My will is filled with fire and might;

As days grow shorter, it burns bright!

I face the world; I have no fear.

And many things become more clear.

For though there's much that I don't understand as yet,

I seek for light.

Dear GHSS Families,

Welcome to Term 2 and a return to classrooms, mask free!

Knowing Nullaki Festival Our term began with an amazing opportunity to engage with Artist in Residence, Angela Rossen, who spent a week exploring the flora and fauna diversity of the Nullaki with the children.  It began with an excursion to the inlet and then for the rest of the week the children worked in small groups to paint a range of animal species from the local area onto a mural that will contribute towards the centrepiece of the Knowing Nullaki Exhibition at the Butter Factory.  Wednesday saw us welcome Noongar elder, Vernice Gillies and Noongar educator, Larry Blight, to the school to present a cultural perspective of the biodiversity of the Nullaki.

There are a number of free community events for families to participate in over the next few weeks.  Check out the program at the end of the newsletter and mark your calendars.  Be sure to include a visit to the exhibition!  At the conclusion of the festival the mural will take pride of place in our hall for families to admire for years to come.

Many thanks to Angela Rossen and Louise Duxbury for bringing together this amazing community event! 

Assembly We can finally return to holding assemblies and invite families to join us on Friday morning in the hall.  Classes are excited to share what they have been learning in their main lessons!

Free RAT Distribution The coordination of the delivery of over 10 million RAT's directly to schools is currently under way.  We will have 20 tests per student available for distribution once we receive our delivery.  We shall keep families informed of when we expect to take delivery and the distribution method once we have the information to hand.

Many thanks to those of you who are keeping us informed of when their children are testing positive.  Children who are negative but are a household contact of a positive member are still able to attend school provided they return a negative RAT test each morning and are asymptomatic.  A positive RAT and/or a symptomatic child must remain home.  We really appreciate the support we have had from all our families as we have had some cases trickle through our school community.  

Hats for Terms 2 & 3 Staff recently discussed the need to review our policy on hat wearing in terms 2 & 3.  It was decided that our policy for Terms 2 and 3 will be that children are to wear headgear when outdoors - either a hat, to guard against the sun on good weather days, or a beanie when winter truly sets in.  Children who are not a fan of wearing beanies can continue with hats on winter days in Terms 2 & 3.  We ask that parents please support the school in this change by supplying children with hats to wear at school for Terms 2 & 3, as you do in Terms 1 & 4.  Many thanks. 

Board AGM All parents are welcome to attend our Board AGM on Monday May 16, in the staffroom, starting at 3.15pm.  A light afternoon tea will follow the end of the meeting.  Any parents interested in joining the board are encouraged to collect an information pack and nomination form from the front office.  You are also encouraged and welcome to speak with the current Board Chair, David Stockdale or Principal, Jacqui Hollingworth if you would like further information. 

NAPLAN begins tomorrow for children in classes 3 & 5.  

Stay safe and well! 

Kind regards,

Jacqui Hollingworth

Principal

Ollie Robertson wearing the Yongka (Kangaroo) cape

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

What is Caring? Caring is giving love and attention to people and things that matter to you.  When you care about people, you help them.  When you do a careful job, you give it your very best effort.  You treat people and things gently and respectfully.

Why Practice it? Without caring, nothing and no one matters.  If someone is hurt or sick, no one will help them.  When people have an "I don't care" attitude, they do a sloppy or incomplete job.  Things break and people are hurt.  Caring people help others feel less alone.  Because they care, others trust them.  Caring makes the world a better and safer place.

How do you practice it? You care for others when you show love and concern by doing kind things for them.  Ask them how they are and what they think.  When they are sad, ask "How can I help?"  You handle things with control and gentleness.  You give your best to everything you do.  When you take care of yourself, you treat your body with respect.  You keep yourself clean and healthy.  You take care of your needs.

Signs of Success Congratulations!  Your are practicing Caring when you...

• Treat others, yourself and the earth with care.
• Look at people and listen closely.
• Handle things carefully.
• Are gentle and loving with anyone or anything placed in your care.
• Treat your body with respect.
• Work with enthusiasm and excellence.

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."  Unknown

The custodianship and wisdom of Noongar Elder Eugene Eades has been a guiding light and inspiration for our unique Bush Kindy/Bush School program at Golden Hill, and many families have enjoyed their experience at our annual Nowanup Bush Camp in recent years.

