Gumnut Bulletin 1, 2024

Education Manager

Dear Families

Wow! What a hot start to the year we have had. There seems to be some link between the start of the school year and the warmer weather elements.

Apart from the blistering heat, we have had a very smooth start to the year. It has been delightful to see how the new students and families have settled into life at Leaning Tree. I have the joy of visiting the classrooms and seeing how the students have settled into the learning experience.

I would also like to welcome our new teaching staff in Kelly Comisso, who is teaching the Rivergum Class, David Koniuchiwskyj who is with the Voyager Class and Richard Van lieven who is teaching music and guitar on Mondays. We have also welcomed Molly Delane (Lighthouse), Jasmah Johnson (Prospect) and Sophie Harris (Starflower) who have taken roles as Education Assistants with us. Finally, we welcome Antonio Barbarich who is assisting in design and technology on Tuesdays, Guy Sullivan who has joined the gardening and maintenance team and Verity Offszanka who is in admin on Wednesdays.

We have a lot happening on the planning and enrichment front, please, ensure you read the updates by both Lisa T and Ally for these opportunities.

I have had the pleasure of working with the Class Nine students from the Prospect Class who are stepping up in their leadership roles. We had our first meeting this week and I am impressed by their energy and enthusiasm to be active leaders in our school. Watch this space.

Finally, we offer our condolences to Anita Krippner, our Prospect Class teacher, who lost her father recently and has travelled home to New Zealand. I thank the staff; especially Penny, who have stepped up in her absence to ensure that a consistent program is available to the students. The Prospect Class camp has been moved to Week 8 to enable Anita to return to us.

I really look forward to the year with you and watching our students soar.

Yours

Mike

Community Manager

Dear Families,

As we embrace (sometimes under the sprinkler) the warm winds of the season, I am delighted to bring you the latest community news and highlights from our vibrant little big school.

Beginning Busy Bee 

Thank you to those who helped spruce up the school at the beginning of the school term. Many little jobs were achieved, the weather wasn't too hot and we enjoyed over 70 sizzling sausages for lunch!

Parent & Friend Action Group

We have kicked off 2024 with an enthusiastic group of 12 P&F members who have already begun planning some fun community events. More to follow in their news column below!

Parent Representatives 

Parent Representatives play a vital role in enhancing communication and cooperation between the class teacher and the parent body. By becoming involved, you will be contributing to the positive development of our school and helping create a supportive environment. Parents Reps so far for this year are:

• Starflower Room: Taylor N
• Sunflower Room: still searching...could it be you?
• Jilinbiri Room: Amanda B
• Seabreeze Room: Nicole Mc
• Rivergum Room: Amanda R
• Lighthouse Room: Amanda B
• Voyager Room: still searching...could it be you?
• Prospect Room: Erfana

Please either let your teacher or myself know if you would like to volunteer to become a Parent Representative. This school service acquits all of your Family Commitment hours...too easy!

  📅 Upcoming Community Events and Reminders 📌    

• We are thrilled to announce an exciting weekly lunch service brought to you by Mumma Duha's Kitchen. Use the link emailed to you each week to order by MONDAY for WEDNESDAY delivery.
  
• Thursday 29th February: Steiner Education presentation via Zoom (see below). Please register using your surname & LTSS.
• Friday 1st March: An invitation to complete the LTSS Strategic Planning Survey will be sent out. This important survey allows you to provide feedback on the LTSS future big-picture plan...for the students now and yet to come. Make your voice count!
• Friday 1st March: Crazy Hair Day! Gold coin donation, parade at Gathering.
• Monday 4th March: Labour Day public holiday.
  
• Thursday 7th March: Steiner Education presentation onsite at school. Please RSVP to the school.
• Friday 8th March: Free fresh fruit ice creams, recess and lunch.
• Friday 15th March: Harmony Day dress up @ 8.45 am. Parade during Gathering. Teachers will communicate if your class will have a bring and share.

Keep cool in this summer weather!

Kind regards,

Ally                                                               

Thank you P&F

The big storage container funded by the P&F arrived onsite last December to house the P&F equipment which is used throughout the year for various events. This will create additional space in the shed for sports equipment and teacher resources.

Thank you to all who helped make this happen; special mention to Mark P for helping to coordinate the logistics involved.

Parent & Friend Action Group

Hello everyone!

We welcome our active P&F members for 2024:

• Jess L,
• Verity O,
• Sonja P,
• Miya H,
• Taylor N,
• Yvette D,
• Nina G,
• Yvette P,
• Amanda B,
• Amanda R and 
• Narelle T.

Upcoming Fun P&F Initiatives!

• Friday 1st March: Crazy Hair Day! Gold coin donations will be collected by the Prospect students. 
• Friday 8th March: Free Fresh Fruit Ice Creams! If you would like to help out with this, a link to the roster has been sent out to you. 

