The silent strength of starlight's gleam

Is filling my soul with new heavenly might.

In darkness of winter, I woke from a dream

Like a child from sleep in the middle of the night.

Now new hope is dawning - strong and supreme,

And declaring, "Go forth out of darkness to light!"

Dear GHSS Families,

Book Week - Thank you to Denmark Library for arranging our Book Week Incursion. Stig Wemyss, audio book narrator, best know for his narration of Andy Griffiths novels, visited our school to kick off Book Week.

Friday was our Book Week character dress-up parade!  How wonderful to see the level of participation and what a range of literature our school community treasures!  Well done to everyone on their costume efforts. 

The Great Golden Hill Book Week Book Swap -  For those wanting to know, we managed to raise $240 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.  I hope everyone enjoys their new books!

Save the Date for Spring Fair  - Saturday, November 18th from 10am - 2pm.  All families are asked to participate in the day by cooking for our Tea & Cake stall, helping out with a class activity to entertain attendees, having a stall, contributing to stalls or being a part of the set-up and pack-down.  Staff will also be there coordinating performances, running tours and hosting open classrooms.

Class carers, staff and the organising committee will be meeting this Friday afternoon at the end of school.  If you have some ideas to share, let your class carer know or come along!  We are meeting on the grassed area between the classes.  There will be afternonon tea and the kids can play in the playground while we meet. 

Spare Parts Puppet Theatre Classes 1-3 will have Spare Parts Puppet Theatre visiting this week to perform and run workshops with them! 

Greek Olympics We wish our Class 5 athletes all the best for their journey to compete in the Greek Olympics at Perth Waldorf School, in Bibra Lake, on Friday September 15th.  May they compete with bravery and valor to bring honour to their city state. 

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 Moderation? Moderation is creating balance in your life between work and play, rest and exercise.  It is having or doing enough of something - not too much, not too little, but what's just right for you.  If you study all the time or play all the time it is not being moderate.  Moderation is being in charge of your time and using self-discipline to keep from doing too much or too little.

Why Practice it? Moderation helps us to stay balanced, so that we are not controlled by our desires.  Without moderation, we can overdo things like talking, or eating.  We can start to get addicted to things and want more even when it can hurt us, like eating too much chocolote or drinking too much alcohol.  Without moderation we wouldn't do our fair share.  When we practice moderation we make a choice to be the way we want to be.

How do you practice it? You practice moderation by knowing your own limits and what you need to function at your best.  People are different.  For some eight hours of sleep is enough, for others, it is too little.  Watch yourself to make sure you stay balanced and don't let something begin to rule your life, such as TV, computer games, food or a person.  When you practice moderation, you are content to have just what you need.

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

• Know what you need and get enough - no more, no less.
• Take care of your health.
• Use self-discipline to stop yourself from overdoing.
• Balance work and play in your life.
• Know your own limits and set boundaries for yourself.
• Are content with enough.

"We are not human doings, we are human beings."  John Bradshaw

Many hands make light work!

This is a great opportunity to complete your Family Participation Hours and promote our wonderful school.

Please email office@goldenhill.wa.edu.au if you can assist with the Spring Fair & Open Day this year.

Your support is essential to make this event successful.

Our school calendar can be found here - 

GHSS Calendar

As part of Book Week we were lucky to get a visit from Stig Wemyss who is an audiobook narrator for children and young adults.

Stig is the narrator of all the Andy Griffiths books including the Treehouse books, The Just Series and the Bum trilogy. His shows are wild, fun and full of laughs, like an Andy Griffiths book live. Under pinning all the madness, it’s about encouraging children to read and engage with books and libraries, through the use of audio books.

By all accounts is was a fun experience for our students!

As part of the Building and Shelters main lesson, Class 3 students constructed their own homes, drawing inspiration from the diverse types of dwelling they had learnt about - using recycled materials!

Armed with bucket loads of imagination and a commitment to sustainability, the children jumped right in and created blueprints of their plans in class.  Their parents then leant them a hand and ingeniously transformed natural and discarded materials into houses filled with character and charm.  The attention to detail in their creations was remarkable.  Each house boasted the essential attributes, from intricate windows and doors to unique roofing designs and charming little gardens.

