The flowing of feeling is transformed.
The summer of my soul.
There is no place quite like Castlemaine in early Autumn. The leaves still cling to our European trees, almost thanking us for welcoming them into our country with a blaze of colour – red, brown, yellow and every shade in-between. Our school likewise dresses in fine colours, and more than any season, passing through our front gates brings forth feelings of placehood and of being at home.
So what does it truly mean to feel at home? What does the idea of belonging actually signify? Deep inside everyone, what drives us to call one particular place home? Place, and home, is not merely the inhabiting of physical space, place begins to build significance within us when it is storied in language – by us and for us. It is where authentic human engagement is imbued with meaning, and ideally embedded with sacredness and wonder. The transcendental yet eternal sharing of meaning and memory.
It is where diverse and differing identities are mutually recognized, respected, and called forth in freedom into their distinct selves, yet held lovingly within the shared circle of community. This does not happen haphazardly, it comes with a responsibility from each one of us to continually affirm our communal ‘spiritual knowing’ born of emotional intuition and creativity, forgiveness and often requiring great effort.
The gifts of place, those feelings of being at home breathe forth their beauty when they are fed, groomed, spoken with and listened to. We know we are truly home when we remember to hold within us the will to pause, dream, contemplate, and wonder at the beauty of the world, and the beauty within each member of our community.
Summer is gone and the nights grow cold.
We have all been enjoying the autumn weather. There are many new adventures to be discovered in the garden.
Please remember to dress the children warmly for our chilly mornings. Jack Frost is still a ways away but our dear little feet do need socks in the morning please.
Our parent night is coming up soon. Apologies for the change of date from previously discussed Week 3. I am trying to fit in with the primary school parent’s commitments too.
Our new date is Wednesday 11th May at 7.30pm.
Also remember I am always available for after school chats on Thursday 3-4.00pm or Mondays by appointment, or any time by email.
Please get in touch if need be.
Sat on a mushroom by himself.
Under the big round harvest moon.
The children have enjoyed playing a game about Tippity- toes in Morning Circle this week. We have also been doing lots of movement, practising our side skipping and developing our sense of rhythm. On Thursdays we have been setting out for an adventure during outside playtime, exploring the school grounds across the creek, where we can run on the oval and play amongst the trees.
Thank you to parents who attended our Class Meeting this week, it was an interesting and valuable opportunity to share our experiences with the children and how we can support them in the changes they are going through as they turn six.
Many children have been home sick this week as there seems to be a bad cold about. We have been missing them and hope they will be feeling better and back with us soon.
you need to go and visit the tens.
We have continued with our “Island of Trading” Main Lesson. The children have been very busy learning how to solve addition and subtraction sums with trading. They are enjoying using the MAB blocks and are becoming more confident at solving the algorithm in a written format.
We have been very fortunate to get some rain this week and it has been lovely to see the children play in it. Please remember that your child needs to have a raincoat and gumboots at school for them to play outside and to come along on our walks.
Don’t forget our Class Meeting next week Wednesday the 4th of May at 7.00pm.
With backpacks on, open road ahead, expectations high, Class Four strode out of school last week into a time of sunshine, full moon, rain, bright stars, tall trees, fresh air, rustling leaves, toast on camp fires, bush hikes following the compass, flora & fauna explorations, tunnel and gold mine discoveries, snuggling into sleeping bags and waking up to mornings filled with birds singing. We had a wonderful time on our camp where we also looked after each other, challenged ourselves in many ways (and overcame those challenges), enjoying the freedom of being outdoors for 3 days and 2 nights. Thank you for all the food contributions, which were enjoyed by all. Thank you also to Lisa and Tim Gingell for accompanying us.
We are now entering into the Viking world of the Norse gods with their exuberance for adventure and challenges – just right for where Class Four is!
Class 6 enjoyed a wonderful bush camp in the beautiful Kooyoora State park, and with the help of our guides from LaTrobe University, third year students Nat, Dan and Hollie, we explored astounding rock formations, caves, varying kinds of forest, and many sites of significance to the Dja Dja Wurrung including rock pools, ochre and crystal mines. A very fulfilling and busy three days!​ Special thanks to Kathryn and Peter for their help! It is very much appreciated.
We have begun a very special Main Lesson. This is a wonderful and important lesson in which we study the human body and in particular the reproductive system. We are talking with our parents so that we can write our own birth stories and we are enjoying looking at photos of ourselves as babies.
“Trailing clouds of glory do we come.
Soon our Class 8 students will be presenting their Independent Major and Minor Projects to the school community. You will see an extraordinary range of interests and self – motivated commitment to their own learning.
Each student has been given the freedom to learn new skills and discover new knowledge in the process of designing, creating and making something that interests them. In doing so, students actually create their own curriculum project which is relevant to them personally and is in addition to the usual Main Lessons and subject lessons.