Please enjoy this interview with Eugene recorded earlier this year, from the RegenNarration podcast, in which he shares some of his background story and expounds upon the philosophy of ‘Healing People, Healing Country’ that has guided his work at Nowanup.

https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/117-healing-people-healing-country

Djeran season is here now,

With Boola boola clouds, and rains 

Hey you fullas let`s make our Kwornts,

Make them safe and sound 

Moorditj moortung families busy at this time  

For our kaarl we get all the wood, for cooking, warmth and healing.

 Aunty Iris Woods

The beginning of Term 2 is always a special time of the year in our Bush programmes.  We are able to safely have our first kaarl (fire), and we make it a ceremonial event to acknowledge the centrality of the campfire in providing beauty, warmth, healing, good food and good conversation as the days become shorter and the nights grow longer and colder.  This will culminate later in the term in the season of Mooker, or Mukaroo, when we celebrate the Winter Solstice with a blazing bonfire at our Winter Festival.

The children have been gathering and sorting kaarl-boorn (firewood), digging channels to divert rainwater from our camp, and crushing balga (grass tree) resin in preparation for tool-making.  We have so far enjoyed popcorn and stewed apples cooked on the fire, with many more delicious foods to come. We have been hearing stories and yarning to learn about the nature of fire spirit and fire safety protocols.  While the weather has remained fine and the creek shallow, the Bush School children have also been keen to keep fishing for djilgies. 

A gentle reminder to parents: please make sure that on Bush Kindy/Bush School day your child is dressed suitably for the changeable weather and wet and muddy conditions.  Each child needs to have a rain jacket, a warm top, gum boots and, most importantly, a complete change of clothes.

“Rain is falling down 

Rain is falling down 

Pitter, patter, pitter patter, 

Rain is falling down” 

We had our first rainy outside play time in a while last week, and the children were delighted that the heavy downpour created a good flow of water down the waterway.  At the end of last year our much loved “trolls bridge” collapsed and had to be dismantled.  The wood was piled up in a roped off area, but  the children were curious about it, so we worked on removing the nails, and left it piled up. 

On that rainy morning some of the children began using the wood to build a new “bridge” across the waterway, with great excitement.  So that pile of old wood, that had been languishing all term became a resource for creative play.  This was a reminder to me that the objects and spaces that look most attractive to adults are not always those that inspire creative play (I had been wanting that old pile of wood removed from the Kindergarten altogether!).  Many skills were being practiced that day; problem-solving, co-operation, simple engineering.... 

As is always the case, children’s play is changeable and the “bridge” has since been dismantled and moved by the children to another part of the garden.  I watch with interest to see what it might become next! 

Another object that had made it’s way into our garden but didn’t really seem to have a purpose (yet) is a pallet.  It was moved from place to place a few times during last term but wasn’t really used until, with the addition of a second-hand play tent, it became a “house- boat”.  

Of course, we do want to re-build our bridge, and as we would like it to be curved like the original structure, we are searching for some suitable wood.  So if anyone in our school community has access to some pieces that might work, please do let us know. 

Warm wishes,  

Denise 

It has been so nice to come together again after the Easter break.  So much has changed – new haircuts, lost teeth, wobbly teeth, some are inching taller and taller (with every meal it seems) and yet despite these physical changes a deep sense of belonging has settled in our space.  We have commenced Term 2 with counting and grouping: apples, stars in the sky, flowers, caterpillars and bales of hay.  Discovering and exploring possibilities and patterns.  We start each week guessing how many marbles are in the jar.  Some of our classmates have a precise eye, while others like to increase their chances with “more than” or “less than”.

Maths bookwork and comfy cushions

Our braided skipping ropes and Mothers Day gifts

We have lovingly weaved a gift for our mums and finished our cushions.  We have started to skip with our individual skipping ropes and have started to play the recorder with “Charlie over the Ocean”.  This term we intend to deepen our story work beginning with the fairytale of “Iron John”, culminating in puppetry and shadow play.

In Class 3 we are enjoying Part 2 of our Ancient Hebrew Stories Main Lesson.  It is very interesting to hear of ways of life from so long ago and the highs and lows, trials and adventures of the characters.  Singing, Israeli folk dancing and music with recorder and percussion instruments is proving lots of fun.  We looked at our first series of Hebrew work from the beginning of Term 1 and it was heartening to see how much our cursive writing is improving.