P&F Funding

A P&F funding request has been approved to purchase additional shade sails for the Starflower playground. Thank you P&F  ♥

Other News

It has been decided to host the LTSS Spring Fair biannually so that all involved continue to enjoy participating in this beautiful event. Never fear, this year the school will host a Spring Open Day instead. The P&F will coordinate a major raffle and run family-friendly activities on the day. More to come about this as the time draws near.

In term 2 when the weather begins to cool, the P&F hopes to roll out the free Friday morning coffee cart, host an outdoor movie night and a few other community-building events. 

You are warmly encouraged to join the P&F action team; the next meeting will be held onsite at school at 3.15 pm on Wednesday 13th March.

Your P&F

Enrichment Coordinator

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to our 2024 school year!

Aesthetics are important to us here at Leaning Tree Steiner School and our rooms are looking fabulous.  It is important to immerse the children in calm, uncluttered environments so they are free to imagine and create.  In the holidays parents were busy sewing pencil rolls and curtains, and I got the job of dyeing the material and at the busy bee, many families came to spruce up our school.  Thank you to all those families that help to create a vibrant, but calm school.

We have lots of great things in store for us this term:  there is going to be a couple of parent nights, one delivered via Zoom and another with a combination of Zoom and face-to-face. These are a great way to learn more about the how and why of Steiner Education and to connect with other parents at the school.

We are putting out a Tree House magazine edition this term, so please feel free to contribute or provide feedback on previous issues.

Our Michaelmas Festival in week 8 is a wonderful way to immerse yourself into festival life and a community celebration.  We celebrate the departure of the southerly winds and bring in the Autumn with games, bread baking, stories and songs focusing on being brave and courageous. Saint George and the Dragon theme heavily and of course Archangel Michael to whom St George looked for strength and courage.

The Jilinbiri classroom shall receive their new desks soon to accommodate their new chairs. 

So as you see… behind the scenes we are always busy and focused on providing best practice.

I hope you all find some cool in amongst the warmth.

Lisa Scamporlino

Starflower Kindergarten/Pre-primary

Dear Starflower families,

It has been such a delight to welcome back our Preppy and Kindy families both new and old. I would like to say a big thankyou to the energetic parents who came along to help at our first Busybee, what a lot we achieved! Also, a heartfelt thankyou to everyone who made it to our Starflower information evening. It was so lovely to be able to sit in our Starflower room with the Mums and Dads stitching away at their child’s Angel Pillow or a making a special ‘Little One’ for their child. Pillow stuffing is under way and the basket of wool will be in the covered shed area each morning, for any parents who have finished embroidering.

We are beginning this school year with a composite K/PP class and the children are settling in beautifully. The weather has been extremely hot so far and our little people have managed it really well. Of course, when it’s hot in Starflower, the Kindergarten students get busily into water play. There is nothing better than running through the sprinkler to cool off, splashing in our paddling pool or digging deep down into the cool fresh sand in our sandpit. Our very popular hand water pump is having some well-earned rest at the moment while we wait for a replacement part, so the children have been filling our buckets from the hose to make marvellous mudpits and sandy snacks, often beautifully decorated with flowers from our garden. Often, we need a good hose off or even a change of clothes before coming inside for morning tea.

Next week will see the Preppies heading off to swimming lessons at the Aquarena. Helen will watch over them as they learn new skills in the pool, while I have some fun with the Blossoms and Gumnuts here at school.

I hope a cooler change is around the corner as we step a little closer to Lady Autumn each day.

Warm Summer Blessings, 

Kathy, Helen and Sophie

Starflower

Sunflower Room Class 1

Like unto sunflowers, the children grew 

Bright eyes greeting the sun’s first ray 

Small hands eager for work and play 

Young hearts singing the livelong day 

Sunflowers happy together and ever so friendly  

What lovely and delightful children they are to me   

Author Unknown  

 The Sunflowers crossed over the rainbow bridge with enthusiasm, smiles and a courageous sense of pride. Beneath a bursting hot mid-west sun Class One received their rainbow magic sticks (special pencils). They bravely walked under an arbour of Class 9 students holding hands high above their heads. Little feet then eagerly entered their classroom and stood on the edge of a round mat for the morning circle. We greeted a bright new day of firsts and even attended a music class full of action songs and dancing. Sunflowers drew self-portraits on blackboards, used block wax crayons to draw straight and leaning trees as well as crayon resist underwater paintings.  

We have been strengthening Sunflowers fine motor and drawing abilities each time we learn a new form in the Form Drawing Main Lesson. To embed the new forms in our memory we have been making the running forms with ropes, crawling spirals and walking through weaving patterns daily.  

