Gumnut Bulletin 6, 2023

Education Manager

Dear Leaning Tree families,

Mike

Community Manager

Dear Families,

A very full and enjoyable term with so much happening, here are more bits and pieces to add to our baskets...

Last week, our annual school photos were taken. Armed with smiles and a sense of anticipation, staff and students were ready for the photographer to capture precious memories. The school photos are not only a beautiful way to document the students' growth but also a reflection of the sense of pride and unity that exists within our school community. Photo orders will be ready to be sent home with students early next term.

Once again, the school had the privilege of participating in the Chapman Valley Show, where the students proudly showcased a collection of their work samples to the broader community. Our display this year was a true testament to the creativity, craftsmanship, and dedication of our students and staff.  Visitors to the Exhibition Hall were treated to an enchanting array of handmade crafts, artwork, and main lesson work. A special thank you to the staff who helped organise pieces for display, your support and commitment to making this annual display a success are greatly appreciated. We received a handwritten letter of thanks commending the staff and students on the wonderful presentation of work, which was a thrill in itself.

So too, in the aftermath of this year's Spring Fair, a number of community members took the time to contact the school to tell of a wonderful day out, which is a wonderful testament to all that pitched in.

It just goes to show that here at LTSS, we are not just a school; we are a close-knit community. The bond that exists between our families, students, teachers, and staff is truly exceptional and it gets noticed. It's this sense of community that makes our school such a special place to learn and grow. Whether it's working together on projects, participating in school events, or simply offering a friendly smile and a helping hand, the LTSS community is a source of strength and support for us all.

As we move further through the year, let's all continue to foster this spirit of togetherness. Let's remember that by working collaboratively, we can achieve great things. Thank you all for being an integral part LTSS. We look forward to sharing more exciting news and events with you in the coming months. Together, we will continue to nurture the growth and development of our students and the unique spirit of our school.

Kind regards,

Ally Bowdler

Rainbow Kindergarten

What an absolute blessing and privilege to work in a Steiner school!

To be supported in this approach to education which envelopes 100 years of ethical, sustainable, artistic, and health-giving curriculum and pedagogy is a gift I rely on. What a balm it is to step through the threshold of our school gates and classrooms, away from the aspects of the world that seem to want to divide us, consume a culture of vacuity and exploit every resource Earth aims to keep in balance. This may seem heavy content for a newsletter item from the kindergarten teacher, but it brings into sharp focus key features of our early childhood curriculum, namely earth connection and a deep love of nature.

When visitors enter Rainbow Kindergarten it takes a few moments for them to register what is so special about the space … , “Oh there’s no plastic!”. This is not just an aesthetic or on-trend response to fitting out our space. Steiner schools around the world have been advocating for plastic-free childhoods for decades, indeed since plastics came on the scene. A byproduct of the fossil fuel industry, plastic is very hard to avoid, but our kindergarten does very well for the most part. Our beautiful, locally hand-crafted kitchen, toys made of wood, cotton, silk, and wool add to the atmosphere. It truly is like stepping into a warm hug when you step through the doors. What the child touches, touches the child. They know the truth of an object, the weight of small logs, crystal rocks and the effort needed to heft and when to ask a friend to help. These toys stand the test of time and some of them have been in circulation here since my own daughters attended Rainbow Playgroup close to 20 years ago.

Our circle of songs based on the seasons, the changing tableau of the nature table, and a blessing to thank the earth before our morning tea bring gentle attention to the cycles of life. Leaning Tree Steiner School was among the first to adopt dedicated nature play to the curriculum. Beach Kindy and Bush Kindy serve to offer deep immersion and observance of the natural environment as well as pressure-free play and fun. So, to this, I thank the Steiner pedagogy, the kindergarten teachers who served before me and alongside me for keeping the vital thread weaving between nature and our children.

Brad had the kids enthralled as he introduced them to one of our seasonal neighbours! They all listened intently while he told them all about these beautiful animals.

Thankfully,

Lara

Starflower Room Pre Primary

Can you believe that we are almost three-quarters of the way through our Preppy year? This term has been full to the brim with celebrations and songs as well as some sad goodbyes. Among the changes we have embraced have been:- saying goodbye to Lucinda as she left us to start her new career; farewelling Owen and Iyah-Rose on their travels; warmly welcoming Helen Gummery and Ann-Marie Widdison to join the fun in Starflower; and celebrating a sunny start to Spring with our very own Early Childhood Spring Festival, as well as the big school Spring Fair.

