Know yourself

Power is in your heart

Strength is in your soul

Seek strength through the soul

Seek power through the heart …

- Rudolf Steiner

Thursday 12th November:             Kindergarten 2021 Parent Meeting  7pm

                                                             Sleepover Class 3

Wednesday 18th - 20th November:    Class 4,5,6 Halls Gap Camp

Thursday 19th November:                Prep 2021 Parent Meeting 7pm 

Friday 27th November:                   Greek Olympics Class 5/6 

                                                            Class 1 Excursion 

Tuesday 1st December:                   Orientation morning for Prep and Class 1 2021 9:00am - 11:00am

                                                            Strings Performance 2pm         

Thursday 3rd December:                   Class 3 Camp out at school

Monday 7th December:                     Class 6 Celebration Day

Wednesday 9th December:               Prep Christmas Festival 10:30am

                                                               Buninyong Gardens School Picnic 12:30pm - pending restrictions 

                                                                Kindergarten Christmas Festival 6pm

Thursday 10th December:                  School finishes at 12:30

                                                                 No school bus                                                                                                         

                                                                Christmas School Festival 6:30pm          

N.B We publish these dates in advance so that families can plan, however circumstantial changes will occur. Please ensure you check the latest newsletter for dates and times. 

Dear Families and Friends,

It has been an energetic, positive and busy few weeks around the school and kindergarten with much taking place both in and out of our classrooms.

This week signifies NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week throughout Australia and we would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Wathaurung people of our region in addition to those in our community who are from different regions too. Aspects of Indigenous and Australian history, culture and tradition are taught and shared throughout our curriculum and we are excited that we will be welcoming Deanne Gilson into our school to facilitate a myriad of activities with some of our classes next week. In learning about different cultures and traditions we continue to support mutual understanding, patience and cultural diversity and inclusion within our communities. As our society continues to become more intertwined and our cross-cultural exchanges become more frequent, understanding and appreciating our differences support us all in our striving for a peaceful and harmonious community and world.

Camps and excursions also extend learning and experiences beyond our classrooms to support this development in children too. In stepping out of our comfort zones to experience new things, we not only learn about others, but we also learn about ourselves in a new way that allows us to see things differently and to grow. Unfortunately, COVID-19 restrictions and measures have had an adverse effect on our program this year, but we are pleased that class 3 and 4 were able to venture out to Buninyong in the past week and we are looking forward to our class 3 sleepover on Thursday, our class 4, 5 and 6 camp to Halls Gap, class 1 excursion to the Ancestral Stones and the class 5/6 excursion to Castlemaine for the Greek Olympics.

We are now moving towards the busy part of term and preparations are underway for a variety of upcoming activities and events. These includes class play performances, class 3 sleepover and camp, class 4, 5 and 6 camp at Halls Gap, class 6 Celebration day, Strings Concert, the Greek Olympics, visit to the Ancestral Stones in North Gardens and our Christmas Festivals. I would like to encourage everyone to please check the specific details of these events and to ask questions to seek clarity if necessary.

And finally, a big thank you to all of the parents and guardians who have been able to attend our class meetings this term. I know our teachers really appreciate it when they are able to talk with parents and share information about what is happening in their classrooms and across our school.

Kind regards,

Eric

Dear Parents, 

We are currently accepting applications for bursaries for 2021.  If you would like more information please contact Louise at business@ballaratsteinerschool.com.au

We also have a lot of unnamed clothes in lost property. Please contact us if you feel that some of your child's clothes maybe left at school and we will look for them for you.

New Fundraising Idea for our school

Naimee Foale is setting up a new fundraising idea for our school. We are asking for donations of clean clothes, shoes and old shopping bags. These can be dropped into the special box that has been placed at the shed end of the car park.  Naimee is setting up a website, where the clothes can be purchased.  All profits will be donated to the school and we will utilise the proceeds for some more play equipment.  When you are dropping off the clothes, please put your name and contact number in with the clothes.  Feel free to drop off clothes that need repairing, although please put these in a different bag with a note. Please ensure all clothes are clean. More details will follow including the website address. 

A week ago all the heads in kindergarten were bent over the snails, collected after the rain and kept in enamel bowls for close inspections, until they all made their escape back into the garden as we ate our lunch.  This week the soaring temperatures meant the heads were gathered over the “rivers” flowing through the sandpit, drawing all the individual games into one long ebb and flow of connection, as the children came together over efforts to dam the river, or divert its flow, or to mix “goop” sand to cool hot feet and mould into dragon’s eggs for hatching in the sun.  The play is truly “harmonious”: benefitting from the individual notes of each child; bringing these together to create themes and counterpoints to one another; and often weaving one rich, melodic “whole” that carries the entire group in a constantly shifting shared imagination.  

