In shining majesty the mighty sun,

A king upon his chariot of gold,

Climbs higher till the heights of heaven are won

In glory streaming, blessed to behold.

And watching him, I feel a strange sense grow

That speaks of things that now I cannot see;

For only later will I truly know

How at his hour, God's Spirit of the Sun is touching me.

Dear GHSS Families,

Farewells Here we are at the end of the school year!  As we round out the end of year and all take a well-deserved break ahead of the new year, there will be some familiar faces missing from our 2023 line-up.

Kate Woodward will be travelling off on adventures with her husband next year.  We thank her for all her work as our Learning Support teacher and look forward to her updates!

Mel Trenow will be taking on a leadership role at another local school and we are all sad to see her leave but wish her all the best on her new adventure.

Lydia Kenyon and family are looking to head off on an adventure to Queensland next year!  We wish them all the best. 

After involvement with the school in many roles, most notably as the first person you meet in the front office for the past 10 years, Tegan Brown will not be returning to GHSS next year and we wish her well in her new endeavours.

And finally, Denise Bullen after an association with the Golden Hill spanning more than  2 decades - as a parent; College of Teachers Chair; staff representative on Board; and teacher - many of those years in Karri Kindergarten; - will be leaving at the end of this year.  It is with much sadness that we bid her farewell.  Her historical knowledge of, and dedicated committment to, Golden Hill and Steiner education generally, will be a loss to all. 

Reports It is that time of year again.  Reports will be available for collection by a parent at the front office on Wednesday, December 14th for Karri Kindergarten students and Thursday December 15th for all other students. 

Reports that are not collected will be posted.  Please ensure that the office has your most up-to-date mailing details to avoid having your reports go astray!  Each year we have a number returned to sender due to the office not being notified of address changes. 

Birak Festival This Friday from 1.30pm you are all invited to attend our end of year celebration.  Bring a picnic rug or folding chairs and join us under the shade of the trees in front of Classes 1 & 2 to sing the joys of the season at our concert. 

Stepping Stones Wednesday, next week, at 9.45am we will gather for a 10am start  of the Stepping Stones Ceremony in Karri Kindergarten.  Denise will farewell the K6 children from the Kindergarten and they will meet their teacher for 2023, Sarah Moriarty, who will take them on their journey into the primary school years. 

Graduation Class 6 will be graduating on the last day of school, Thursday, December 15th, at 9am.  Parents and friends of Classes 5 & 6 are invited to join us in celebrating the Class 6 students as they prepare to transition to High School.  The ceremony will conclude with a morning tea.

Edstart A reminder to families, that from next year, there will be two fee payment options available to parents - all fees paid up-front, directly to the school by January 31st to attract a 10% discount or via periodical payments through Edstart.  Please ensure you take the time to set up your Edstart account if paying periodically.  The 3% service fee is covered by the school.

Edstart also offers a range of options for helping manage fee payments, which is especially useful for families with multiple enrolments.  The staff are very friendly and obliging and ready to assist.  See the article further in the newsletter for links and other details.

2023 School Start Date & July break School returns next year on Wednesday, February 1st and our 3rd week of holidays in July will return to the week after the standard school holidays, so we will be on holidays from Saturday July 1st to Sunday July 23rd.

From all of us at Golden Hill Steiner School, we wish you and yours all the very best for Summer holidays.  Stay safe, and we look forward to welcoming many of you back in 2023!

Jacqui Hollingworth

Principal

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

What is Reliability? Reliability means that others can depend on you to keep your commitments.  Reliability is doing something that you have agreed to do in a predictable way, without forgetting or having to be reminded.  When you practice reliability, you really care about doing what you said you would do.  Other people can relax knowing it is in your reliable hands.

Why Practice it? When people are unreliable, others can't trust them to keep their promises.  If airplanes, trains or buses are late, passengers can miss important appointments.  If someone keeps forgetting to do what they said they would do, they let people down.  When you are reliable, people can trust you to show up on time, be where you promised to be, to put tools away, to get the job done.

How do you practice it? You practice reliability by making agreements you can keep.  Then do everything in your power to do what you agreed to do.  Give your best effort to every job, and take your responsibilities seriously.  Plan ahead and leave enough time to finish what you start.  If problems arise, find another way.  Return what you borrow.  Most of all keep your word.

Signs of Success Congratulations!  You are practicing Reliability when you...

• Make promises you can keep.
• Treat your agreements seriously.
• Plan ahead.
• Do your best.
• Finish on time.
• Find another way if obstacles occur.