Not only does this Project provide them with the possibility to create their own meaningful personal learning experience, it also requires them to find a mentor who has the necessary expertise and knowledge required to guide them through their particular project.
We are fortunate to have so many willing and highly capable mentors with expertise in diverse vocations in the wider school and local community. Over the years these people have become very significant adults in our students’ lives.
The Project is assessed in relation to the level of difficulty they have set for themselves in their initial Statement of Intention.
Completion of a Journal that tracks their process, challenges and progress over time in personal and descriptive writing, sketches, diagrams, charts and photographs from different stages of the Project.
Standard of Oral Presentations given during the process and the final presentation which involves an external assessor from a University.
The final speech presentation and display gives the supportive audience of family, friends and mentors an overview of the process that they have gone through in completing their work.
Thursday 19th May at 11:30am in the Multi-Purpose Hall for Classes 6 & 7 and past students.
Friday 20th May at 7:30pm in the MP Hall for parents, family and mentors.
During the second week of this term I was away doing an intensive training in Bothmer Gymnastics for 9 days in Byron Bay! Intensive it was, filled with games and the incredible work exercises and insights brought through this style of gymnastics. The curriculum starts form Class Three upwards and is a very healthy and centering form of gymnastics, created during Steiner’s time with the first Waldorf School. This afternoon I’ll be sharing some of it with the staff here!
French students across all four classes have settled well into second term and are enjoying a range of language learning activities.
Class One have added a new song to their repertoire: Sur le Pont d’Avignon. Many are already familiar with the song, and were interested to learn that Avignon is a pretty little French village with very narrow, winding streets … so the best place to hold a village dance was right in the middle of the bridge!
Class Six are starting to learn parts of speech as they translate simple French sentences. They are also finding that French Bingo is an easy way to expand their vocabulary.
Class Eight enjoyed a conversation class all to themselves while Class Seven were away on camp. As a result we played the memory game Au marche j’ai achete (At the market I bought …) All were able to remember an amazing range of foodstuffs! Maybe it was because lunchtime was coming up!
And Class Seven have returned from camp refreshed and ready to engage with their French studies. En avant! Let’s go!
Everyone is invited to our autumn Working Bee, Saturday 7 May, 9am-12 noon, morning tea & tools provided, all welcome for any amount of time (short stints are more than welcome!).
Of course you are not confined to these! It’s always a lovely opportunity for the community to come together and feel the satisfaction of supporting our children.
All schools in the shire have entered the annual Vege Challenge. Buda Historic House in Hunter Street Castlemaine has an active group of volunteer gardeners who want to see all school children grow vegetables. To this end they have organized for Purtills to donate winter vegetable seedlings to all schools in the Shire, who then grow the plants and return produce to the Harvest Dinner. In spring two children from each school all come together and cook a feast, which is open to the public. It is a lot of fun and fits well with our horticulture and cooking program. It’s just a shame that all our students can’t go!
I am extremely privileged and excited about being given the new Physical Education position! I look forward to promoting healthy bodies and minds throughout my lessons, whilst providing many fun and insightful games, activities and routines that focus on technical and physical improvements, rules, safety considerations, teamwork and encouragement.
Whilst being very experienced in a variety of sports, I am new to teaching. If you have any ideas to provide, or insight into your child’s Physical Education history, preferences or areas for improvement, please do not hesitate to approach me to discuss further. I am hoping to get many parents (and teachers and students) involved in a fitness morning later in the year (when it warms up again!) to further promote healthy living. Exciting times on the horizon!
Today the students and I are using the Multipurpose Room for a variety of gymnastics, aerobics, athletics, yoga, core training and dancing, and all within a 45 minutes session! Great opportunity for the students to learn something new in a fun and exciting way. A couple of classic songs should help the children to move and groove!
I look forward to the physically educating days ahead! Thanks CSS&K for this opportunity.
The School has regretfully accepted the resignation of Danilo Paglialonga from the role of Class 5 Teacher, effective this week.
The School is immensely grateful to Danilo for his care and wonderful teaching of Class 5, and we are pleased that he will be staying with us to assist with the management structure changes.
It is always an emotional time when a Teacher leaves a Steiner class, and we are fortunate that the children have Diana to hold the class through this transition and to provide continuity for the children into the future as their full time Class Teacher.
We are most pleased to welcome Alan Mack into his new role as Sport Teacher.
As well as being a qualified teacher, Alan brings a wealth of sporting know-how and enthusiasm with him.
Alan, we wish you all the best as you embark on your teaching journey!
There has been a recent addition to our school library: A donation of more than 150 books, some old and rare. Here is the story of how it happened….
In 1983, a new Steiner education initiative began in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley.
