Tuesday 26th of May, 2020

Term 2 Week 7

I feel at last the world's reality
Which, lacking the communion of my soul,
Would in itself be frosty, empty life,
And showing itself powerless
To recreate itself in souls,
Would in itself find only death.

From The Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner

Dates to Diary

** No dates for the diary **

2020 Term Dates
Term 1 (9 weeks) - Thursday 30th January – Friday 27th March
Term 2 (10 weeks) - Wed 15th April – Friday 19th June
Term 3 (10 weeks) - Tuesday 14th July – Friday 18th September
Term 4 (10 weeks) - Tuesday 6th October – Friday 11th December

Tomorrow the school will be participating in a smoking ceremony as part of National Reconciliation Week 2020. Here are details on how you can join in from home. A big thank-you to Uncle Rick Nelson, Dja Dja Wurrung Elder.

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School News

Sites & Grounds

The grounds are looking great!

All the Autumn leaves have fallen and Winter is creeping in. Bulbs are starting to poke their heads out of the ground and the Junior oval is lush and green.

While the weather has been fantastic for the gardens and native grass seed recently sown in the Heartlands, it has not been so helpful for the oval improvements.

Works have started on the senior playing field with more to come in the near future once the ground dries up a little. Here’s a few pictures for the heavy vehicle enthusiasts!

Thanks for Ken’s Uncle Andy for leveling the playing field.

Watch this space!

Thanks, Kyle

SharePoint Help for Families

Which folders on my child’s Class page have been updated recently?

Where should I look to find any Zoom invitations for morning meetings or music lessons?

How do I log in to multiple Distance Learning @student.cssk accounts at the same time?

Responses to these and some other frequently asked questions are on the Family Hub – have a look in the Documents folder.

A short 30 minute recorded Zoom webinar – ‘Introduction to the Family Hub’ – is also available for you to review.

Please continue to send your queries and / or concerns to distancelearning@cssk.vic.edu.au

Many thanks for your partnership as we navigate this learning journey,

The Distance Learning Team

Enrolments for 2021 & 2022!

To all our lovely Playgroup families – It may seem a long way off, but we are now receiving Expressions of Interest for Kinder 2022. The waitlist for our Early Childhood programs fill quickly, so if you are interested in our Kindergarten 2022 program, please contact Tracey our Enrolments Officer traceyr@cssk.vic.edu.au

For Families in our Kinder 2021 group – it is business as usual, sort of! 🙂 The first round offers process is still underway and we will be in touch with all families across the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact Tracey if you have any questions about the process or time frames.

ICT News

The below artwork is by Alhucema in Class 8, from our Digital Image Manipulation lesson in ICT. Students explored the Surrealist movement for inspiration. They planned their image construction, downloaded an image off the internet and then combined them using Gimp software. It was then exported ready for printing.

Students have also been preparing Neolithic meals for our Class 8 Food Chemistry Main Lesson. They made damper and cooked it using sticks and roasted whole vegetables over the coals, no processed foods or manufactured implements were to be used however Mietta could not resist some jam on the damper!

Thanks Phil.

Craft News

Hello everyone,

Hopefully you have been enjoying the Craft tutorials, posted weekly, giving instruction on the various projects running currently.If you have not yet seen any, it is not too late. You can find them on your SharePoint page, under Craft.I thought it might be nice to give you a run down on what all classes are currently working on.

The photo gives you a glimpse into how I spend my days.

Class 1 are completing Recorder bags and have just begun an embroidery project.

Class 2 are knitting their Dolls.

Class 3 are weaving their pencil cases.

Class 4 have completed a pincushion and are now knitting Slippers.

Class 5 are knitting their Beanies on circular knitting needles (a little tricky).

Class 6 are completing two Polygon shaped Winter Lanterns.

Class 7 are completing Stain-glass window style Winter Lanterns.

Class 8 are painting a piece reflecting upon their years at the Steiner school and other interests.

As always, it is never dull in the Craft program!

A sincere thank you to everyone who has contacted me over this time with pictures of their children’s work, words of encouragement or just simple requests–these have made me feel connected and given me purpose.