"Choices and follow through, that is all that separates the 'champions' from the 'also rans'."  Jim Paluch

Class 1 and 2:

Class 1 and 2 have been enjoying a range of games focusing on cooperation and developing movement skills.  This has included a range of diverse tagging and teamwork games to enhance students’ abilities in changing direction and body balance.  Highlights have included 'Storm the Castle' and 'Hunters, Hares and Hounds'.

Class 3 and 4:

Class 3 and 4 have been enthusiastically participating in all aspects of Physical Education this term.  We have had a strong focus on object control and cooperative team games to develop both throwing and teamwork skills.  Class 3 completed drills and games in basketball, while Class 4 were introduced to ultimate frisbee.  It has been great to see strong encouragement and participation amongst both classes.

 

Class 5 and 6:

Physical Education for Class 5 and 6 has focused on developed teamwork and fitness in a range of different sports throughout the term.  This has included games in basketball, soccer and ultimate frisbee with a strong emphasis on inclusion and team strategy. 

Class 6 Physics

Class 6 have been enjoying a range of engaging demonstrations for Physics this term.  This has focused on exploring the properties and propagation of magnetism and static electricity.  Our journey began with an exploration of their discoveries before we then made our own Compass.

Students have really enjoyed the hands-on activities and in particular creating static electricity and observing the rules of attraction and repulsion.  This included experiments to bend water and float objects in mid-air using magnetism.

Highlights this month included a wonderful series of art lessons with Kate.  This week the students used chalk pastels to create beautiful pictures of the migratory, wading Curlew bird.  The Noongar word for Curlew is Wirlo.  It is the totem of the Noongar Wirlomin clan, a family group from the Esperance area.  Local Noongar author and cultural custodian, Kim Scott, works with the Wirlomin family group to preserve and promote Noongar language, story, and song.  We have been reading the Wirlomin Dreamtime stories as part of our Indigenous Life Main Lesson; History and Geography of Region and State.  The students produced some very good maps of WA and have been reading news articles about cave painting and artefacts found in the Kimberly and Pilbara regions.  We have also started reading the story of a fascinating young First Nations boy, named Jandamarra. 

The students also created some wonderful waterlily pictures, using a mixed medium of water colour paint and chalk pastel.  This week we visited the local apiary and honey extract unit at Bartholomew's Meadery.  This apiary was founded by Obi's grandpa, Bart.  So this term Obi's family have really supported and enlivened our adventures in nature study.  A big thanks to Oona who accompanied us out to William Bay.  As a Bronze Medallion holder, Oona could facilitate us having a swim at gorgeous Greens Pool.  What a great way to do our Morning Fitness! 

As the term ends, we are also very grateful to Jewels who has helped us in handwork to create some lovely needle books, ready for our handwork projects next year. 

As we head toward the end of term, Class Four has been completing our final mapping activities for the year.  This had included completing a detailed map of Denmark, and considering how the map of our home town would have looked different one hundred, or even two hundred, years ago.  After mastering the use of keys on our Denmark Map, we turned to designing our own island homes, adapting Andy Map keys to suit our new contexts.

During literacy, students have been writing narratives that we hope to share with younger classes, giving us a clear sense of audience and purpose.  We have gone to outer space, slayed dragons, conjured magic powers or simply written dramatic stories of getting lost on school excursions!  All this while learning long division, turning our newly mastered numeracy skills into a chart-topping hip hop song to help us remember the seemingly complex procedure.

Wishing all of our families a wonderful break, and we look forward to seeing you all again in the coming year!

Renee and Ashley

Many thanks to Jewels for helping us to develop reading and comprehension skills during our individual reading program in regular sessions all year.  We have learned new decoding skills and put punctuation, expression and grammar into practise as we read to ourselves as well as aloud.  This has made silent reading time in class a pleasure as we all find joy in reading a range of books from school and home.

This year we have listened to some classic novels for 9 year olds including Farmer Boy during our Farming main lesson, Pippi Longstocking who is aged 9, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Listening to these class novels led to interesting discussions and deepened our appreciation of books and writing styles.

During the year we have found many forms and patterns in the shapes and movements in morning circle, not to mention the maypole dance pattern, which has helped us develop body geography and harmonious balanced movement.  This term we saw forms in the notes on the stave during our Music main lesson and in our exploration of Noongar symbols.  We are currently doing our Form Drawing main lesson and investigating a variety of forms to develop spatial orientation, as we contemplate the challenge of four-fold symmetry on the page, as well as the metamorphosis of forms as they grow and change. 

As we speed along to the end of the year, Class 3 is keeping busy by enjoying gingerbread baking, calendar making, creating felt and beeswax decorations, and planning our Blue Wren Lodge and Community Garden Visit.  We are lighting the candles and saying the verses for the weeks of advent.  Finally we have been practising on the violin, cello and guitar for the Birak Christmas Concert next Friday.  Looking forward to seeing you there!