The School building foundations were laid in that year on a bio-dynamic dairy farm in Katandra West, 20 minutes drive from Shepparton. The farm belonged to Sukie and Evan Hardie. They had 2 children then. Sasha was 6 and Salonika was 4. Lucy and Matthew were born after the school began.
Sukie had benefited from Steiner education in England at Michael Hall Steiner School in Sussex, and also spent a year at Avrona Steiner School in the mountains of Switzerland. She was very keen to give her children a similar experience, so when her daughter Sasha was of school age, she made an important decision.
After Sukie and Evan looked at existing Steiner Schools in Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne, to possibly shift to, and checking out the local state schools available, both she and Evan, with the advice and help from friends, decided to build a school on their farm.
It started operating in 1984 with one classroom and one teacher, Mr Kim Lai. There were only 5 children from 3 families in that first year .Eventually, it grew to 3 classrooms, 56 children and many fine teachers who came to enrich the Steiner curriculum.
The buildings were designed by Alex Podolinsky, the bio-dynamic pioneer in Australia, who also architected the Melb Rudolf Steiner School, Canberra and Gilghai Schools (and whose grandchildren attend Castlemaine Steiner school).
At open days in the first 2 years, new parents from the fledgling Castlemaine Steiner School came to visit. Little did we know how wonderful the Castlemaine School would become.
It originally was called Katandra Farm School. It took up space in the calf paddock, not far from the farm house and buildings. Right next door was a large hay shed. A favourite playground for the students in years to come. Calves, pet lambs, goats, cats and poultry…along with occasional swarms of bees would frequent the shaded grassy grounds too.
After a few years the name was changed to Milbi Steiner School and 5 acres were subdivided off the farm to provide it’s own unique identity.
The farm and school were surrounded by irrigated dairy farms, nearby beautiful undulating hills of the Dookie ranges. Milbi gave a peacefully tranquil environment for many town-dwelling children and their families to benefit , along with the enlivening Steiner education. A legacy for their whole lives.
Many happy and wonderful festivals were held every season. The farm and it’s activities and animals always providing a shared backdrop.
The Parents ran the highly successful fund-raising childrens festival…’Birralee’, in Shepparton for 7 years.
Milbi stayed open till 2004, when a decision was made to close the school, after 20 years of enriching education for many fortunate families. People had to move along with their lives and new pursuits. Times were changing in the Goulburn Valley. The once thriving dairy farming and close populations diminished.
A golden age was over. But, impulses and benefits lived on with Milbi students and families moving on to new places and opportunities.
Of the original 3 families, Pam Gaylard, mother of 4 Milbi children, is still the Steiner kindergarten Teacher at Mooroopna near Shepparton. It started the year before Milbi in 1982.
One of the last teachers at Milbi, Sara Wilson, is now a parent at Castlemaine Steiner school, as was Liz Branson too. An early student, Megan McDonald, is also now a parent at Castlemaine. Salonika Hardie’s 2 girls, Olive (C4) and Hilde Raggatt (C3), have also made the family connecting link between Milbi School and Castlemaine Steiner. We would also like to acknowledge past parents John (class 8 teacher)and Robyn Wright, both currently involved in your school.
We would like to augment this link… one Victorian country Steiner school to another… by donating the library books, held in safe-keeping these last 12 years, to Castlemaine School.We hope your community can enjoy the many rich stories and reference material, as we did, after collecting them for over 20 years.
Evan and Sukie Hardie, and Pam Gaylard.
Our Wednesday morning parent gatherings are continuing this term. Next week (4 May) we’re painting with watercolours. Parents, friends and little ones are all welcome for some morning tea and a chat whether you feel like crafting or not. No need to bring anything.
You are also welcome to come along and join in our baking for Open Day in the kitchen on Tuesday morning, 10 May. We are also hoping to hold Saturday Workshops once a term. Suggestions so far include soap making and fermenting.
Finally, warm congratulations to some of our parents who are doing wonderful things. Meg Corson is launching her album Wonder Woman at the Old Castlemaine Gaol on Saturday 14 May at 8pm and Gabrielle Martin just this week successfully crowd funded the printing of her delightful children’s book Poppy’s Flying Adventure.
Gabrielle Martin, artist, art teacher and class 3 parent, has created a children’s picture book and is crowd-funding to raise money for a small print run. If you would like to learn more or support her project by pre-purchasing the book you can go to pozible.com/poppysflyingadventure.
A stained timber cot in good condition to buy or on a long term loan. No mattress is needed if a standard size.
Contact Gabrielle Batson on 0400 694 233.
Donate your musical instruments to help those experiencing homelessness.
A Short course in esoteric studies and introduction to Anthroposophy, on alternating Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
Yesterday bridgeworks started on Elizabeth St in Castlemaine. The road and bridge will be closed between Johnston and Ray St for approximately 3 months. The recommended detour from Castlemaine is via Ray St or Princess St/Ranters Gully Rd from Campbells Creek.