In our school we acknowledge the importance of the whole human being. By developing in children and adolescents a love of learning, flexible, creative thinking, and a strong internal compass we strive to meet each child’s needs and to enable them to fulfil their full potential as balanced human beings with clarity of truth, understanding of goodness and a love of beauty.
Our philosophy of teaching and learning is based on Rudolf Steiner’s insights into child development and education, which embraces the social, artistic, academic, physical and spiritual. We enact our philosophy by following the indications given by Steiner and the 7 core principles for Australian Steiner Schools. The philosophy, curriculum and teaching methodology followed at CSSK is brought to the children via the ACARA approved Australian Steiner Curriculum.
The children are immersed in a creative, enriching and wonder-filled learning environment. Children are inspired and guided towards becoming free-thinking, socially responsible adults, with healthy connections to themselves, each other and the world.
The rhythm of the school day includes Main Lesson, Practice Lessons and Specialist Lessons.
The Main Lesson is a unique part of Steiner education. Each morning, the children engage in the deep study of one topic. Each of these Main Lesson blocks of learning lasts for approximately 3 weeks.
These topics can range from the Alphabet in class one to the History of Writing in Class 4 or to a study of Shakespeare in Class 8. These learning blocks provide the opportunity for great depth and richness in the student’s learning. The topics covered bring together the Learning Areas of English, Maths, Science, Humanities and The Arts in an integrated way to follow major epochs in history and so trace the development of human culture and consciousness. During Practice Lessons students engage in explicit literacy and numeracy learning and revision to build and reinforce key skills and knowledge.
Specialist Lessons include LOTE (French), Art, Music, Craft, PE/Movement and Outdoor Education & Horticulture, expanding to embrace Digital Technologies, Science and Drama in the Senior years.