Our crochet cushions are coming along beautifully with the help of Jewels and Evie.  Overcoming challenges and persevering to create something beautiful and practical is definitely a worthwhile way to spend handcraft afternoons.  We also had fun with our crafty Mother’s Day gifts combining crochet, felt craft and sewing skills to make useful storage jars.  We filled the jars with lavender, flowering rosemary, dried lime slices and Mexican marigold, which made a fragrant potpourri to freshen a room or cupboard.  We made a super long class list of all the ways we are grateful for the mothers in our lives.

Last term we learned a lot about the history of time and it is great now to be in our classroom and be able to refer to our class clock to keep a track of the time.  It is also handy to be able to see our sounds and spelling charts on the wall for journal writing.  So even though it was an adventure and learning experience to have outdoor learning under the gazebo, overall we are very grateful to be in our classroom with the heater for chilly mornings! 

Class Five have been very fortunate that their Main Lesson topic, Botany, coincided with the Knowing Nullaki programme.  The students have been studying the fabulous interconnection between the root systems of living plants and the network of fungi and microcosmic creatures in the soil.  Through the Nulluki Project, we were expertly guided by local biodiversity artist and advocate, Angela Rossen.  Angela led us through a process of sample gathering; scientific observation, identification and recording of our local wetland’s flora and fauna.  The intense concentration and gasps of wonder that have come from the children, as they have explored these macro and microcosmic worlds, have been a joy to witness.   

We then had a marvellous session with local Noongar Elders and custodians, who brought to the children some of the Mineng language and perspectives, through which to explore the rich natural resources that abound in our region.  The children have enjoyed many interactive, multisensory experiences; viewing, tasting, smelling and touching the natural gifts of mother Boodjar, and then depicting the minute details, and complex interconnecting relationships, through writing and drawing. 

In Steiner schools Geometry is introduced as Free Hand Geometry in Class 5.  Class 5 is a special transitional year symbolic of the peek of childhood.  The students study great civilizations of the past, including the ‘Golden Age’ of Greece.  They are at the peak of their development in their child bodies and have gained as much mastery of their physical bodies as they are going to before heading into puberty.  Class 5 also marks the transition from drawing to Geometry.  Freehand shapes are formed as their transition from form drawing to Geometric drawing and the use of Geometric terminology.

In Class 6 with the arrival of adolescence comes a year of rebirth.  We tend to go back to the beginning of curved and straight lines, which was the first main lesson of Form Drawing in Class 1.  This time, however, the children learn to construct lines and arcs with geometric drawing tools.

Learning to use tools to construct and measure is a physical task and it challenges the students as they begin to develop new physical bodies.  Finding the centre of a page, using a compass to make the perfect circumference and then the many arcs that make a beautiful flower but give us points to construct a hexagon.  From the hexagon we can extend outward to construct a Stellar creation.

Last week we have begun to move on from our compass and the useful circumference points it gives us, to using our protractor to enable us to mark points using the degrees that make up a circle.  Set squares came into play to give us perfect lines and angles as our knowledge broadens.

The children and I have really enjoyed the Geometry main lesson and we will complete a second block later in the year.  In Art we have been looking at shading from dark to light to create shadow and their new skills in this area can be seen in their beautiful creations.

Robyn x

Class 1 with their mini water carriers.  They all held water!

Class 2 hard at work on their Fairy Houses in Term 1!

Class 5 celebrate finishing their play props with their very realistic clapper board.  Can't show you more due to spoiler alerts!

Covid really caused a lot of problems for Class 6 but almost all who started their drums in Class 5 finished them and some of them were on hand for a photo!  Mother's Day presents were almost all finished in time but obviously not photographed before the big day!

The 26th Elleker Running Festival is hosted by the Albany Athletics Club and will be held on Sunday 5th June starting and ending at the Elleker hall. 

Registrations are now open: https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=46733

There will be five events: 

* 1km Kids Dash (ages 6-9 years)

* 2km Kids Dash (ages 10-16 years)

* 10km Walk (ages 13 years and over)

* 10km Run (ages 13 years and over)

* 21.1km Half Marathon (ages 17 years and over)

All profits from the 1km and 2km Kids Dash will be donated to Albany Little Athletics. 

Please know that as a school we are always open to feedback should you wish to provide it.  We are constantly striving to refine our processes and make improvements where necessary.

Feel free to contact us via phone (9848 1811), email - office@goldenhill.wa.edu.au or principal@goldenhill.wa.edu.au) or come in and make an appointment to speak with someone.

Positive feedback especially welcome!