With love, Chris

Class 4 News

Hello One and All,

There has been a lot of talk about the silver lining or the good things to have come out of this time of physical distancing. It certainly hasn’t been a time of social distancing or neglect, though, here with Class 4. We’ve managed to keep our daily meetings very social, especially of a Friday. (It also got to the point where I had to turn off the private chat option as everyone was busy chitter-chattering instead of paying attention to the new verse).

We all look forward to Friday Fun Day, where a dress up theme is chosen and jokes are told. We’ve had crazy hair, silly hats, pjs and teddies, and book character themes. Next Friday will be a sport theme.

The class immersed themselves in the Norse Mythology Main Lesson, and are still listening to stories of the adventures of the gods and goddesses. As well as bookwork, they’ve baked Viking bread and cake, made runes and worked out their own bind rune.

We’ve moved onto a Fractions Main Lesson and it just so happens that cake, pizza and chocolate are all great things to help embed this concept. This unit of work will take us through to our return in two weeks and I’m looking forward to seeing what they choose to do, for the open ended task that was given, to further investigate fractions. I’m looking forward to having everyone together in person too!

There has been so much to keep the class engaged over this time of Distance Learning, with specialist lessons as well, that I don’t think anyone has time to get bored. I’ve loved hearing of some of the creative ways parents and children have worked with the curriculum. We’ve had wooden boards made for a game that was sent home, mapping of a local creek where a beehive was found, and viking garment making, just to give you an idea.

Enjoy our photos (you may notice in some that there are a couple of sibling photo bombers, especially on book day when Captain Underpants and one of the Lost Boys joined us).

Cheers Cathy

From the Garden

Working in the garden over these past weeks, I have been reflecting on how our school has been supported by so much energy and input, from so many different people, over such a long time. Every task that I do in the grounds, is part of a web of work by students, staff and parents.

This, seemingly simple task is one example. Over the years there has been much discussion and debate over what to do about the Senior Oval. A sports oval is great fun to play on but is also an environmental disaster, requiring huge amounts of water, fertilizer, soil and mowing. The fertilizer gets into our creek and contributes to blue green algae breakouts. Watering an oval brings the water table closer to the surface (it’s already very close as we are low in the landscape). Our school sits over saline underground water, which, if it comes closer to the surface will kill plants and ruin buildings. Bringing in soil almost inevitably brings in weed seed (when we built the junior oval, Patterson’s Curse was introduced). Mowing uses fossil fuels. For all these reasons, a conventional oval is not a good idea. Two ideas, which are less environmentally damaging, are a sand pitch, or a native grass oval. Huw Walters (the previous Sites and Grounds person) had bought a sample of native grass seed to trial for the oval. So, there was the tub of native grass seed. Kyle suggested that we use it in the Heartlands, which needed a bit of love anyway. This gave urgency to another job I had been wanting to do for some years. There was a patch of daffodils in a random spot in the middle of the Heartlands (I wonder who planted them?).

Each year they struggled, as they were in a pathway and I wanted to dig them up and move them. But where to move them to? The beautiful Gratitude stone outside the Eurythmy Room (donated by a past family) is in a garden bed which, years ago had been built by class 4. It had become overgrown and weedy. Class 8 had started cleaning it up earlier this year. It seemed the perfect spot to move the bulbs to. Collecting compost, made from all the organic scraps from your classroom

(including Sally’s old hat!)

I finally moved the bulbs, Kyle planted the grass seeds and so with the help of so many different people, our Heartlands will be rejuvenated! I love working in this space, it is not a space for me to impose my own ideas, but an opportunity to knit together actions, wishes and aspirations of a whole community.

We have also had lots to harvest too!

Dear Garden Folk

After all your hard work last year we are moving from the cerebral to the physical. Sally, Kyle & I selected some rocks from Pyrenees Quarries to form the ‘ceremonial circle’ at the centre of the vegetable garden. Taking advantage of the holidays we will also have some raised garden beds built. Exciting times!

Warm regards, Lisa

PE News

Hi everyone,

I wonder how your P.E. challenges have been going?

I really look forward to seeing all the students when they return. I am hoping for sunny days every Tuesday and Wednesday so we can have lots of outside games on P.E. days.

For those parents of younger children returning next week may the transition be smooth and full of grace.

For those of older students may the last week at home be nourishing, full of gratitude and quality time- it all seems to have gone rather fast now….