In Class 2 we have been helping Woodsy Gnome as he collects and sells his timber.  The children have been reinforcing their place value knowledge and learning how to solve vertical addition and subtraction sums.  We started by using lots of concrete materials - pop-sticks and gems bundled in groups of 10, 100 and 1000 - and the children have been progressing to more abstract work with the written sums as they gain individual skills and confidence.

Our excursion to the Nullakai to visit Angela and Andrew Dickenson's property was really interesting.  Angela and Andrew have rehabilitated their property on the Nullakai and it is registered as land for wildlife.  They took us to some special sites on their property where long ago Noongar people collected food and water.  We were shown some karda mia (lizard homes/traps) built on the granite rocks and a gnamma hole - water collecting rock. 

We walked to find some bush food and collected some special tiny and very sweet berries yurenburt as well as trying some snotty gobble berries that lived up to their name in texture!  The day was cold and wet but we stayed warm near the kaal.

In our wind down to the end of the year we have been continuing with form drawing - this week trying horizontal mirror forms that the children are enjoying playing with.  This week we also started creating our Advent table and the children have enjoyed bringing special shells, crystals and bones to grace our Advent table.

The first light of Advent,

It is the light of the Stones,

Stones that live in crystals,

Seashells and bones.

Next week we will begin our final main lesson for the year - World Legends - and we will explore special tales and legends from all around the world, including some special Christmas time tales from different cultures.

Class 1 together with Class 2 were very fortunate to be invited to the Dickinson’s property on the Nullaki.  We were blessed with the opportunity to actively explore for the day and to learn from such passionate carers of the land.

This past week of swimming lessons was akin to a Marathon (for this age) and I was struck by their stamina and joy in the water.  It was a significant week of personal growth for some.

To bring the year to a close we will finalise our preparations for our Class Play, “The Coming of the Colours” – which we will gift to our new class members, K6 before their Stepping Stones Ceremony.

We have also been busy preparing our Advent Calendar and have now begun to share in this time of joyful anticipation.  Happy Advent and we look forward to celebrating the coming of Birak and the year that was with all!

“One little candle lighted in the wreath

The earth below prepares to glow

Two little candles lighted in the wreath

The plant lifts up a blossom cup

Three little candles lighted in the wreath

The animals run to see the sun

Four little candles lighted in the wreath

A baby is born, to warm the earth, to fill the cup, to light the sun, to lift me up”

Advent is here, and in Karri Kindergarten we have begun to celebrate this 'waiting time' with our recognition of and gratitude towards each of the four kingdoms, beginning with the mineral world.

Gathered around the Advent table, each child with a gift of shells, a crystal, stone or bone, the first candle on the Advent wreath was lit and the verse spoken;

The first light of Advent

It is the light of stones

The light that shines in crystals

In seashells and bones.

One by one the children placed their gift on the table, in a mood of reverence.  Afterwards we sang some songs together and a story was told before the candle is snuffed.

Each week we take the time to give thanks.

The second week we  will celebrate plants……….

The second light of Advent

It is the light of plants

Plants that reach up to the sun

And in the breezes dance

The third week, animals……..

The third light of Advent

It is the light of beasts

The light of hope that we may see

In greatest and in least

Finally, the human realm….

The fourth light of Advent

It is the light of humans

The light of love, the light of thought

To give and to understand

The human realm is demonstrated with the shepherds, Mary and Joseph entering the scene whilst all four candles are burning in the wreath.

Some parents  may choose to celebrate Advent at home with a calendar which may be home made or commercial, to count down the days until Christmas.  A simple wool angel can be moved along a pathway of golden stars with each passing day.  You could also place a cloth in the centre of the table to receive items giving recognition to the mineral world, plants and animals on each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, a crystal, some flowers and a wooden animal, for example.  Lighting a candle on each Sunday evening of Advent and having a moment of silence can bring a sense of peace and gratitude at this time of the year which can become busy and overwhelming.

Wishing everyone peace and happiness and restful holidays when they arrive

Warmest wishes,

Denise

Birak Celebration

Bush School end-of-year picnic celebration

Class 1 and Class 2 

Wednesday 14th December  10.45am - 1.00pm

Dear Parents,

Next week (Week 10), as we move into the Noongar season of Birak (early summer), it is our last session of Bush School for 2022, on Wednesday 14th December.  As the morning session clashes with the Stepping Stones K6 graduation ceremony, which I need to attend, Sam and Evie will take Classes 1 and 2 for activities during the morning.