We are now expanding our skills even further as we work together with David Stockdale on our building project.  The chicken house is being constructed in the orchard and we cannot wait for its completion.  The children have worked so well as a team, I am extremely proud of them!  We would like to thank everyone for their kind donations of materials.

As children begin the 9 ­year ­change, music meets them in a new way.  They are ready to "stand on the earth" and feel the major and minor scales.  We are currently deep in our Music Notation main lesson.  The children are learning through story, imagery and hands on experiences.  We even created a giant stave!

In Class 4 we began the term with our Play Fire and Ice – The Theft of Idunna’s Apples!

This was a play from our Norse Mythology main lesson and the children were familiar with the characters which meant they were able to put lots of expression and  personality in to their parts.

It was our first play performed on the stage in the hall and we practiced projecting our voices to fill the hall, and using expression and gesture to tell the story. There were lots of laughs and drama as we rehearsed and became comfortable with scene changes, props and costumes.

A big feature of our play was the musical pieces that helped tell the story.

Many thanks to Marie who helped us put together 2 pieces that used cello, violin, glockenspiel and marimba.

We used our recorders and lyres as well as a xylophone and drum for other pieces in the play.  And of course singing was a must!  We sang our way through Asgard - the land of the gods, Jotunheim - the land of the giants, and the rainbow bridge in between worlds.

We have also been exploring the form and symmetry of Norse knots and symbols as part of our form drawing studies.  We practise the forms with chalk, pencil and crayon until our hand becomes familiar with the rhythm and structure of the design.

Recently we have experimented with painting the forms, representing them with masking tape and observing the space left in between.  The results have been quite eye-catching and we have used them to create a practical Father’s Day gift for the dads and grandads in our families.

Also this term we had the treat of seeing the creative and artistic representations of a range of animals in the wonderful dioramas that the children made over the holidays.  This was to compliment a written project completed at school. 

The children all gave fantastic informative talks about their chosen researched animal including its description, habitat, food, offspring, predators and relationship with humans.

They also explained how they made their dioramas and the materials they used.  Then they took questions from their audience.  It was fantastic to see how proud the children were about what they had learned and to hear about how they had engaged in the creative process of making the dioramas.  We hope you enjoy the photos.

Class 5/6 have immersed in the rich cultural epoch of Ancient Greece this term.  Our daily fitness and games lessons have been focused upon learning and practising the skills and attitudes that will see the Class 5s shine in the upcoming Greek Olympics at Perth Waldorf School.  Strength, Grace and Truth are emphasised to bring out the best in all participants.  We have been running, hurling javelins and the discus, and even tried our hand at Greco-Roman wrestling!  The Class 6s have been patient mentors, sharing their skills and experience with their younger classmates.

We have also began a journey back in time with our Australian History, providing a path to inquire about past and present.  Our main lesson has been evoking great empathy and respect for others, whilst we learn the stories, successes and struggles of the early days.  Class 5/6 have written from the perspective of convicts, interwoven geography whilst using and drawing maps, taken hand at building tall ships, have had honest discussions about the devastation Indigenous Australians faced, and have demonstrated an appreciation and wonder for the country we live in today. 

Recently, we also successfully performed our class play, ‘The Golden Apple of Discord’.  After a dress rehearsal that the class described as, “less than ideal” (not their actual words), they impressed us with their ability to focus and lift their performance for the evening show.  We felt so proud of what they learned and achieved and the way they worked as a team!  With the help of our wonderful parents and carers we also raised over $200 for our camp budget.  Thank you all for your wonderful generosity.

Looking ahead, the class splits into separate year levels for main lessons as Class 6 enters the ‘high school transition program’ and begins their Ancient Rome main lesson with Jiffy.  Class 5 will be starting ‘The World of Mathematics’ with Ashley and take the opportunity to review some of the maths concepts and skills that we have covered so far on our journey together.  Jess will continue her Literacy main lesson and invaluable learning support role for the remainder of the term.  We will come back together each day after recess for our practice lessons and specialist subjects.

A time of challenge and change but also opportunity.  We look forward to seeing the children continue to learn and grow in such a positive way.