See you soon.

Kellie

Class 7 News

Hi Everyone,

We have been investigating the history of Algebra and have learnt that Al – Kwarizimi also known as the “Father of Algebra” wrote the first book on Algebra and its processes hundreds of years ago.

We have been learning different methods on how to solve various problems and this week we learnt about Index Notation and Negative numbers.

Thank you to all the children for all the great work they did in their Voyages of Discovery main lesson book.

I hope you have all kept warm during the wild weather and maybe even spent the evenings by the fire.

Take Care, Amanda

French News

Bonjour tout le monde!

Congratulations and thanks to all the parents and families who have supported their children so beautifully during these difficult times. As a French teacher, I feel as though I have been sending little messages out to all of my students to keep their French studies alive: tongue twisters, songs to sing to your family, fun facts, little language activities, word games and ideas for creative projects and things to draw and make.

How lovely it is when messages come back from all of you! The pictures here are a French board game created by one of our Class Six students. Although Class Six has only been learning French for a very short time, this is a beautifully designed game about La Bataille de Hastings … The Battle of Hastings. It even has hand made counters which are archers, infantry and cavalry.

All of our Class Six French students will have an opportunity to ‘road test’ their games when we return.

Class Seven and Eight students have been collecting Faits Interessants (Interesting Facts), working with French textbooks and practising their singing, gestures and French expressions on family members.

We look forward to sharing what we have learned!

au revoir, Lynn

Class 3 News

Thank you to my wonderful class and parents for all the support, hard work and love shown to me and towards each other as we continue our work in isolation. The thought of being able to be together and share each other’s company very soon is tremendously exciting. I’m sure we will need to continue to support each other as we become accustomed to a different way of doing things but we can do it!

A big thank you to our office people and our outside team for their wonderful behind the scenes work at school while we have been working at a distance.

Love Anne

Whitsun

Next Sunday is Whitsun and normally on the Monday after, we celebrate this festival by decorating the hall with white doves and reading a verse in many different languages. In reflecting on this festival I found myself thinking how significant it was this year. in particular because, as a you may recall, we celebrate community at this time. At a time when we can’t be in each other’s company it makes us aware of how much we value and care for those near and dear to us.

At the first Whitsun , people received great power – the power to understand other languages. They used that power for good within their communities. In our times we think of Whitsun as a time of thanksgiving and commitment to the many communities with which we are involved. At this time, when we can’t meet together in the same way, these things feel particularly precious. It is significant that in these extra ordinary circumstances we have found ways to communicate and bring love to those around us albeit at a distance! When we can finally be together again, in reality, may we appreciate all the more the strength that arises from contributing to and being part of a community.

In olden times Whitsuntide was a time of renewal and celebrations. People freshened up their homes with whitewash, they made new clothes, they began new activities and the new academic term began. There were fairs and markets, games and entertainment The Monday after Whitsun was a holiday. There were picnics and races. The cheese rolling race must have been great fun!

Perhaps next week and the week after we can keep this spirit of celebration alive within us as we return to our school community and realise how much the simple act of being together means to us. We may not be able to literally be together in the one space but knowing we are all in our classrooms nearby is a very comforting feeling. It brings a certain peace.

Clouds of rain, blue above,

Easter sun and Whitsun dove.

May we all have a peaceful and joyful Whitsuntide as we celebrate our return to school.

Love Anne

Kinder News

Dear Kinder parents,

Welcome to week 7. It is with excitement that I am anticipating seeing you all again this week.

I am sure there are mixed feelings of anticipation, excitement and perhaps wondering how are we all going to get up and out the door to get to kinder or school. The mornings are very cosy and it has been such a long time that we have been snuggled up in our homes. I am very confident that we can all do it though, even with our new drop of procedure!

Thank you for all your support and patience throughout this new time. We have all learnt many new skills, there is such a lot to be very proud of. Well done to us all, the admin team, the leadership team, the board, teachers, parents and our wonderful children!!

Warm regards

See you all very soon, Tobie

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Community Classifieds

For Sale - Child's Desk

The desk is 44cm wide X 99cm long X 74com high. Some marks on surface-possibly a bright coat of paint but a good little desk with deep drawers.

Pick up from Castlemaine area. Phone Janice on 0439 847 909

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