Mid-term four marks a big milestone for the preps. With only five weeks of early childhood to go, we begin to gradually ease the children towards the transition to class one. On Friday afternoons, whilst I’m on release to do some planning and paper work, Donna will be spending time with the prep children, being their teacher to lead them through their normal prep routine of drawing, outside play time and afternoon tea. This gives the children a wonderful opportunity to get to know Donna whilst in the security of the prep room and routine with Sylvia present too. We will ensure that Donna also visits on days when the children who have their rest day on Friday are at school too, so that no one misses out on this opportunity.

Our prep program also changes slightly to begin to ease the children into a new routine. Instead of beginning the day with baking and play, the children will come in to sit down at the tables for twenty minutes to begin to make their ‘Prep Books’. (These will be a surprise that comes home with them after the Christmas festival). They will then move into play and their usual prep program for the rest of the day.

We have been observing so many little changes that indicate their readiness for class one – a greater interest in ball sports when we visit the big school playground, drawings with great detail and child-initiated games in the playground that involve complex rules. How exciting. Please mark the prep Christmas Festival date in your calendars. This will be a morning where all of the children attend together, regardless of their rest days, for just two hours for story, song and festivities. Preps will need to be dropped off and picked up as we did for the Spring Festival earlier in the term. Orientation morning is also rapidly approaching and will be a morning where all of the children will come for a few hours in the morning and those who have their rest day will need to be collected at the end of the Orientation period. We look forward to these special times with the children.

Warm Regards,

Ambika

The Dreamtime stories continue to emerge from the old Pannikin Tin each day, bringing with them a richness of language, culture, art, music and crafting skills. My friend Katey, from Freshwater Creek Steiner School, came to visit today and spend time in our classroom. She loved helping us with our next collaborative project ......the Class One Rainbow Serpent! (Also known as “Bella”, since we were all singing Bella Mamma as we gathered, tied and wound coloured wool to form sections of the body, the head and the tail!)

Class 3 have continued to work on Norse Myths with enjoyment and enthusiasm. The stories are captivating and full of rich, descriptive language. This has spurred on some creative writing using adjectives, similes and metaphors. The children are currently creating their own small books about ‘Fenris, the Wolf’. They very much enjoyed using clay to shape a dragon or serpent, possibly the dragon who eats at the roots of ‘Yggdrasil the World Tree’, Loki’s child the ‘Serpent of Migard’ or maybe even ‘Danzi’, a Chinese dragon from our class novel. We are also working on Celtic knots in form drawing. This has so far been very challenging for many, but also very satisfying  on completion. We are all looking forward to our sleepover at school this Thursday night. It will be the first school sleepover for this group and they are very excited.

With warm regards,

Donna

Greetings,

This would normally be a huge week for a class presenting their class play but there is an certain sadness that this year the class will not be able to share it with their parents.   

It is a play that has spanned the year, work commenced in term one but after two lockdowns it was still there to greet us on the return to school this term. Class plays are not supposed to take so long, but there we have it. So on Thursday we will bring the fruits of all this work into  a performance for the rest of the school and a recording that will be posted on Samepage for the children to share at home.   

Amidst all this activity the class are also looking forward to their up coming camp with Class 5/6 next week at the Grampians where many further experiences await us.

 This is certainly a busy time.

 Take care,

John

Dear Parents and Carers of Class 5-6,

It has been a busy week with our science continuing from Electromagnetism, to the Mysteries of Light. We are waiting for some consistently sunny weather to be able to do several experiments, but in the meantime have had some interesting discussions and explorations.

Olympics training for the 27th November event will continue during the camp, with the addition of tug-of-war (and safety procedures.)

Children are enjoying their Cameo writing, at least 3 times each week; - as well as the various spelling and maths activities each morning. They are exploring the uses of their aquarelle pencils and brush to gain new techniques for illustrating main lessons. Ruby continues to give the class their German lessons on most days. Today, the topic was animals.

Camp anticipation and excitement is building, and we will hope for good and moderate weather as we will be in tents, and then out and about for most of the daytime. We will have to carry many things and hope to be collecting tents and organising on Monday, as well as cooking, on Tuesday (things such as the many pancakes for breakfasts.) A reminder, that children will need to bring food/drink (lunch and morning snacks) for their first day, but evening meal will be provided, as well as the afternoon snacks.

A few Camp Forms are urgently required, so please return on Monday. I will take many photos during the camp and we are all looking forward to it.

Warm regards,

Joseph