Warmly,

Ashley & Jess

The Class 5/6 play "The Iliad - The Apple of Discord" held last week was a great success!  Well done to all involved.

Here is a yummy, warming soup recipe from the book - The Waldorf School Book of Soups.

Ham and Bean Soup

450 grams white navy beans

Approx 700 grams meaty ham hocks (smoked)

1 tsp baking soda

apple cider vinegar

Rinse the navy beans well.  Then put them in a large pot, add the teaspoon of baking soda, and cover them with water.  Bring to the boil and remove from the heat.  Drain them and rinse them again.

Add ham hocks and a little salt.  You can also add a little sugar to bring out the flavour.  Cover until the beans are soft.

You can then take the ham hocks out, pull the meat off, and put the meat back into the soup.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

A little vinegar may be added separately by those wanting a little zest in their soup.

Serve with fresh baked bread.

Serves 5-7

Denmark Cricket Club Junior registration for this coming season is now open. 

Please see attached flyers for age groups and how to register.

This year the Go for 2 &5 Albany Kite Fiesta  will be held at Anzac Peace Park, Albany from 10am to 4pm Sunday 24 September 2023.

This free, popular event includes the spectacle of giant kites being flown as well as kite making workshops where families can make their own kites.

This annual, public event, supported by Healthway and the City of Albany,  is attended by many hundreds of families each year, and provides a fun, educational outing during the September long weekend for young people, their parents and grandparents who live or are visiting Albany.

The Bibbulmun Track 25th Anniversary walkers are on their way from Kalamunda to Albany and are getting closer to Denmark every day!  There is an opportunity for Denmark locals to be involved in the walk by joining the walkers as they walk into town.  Free bus transport has been arranged for the 6th September with three different options - 

Denmark

Wednesday 6th September

Walk 1: Meet at the Denmark Visitor Centre at 10am to be transported to Lights Rd (near Monkey Rock), and then join the official walkers for the last 12.9km as they head toward Denmark and parade into town to the community event at 2.45pm.  Book your seat on the bus here.

Walk 2: Meet at the Denmark Visitor Centre at 12.15pm to be transported to Ocean Beach Rd (near the base of Mt Hallowell), and then join the official walkers for the last 6.5km as they head toward Denmark and parade into town to the community event at 2.45pm.  Book your seat on the bus here.

Walk 3: Join the group anywhere on the outskirts of town (along the Bibbulmun Track or from the Rivermouth south of town) and parade with the walkers into Denmark.

Develop your game and elevate your skills with WAFFA!

At the West Australian Female Football Academy, our aim is to help female footballers evolve their football knowledge and abilities at all levels of the game. 

Our programs are designed to assist in the development of female footballers from beginners to elite level.

Registration is now open for our Future Stars 2-day Super Clinic which will be running during the September school holidays.  This time we’ll also be at the home of the West Coast Eagles!

Our participants have the opportunity to be coached and learn AFL skills firsthand from some of the West Coast Eagles AFLW coaches and players including; Jess Sedunary, Jaide Britton, Shanae Davison, Charlie Thomas, Krstel Petrevski and Lauren Wakfer!

Clinic details:

• Location: Mineral Resources Park, Lathlain – West Coast Eagles HQ*
• Date: Tuesday 26th & Wednesday 27th September 2023
• Time: 10am - 2pm
• Ages: For girls aged 8yo - 15yo
• Duration: 4 hours each day 
• Cost: $195

Registration Link: https://www.waffa.com.au/future-stars-super-clinic-september-holidays-metro

*Note: This is subject to change as the club may resurface the ovals at some stage after the season.  If that is the case we will be back at Scotch College.

Please feel free to circulate this email and the attached flyer to your physical education departments and any students who may be interested in joining us.

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us at communications@waffa.com.au

Thank you for assisting us in growing female football in WA.

Kind regards,

WAFFA Communications Team

communications@waffa.com.au

www.waffa.com.au

Major Sponsor

Alternative Contacts:

Ryan Turnbull

Co-Founder & Academy Coach

M: 0419 995 472 E: ryan@waffa.com.au

Chad Morrison

Co-Founder & Academy Coach

M: 0416 115 815 E: chad@waffa.com.au

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!