To celebrate the coming of summer, and our journey through the six seasons over the course of the school year, I would like to invite any parents who are available on the day to bring a plate of healthy tucker to join us for a picnic lunch celebration at the creek between 10.45am and 1pm.  The children are encouraged to bring bathers, a towel and a change of clothes (or two) to splash and play in the shallow waters of the creek.  As well as a picnic lunch, we will sing some Birak songs, listen to an end-of-year Christmas bush story, and pay special acknowledgement to our Class 2 students who will be moving on to Class 3 next year.  Sophia and I will be with any Class 1 & 2 children remaining for the afternoon.

Thanks,

Bruce

Birak Celebration

Bush Kindy end-of-year Picnic Celebration

Down at the Creek

Friday 9th December 10.00am - 12.00pm

Dear Parents,

This week, as we move into the Noongar season of Birak (early summer), it is our last session of Bush Kindy for 2022.  The following (final) week of the school term, Wednesday will be the Stepping Stones graduation ceremony and final day for Karri Kindy students, and Friday is a pupil-free day for staff.

To celebrate the coming of summer, and our journey through the six seasons over the course of the school year, I would like to invite any parents who are available on the day to bring a small plate of healthy tucker to join us for a picnic celebration at the creek between 10am and 12 noon.  The children are encouraged to bring bathers, a towel and a change of clothes (or two) to paddle in the shallow waters (only ankle-deep).  As well as morning tea we will sing some songs and hear an end-of-year bush story to complete our Bush Kindy year.  Parents are welcome to stay on or come back in the afternoon for the whole-school Birak/Christmas celebrations at 1.30pm.

Thanks,

Bruce

2023 School Fees Information

Golden Hill Steiner School has partnered with Edstart to improve school fee payment options for our families and operations processes for our staff.

Edstart is a financial services company that provides flexible payment plans for the education sector.

Commencing January 2023, our families will have 2 options for fee payment:

1. Pay annual fees in full by Tuesday 31^st January 2023 and receive a discount of 10% on tuition;
2. Pay fees by instalment by setting up an account with Edstart

This arrangement is underpinned by a commitment to improve the affordability and accessibility of a Golden Hill education for all families in our community.

Please send any questions through to Oona bursar@goldenhill.wa.edu.au

Or feel free to contact Edstart directly on 1300139 445 or email contact@edstart.com.au

Kind regards,

Oona Mansour

Bursar

With summer in the air we would love to share with you a recipe from the book - The Waldorf School Book of Soups.

Fresh Tomato Soup

3 medium or 1 large onion, chopped

or 3-4 large shallots, minced

4 medium or 2 large garlic cloves, minced

3-4 Tbsps olive oil

Approx 2 - 2.5 kgs very ripe, fresh tomatoes (not canned)

salt

freshly ground pepper

large pinch dried oregano or marjoram or a small sprig of fresh basil

1 Tbsp balsamic or other mild vinegar, or to taste (optional)

pinch sugar (optional)

In a large, non-aluminium saucepan or stockpot, saute onion or shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft and translucent, about 7-8 minutes.

Cut unpeeled tomatoes into quarters or eighths straight into the pot.  Cover and simmer over low to medium heat until the tomatoes begin to give off their juice, about 5 minutes.

Raise heat slightly and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are completely soft and swimming in their own juice.  Depending on the quantity and how crowded your pot is, this process may take from 15 to 45 minutes.

Put the soup through a blender or food processor.  Return the pureed tomatoes to the pot, and return it to a simmer.  Season to taste with salt, pepper, oregano, or marjoram, or if you prefer, fresh basil.

Simmer for 5-10 minutes to amalgamate the flavours, and taste again.  If it is bland, add balsamic vinegar or other mild, rich-tasting vinegar.  If needed, take off any acidic edge with just a pinch of sugar, and whisk in another 1 to 2 Tbsp of olive oil just before serving.

Serves 6 - 8

Congratulations to Class 3 Student Beatrix who recently received a certificate for completing the 2022 Premier's Reading Challenge.

To complete the challenge Bea had to read 12 books from 5th May to 9th September.  Great work Bea!

The challenge will be back in 2023 for those who may like to take part.  More information can be found at - 

premiersreadingchallenge@education.wa.edu.au

The Sketchbook Project is an opportunity for young people, aged 12-26, to experiment and develop their creative thoughts and self-expression, and to share this with their communities.  Participants need to register at https://www.propel.org.au/sketchbook-project-2022 by December 19^th, then they will receive a free blank sketchbook, ready to be torn, painted, and filled.

Participants can collect their sketchbook from the Denmark Library.  This will happen in mid - January and the Sketchbooks need to be returned to the library by the 23^rd March 2023.

The Sketchbooks are then  exhibited as part of the 2023 Youth Week WA KickstART Festival (April 14 - 21) at the State Library of WA and then embark on a Travelling Sketchbook Exhibition throughout the State.

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!