As we see the Preppies grow in body, spirit and mind, we work with them on strengthening their ‘will’. Tasks that require hard work such as gardening, harvesting, shifting heavy loads and other purposeful work, meet this need. And what gardeners we are growing in Starflower! As the children harvested the rainbow carrots from our garden, they used their strength to pull up the carrots, then took turns to wash the carrots clean, before patiently trimming and cleaning them. Then the carrots were sorted by colours and carefully counted, all in preparation for grating, to use them in our fruit snack and then in carrot muffins for morning tea. What a tasty experience that was!

Now is the time for our ‘six’ and  ‘almost’ six-year-olds to be taking on small responsibilities and practising persistence with more challenging activities, both at school and in the home. Finger knitting is rapidly becoming a favourite class activity with the children, as they nimbly knit coloured lengths with which they will be making belts, horsey reins and treasure bags next term. Their craft bags are certainly getting a workout!

I would like to extend a big thank you to our wonderful Starflower families for your participation and support in all aspects of the learning, laughter and celebrations that make up our days. Wishing you all a restful and restorative holiday break.

Sunny Spring Blessings to you all,  

Kathy, Helen and Ann-Marie

Sunflower Room Year 1

Sunflower News 

 Spring has sprung and the Sunflowers have turned their smiling faces towards the sun. We have even planted Sunflowers in our garden. 

 The passing weeks have been a hive of activity and there is an air of excitement blowing in the breeze.  We have had our annual Spring Fair, Book Week Dress Up, Family Fun Day; and we have been very busy preparing for our upcoming Class Play, Learning Journey Open Night and end-of-term celebrations. 

 This term we have explored Worldly Stories. We have travelled through the magical world of storytelling to the many countries of our ancestors: Germany, Austria, Brazil, Chilli, Croatia, Ireland, Canada, Greece, South Africa, France, Coco Islands, Borneo and Hong Kong. Now we share this great land, Australia, with our First Nations People. Within our class, we have children from the Ngoonooru, Noongar and Anewan mobs. Nyinda Barndi from us all. 

The Sunflowers were involved in all the planning and designing of props and costumes for our Australian play called ‘The Little Flame’. They have amazed us at how clever they are at learning and reciting their various lines, poems and songs for the play. They have grown in confidence in their ‘Auslan signing’ ability also. They have even learnt part of the poem “I Love a Sunburnt Country’ by Dorothea Mackellar.  

We are very excited to be performing for our families this week and sharing our passion for drama and music before we welcome the holidays. 

Warm regards

Jayne and Peta 

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Jilinbiri Room Years 2 & 3

Jilinbiri News                 

This term has definitely been a busy one. We have ticked off many events on our whole school calendar and still have plenty to go.

Dressing up for ‘Book Week’ has always been one of my favourite school activities. I love seeing the children get creative with their costumes and see what they have been reading at home. The children love listening to stories in class, so it was a great chance to read some of their books in class during rest time.

I am extremely proud of the progress the children have made this term during our literacy block. The children love writing their own stories and reading them aloud to their friends. We have some very creative minds in our class.

To conclude our ‘Farming’ main lesson, our class went on a farm excursion which was a fun day out for all. We went to two different farms and learned about the jobs that needed to be done to be a farmer in the Midwest. The children wanted to bring some of the animals back to school as class pets, but unfortunately, we couldn’t.

The weather was absolutely beautiful for our ‘Spring Fair’ and was enjoyed by all. It was wonderful to see the community come together to make the day such a success. 

Warm wishes,

Tara & Claire

Rivergum Room Years 4 & 5

Dear Families,

A monumental term full of milestones, fond memories, and marathons. To mark the beginning of this season we celebrated our annual LTSS Spring Fair with some Rivergum children skipping around the maypole. Joyous Jilinbiri dancers also joined us and weaved wonderfully! We were so proud of the Maypole dancers who delighted the community on the day. The sun shone brightly, and we were blessed to see so many smiling faces spending time together on our school grounds. 

In the Rivergum room, we embarked on the second Botany main lesson of the year. We studied our colourful school garden and watched the wildflowers grow. Using our nature journals, we sketched the many shapes and structures of flowers, drew detailed diagrams to distinguish the rose and lily families and painted elemental flowers. For Father’s Day, we made a delicious mixed herb rub for seasoning fish and a personalised tile with a sea or botanical motif. Wet on Wet cards were also made for the marvellous men in the children’s world.  

It was exciting to see such good sports in action on Family Fun Day. Our famous Red Kangaroos and Blue Emu’s forged ahead with enormous efforts and terrific teamwork. The cross country challenged us all, but everyone made it through the finish line, sometimes with support and often with a friend. A few children were caught holding hands through the finish line which warmed my heart. The Tug-a-war warmed my hands as the rope burn set in. Sheer determination and grit drove spirits high. The Rivergums revelled in a full day of sport, sunshine and screaming support at their team. 

