arrange for parents to provide 3 soups for the class and 10 soups for parents/siblings/guests in hall.
Class 3: Set up and dismantle the spiral on oval (parents to liaise with Robyn re: design)
Class 4: Set up and dismantle candles and solar lights for lantern walk
Class 5/6: Set up and provide wood for bonfire
Friday 21st June
Class 4: Set up and dismantle candles and solar lights for lantern walk
Class1 / 2: set up washing stations in hall and clean up hall kitchen after
Evening of the Festival
- Please leave dogs at home.
- We welcome returning students to our Festivals but please ensure they are in the company of a responsible adult who can ensure they maintain the reverence of the evening.
Don’t leave home without:
- Dressing warmly. This is a still festival so the night can feel very cold. Children are walking close to burning candles so we ask that they are dressed in warm, well-fitted clothes. Flowing skirts or dresses are not suitable. Please ensure that children with long hair have it tied securely back.
- Your lanterns and lighter/matches to light them.
- A sense of inner excitement, anticipation and reverence.
5:00pm: Parents drop children off at their classrooms for soup and a story with their teacher. Parents and younger and older siblings gather at the hall for soup and a story.
5:45pm: Parents and classes assemble in the grassed area in the middle of the classes with lanterns lit. The Lantern Walk procession will only commence once the whole congregation is silent.
Lantern Walk
Parents are to join their youngest child to walk the lantern walk. Class 6 student will be interspersed throughout, playing recorder. Class 5 and Eliza will lead off the procession followed by classes 1 to 4. Parent to walk with children. Class 6 recorder players will be playing “I go with my little lantern.” As you enter the forest, a you are invited to join in singing the words.
- 6pm: Arrive at bonfire. On arrival at unlit bonfire, children will form an inner circle with their class and class teacher. Parents move to form outer circle behind children.
Class 6 students will recite a poem and light the bonfire.
We invite everyone to join in singing our Bonfire songs. Children can teach these to you in the lead up to Winter Festival if you do not already know them.
Bonfire singalong songs:
- Fairies of the Candle Flame
- Rise up, oh Flame
- Banksia Bright
- High and Blue the Sky
- Gift of the Light
- Mid winter song
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Nyoongar version)
- 6.45pm: At the conclusion of our bonfire singing we ask that all children walk the spiral with their families. Given the length and temperature of our Winter Festival, you may choose to look into child care for younger siblings. If you take younger children into the spiral, please hold their hand or carry them to maintain safety. As you walk the spiral with your lanterns we ask everyone to join in singing “Deep and Dark”. Walking the spiral is a sacred and reverent time. As you leave the spiral we invite you to make your way home, taking the reverent mood of the spiral with you.
We have made some minor adjustments to our usual schedule of newsletters and assemblies. This is to accommodate the Class Three Play, which is to be performed on Friday morning of week 9.
So... there will be an assembly next week, week 7, as usual. Our Winter Festival in Week 8 but no Golden Quill. We will publish the Golden Quill the following week, week 9 so we can include photos from both the Early Childhood and the Primary School Winter Festivals. There will be no assembly Week 9 - instead the Class Three will perform their play in the School hall that morning. All are welcome to attend.
And to round off the term there will be an assembly in week 10 on the last Friday of the school term.
We will soon be invoicing Family Participation Scheme hours for Term 1.
Can you please make sure your family hours have been recorded and up to date.