The Class 5 children cheered yet again for their City State whilst staying away for two nights at Perth Waldorf School for the annual Greek Olympic Games with Lisa S and me. We were welcomed with open arms, heartwarming hospitality, and generous hearts. Rivergums joined the great procession and marched to the melody of “Glorious Apollo” with all the WA Steiner Schools.  I was so proud of the Olympians who participated and pushed through the fear of the unknown. Virtues of courage, resiliency, cooperation, grace and humility, were shared and the children were gifted wooden medallions.  

Our school term will end with the Rivergum Learning Journey where their families will see just how far their children have grown and blossomed into tall and talented Rivergums with resilient roots. 

Warm regards, 

Sincerely

Susan

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Lighthouse Room Year 6

The Year 6 students have been learning about Australian History in the main lesson and have started constructing complex geometric forms with a straightedge and a compass.

The biggest news though is our week-long visit to Charles Darwin Reserve. This property used to be called White Wells Station and is now owned by Bush Heritage. It is located on Badimia country, about 40 minutes drive from Perenjori. It has a range of vegetation types and has been de-stocked to protect the plants and animals found there.

A big thank you to Jessica Stingemore, who lives on the property and manages it for Bush Heritage. She worked with the students, sharing her knowledge of the environment, land management, heritage and scientific work undertaken. She showed us some amazing things that normal visitors do not get to see, which we are so grateful for.

Another thankyou goes out to Ashley Bell, a local Badimia man, who visited us to share his knowledge of the land and culture. He brought many artefacts to share and a highlight was learning how to make animal tracks in the sand.

Whilst on camp, students learnt a lot about the natural environment by walking and driving through it, stopping at special sites along the way. We also made cubbies, put up shelters, made fires ( in the fireplace), gazed at the stars, wrote in our journals, prepared food, cleaned and played games.

Not only did we learn about the environment, but we hope that the students learnt about themselves and developed resiliency along the way.

If you would like to visit the reserve, they do have a camping area, some walks and self-drive tours. You can find out more about Bush Heritage https://www.bushheritage.org.au/ and the work they do around Australia.

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The Lighthouse students and I would like to say a very big thank you to all the staff and students who supported our Lighthouse Stalls on Tuesday and Wednesday. You may recall that this was a part of a business math main lesson block, which introduced the students to mathematical concepts such as estimating, budgeting, profit vs loss, book-keeping, banking and principal interest.

We had a variety of stalls selling a range of food and drink items, bracelets and anklets, pre-loved items such as books, games and toys, a Nerf challenge and hair styling. The Lighthouse students did a fantastic job planning, preparing, organising and running their own stalls. It was great to see them working either independently or together as a team to make this happen.  I am very pleased to announce that all their hard work paid off and we made a whopping $440 profit! Next term we will decide where this money will go. 

Thank you also to the lighthouse parents for their help preparing items at home, to our fabulous helpers from the Voyager Room who volunteered their time at recess and lunch to help with the Nerf challenges, and to our EA's Helen and Claire for giving up their time to also help us. 

Enjoy your holidays, 

Claire 

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Voyager Room Year 7

Voyager writing samples:

We have just started on some creative writing and have looked at some poetry and songwriting. Cinquains, diamantes, songs, Haiku and songs are being analyzed. One of my favourite mornings was exploring limericks.

Some of the student's work is below.

Regards

Anita

Prospect Room Years 8 & 9

In the Prospect Room, we have been going to TAFE to try out some of the courses they have on offer. The Year 9 students have been participating in brief introductory sessions throughout the term. Our students have been well-received by the TAFE lecturers as they have shown excellent work ethic and positive attitudes, which the lecturers appreciate.

Last week, the Year 8’s joined the Year 9’s onsite at TAFE. We had two tasters; one was sound recording, where the kids played around in a sound studio, and the other was decorating the base of a skateboard. We split up into two groups and then swapped halfway through the day, so everyone could try both activities.

After a well-deserved lunch, the class took a stroll through all of the teaching areas. We were introduced to the trades available and how the apprentices juggle work and learning.

Finally, we are preparing for our class play! It has been an exciting time of getting into different characters and situations. In the next weeks, we will look at the script and start the tough job of selecting actors for the characters in Romeo and Juliet.

Penny 

Physical Education

The Family Fun Day was a great success and it was wonderful to see lots of parents participate (with any injuries). I was impressed by some of the students with their fitness and participation. Thank you, students!

This term, we have had an incursion of golf and all students have had a taste of hitting golf balls. This has been excellent fun!

The next incursion is baseball and rugby, so look out for some photos on Seesaw.

Anita

Golf Incursion

Opportunities

For Sale

Secondhand violin for sale - $140.

Please see the admin if you are interested!

Mental Health Week

Aquarena Swim School

International School of Music Geraldton