Shrove Tuesday was spent making pancakes with the Class 7 Lighthouse students. We had a pancake-off that involved three teams competing for the title of ‘tastiest and best-cooked pancake’. Our beloved gardener Brad was the Judge of Glory, and he graciously accepted the challenge of deciding a winner. Once we ate our pancakes covered in fruit and maple syrup, we remembered that we were all winners. What a wonderful treat we all made to eat together just in time for morning recess.  

Multiple heatwaves have meant much more time spent indoors than outdoors. After lunch we make sure that we spend quality time resting our body, with meditation music, calming essential oils and positive affirmations. Health lessons have focused on the Zones of Regulation and the myriad of feelings that fit into each zone. Sunflowers are very strong and understand the importance of sharing our feelings. We discuss our feelings each day and share what hurts our heart. For Valentine's Day we drew a rainbow heart and what makes our hearts sing. I coincidentally found out that lots of Sunflowers are very happy when they are eating ice cream, pancakes and frozen watermelon.  

With warm regards, 

Sincerely Susan 

Sunflower Room

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Jilinbiri Room Class 2

Dear parents,

It has been a hot and industrious start to term in Jilinbiri! We are grateful to have an air-conditioned classroom to help keep us cool. In main lesson, the children have been enjoying listening to fables and learning poems. A favourite was "Tortoise and Hare". They are now working on writing more descriptive sentences as part of their progression in class 2.

In English, the students have been exploring patterns in spelling and reading. There was great excitement about taking our new readers home! In Maths, they have been learning about place value and using MAB blocks to create 2-digit numbers. They have also been extending their basic fact knowledge and discovering the relationship between addition and subtraction.

In Science, the children have been captivated by learning about mini-beasts (insects), discovering that insects have structural similarities, lifecycles and behave in interesting ways.. In STEM, they are busy collecting recycled objects to design and build their own floatable boats. A highlight of the term so far was our Shrove Tuesday celebrations, where the children had the opportunity to make, cook, and enjoy delicious pancakes together.

Thank you for your continued support in your child's education. We look forward to sharing more exciting learning experiences with you in the coming weeks.

Warm regards,

Leisl  and Ann-Marie

Jilinbiri Room

Seabreeze Room Class 3

Dear Families,

The Seabreeze Room has certainly been a hive of activity so far this term.  

We started the year with our first Main Lesson topic, Authority and Rulership. Successful cooperation with others depends on shared social conventions expressed in rules, turn-taking and appropriate forms of address. Our first activity to support this topic, was to write our own set of ‘Classroom Commandments’. As a class, we came up with 5 rules that we all agreed to follow, to ensure we all have a fun, safe and positive experience.  

 We have now moved on to our second Main Lesson topic, Money. The children have been learning about the coins and notes that we have in Australia and the different currencies around the world. We have been listening to stories about trading and bartering in the early days, and last week the children had the opportunity to bring in an old toy, book or item from home to ‘trade’ with a friend.   

 We are all looking forward to some cooler weather so we can get into the garden and start planting some edible produce.  

 Warm regards 

Tara & Claire 

Seabreeze Room

Rivergum Room Class 4/5

We’ve only been at school a few weeks and we have already embarked on a journey through time to Ancient Egypt, exploring the daily lives and rhythms of its ordinary citizens; the backbone and workers of one of the most amazing early civilizations.  

Imagine the bustling streets of ancient Egypt, where daily life was filled with rich culture, vibrant markets, and timeless traditions. From the grandeur of the pharaohs to the simplicity of everyday citizens, each facet of society contributed to the tapestry of Egyptian life. But first, let's delve into the enriching lessons and activities happening in our modern classroom. 

In Rivergum, students have been honing their creativity with macrame, weaving intricate patterns reminiscent of ancient Egyptian textiles. Meanwhile, the melodious tunes of the recorder fill the air as students learn to play this timeless instrument, connecting with the musical heritage of cultures past. 

Through form drawing, students explore geometric shapes and patterns, tapping into the mathematical precision that defined ancient Egyptian architecture and design. And in our mathematics lessons, the concept of place value takes centre stage, mirroring the meticulous numerical systems used by ancient Egyptians in their daily transactions and calculations. 

Circle time brings our class together in a moment of reflection, sharing stories and experiences much like the gatherings of families and friends in ancient Egyptian households. And what better way to celebrate our togetherness than with a pancake breakfast on Shrove Tuesday; savouring the simple pleasures of traditions that transcend time and culture. 

We took a brief side trip into the Chinese New Year, and honoured the traditions and legends that have been passed down through generations. The story of the Nian reminds us of the power of unity and resilience in the face of adversity, echoing the timeless themes of courage and triumph found in ancient Egyptian myths. 

Just as the ancient Egyptians adapted to their desert environment, our students have learned to cope with the heat, finding innovative ways to stay cool and hydrated while maintaining their enthusiasm for learning. And in our classroom, our class plants thrive under the care and attention of our students, teaching valuable lessons about nurturing and growth. 

As we weave together the threads of ancient and modern life, we discover the timeless truths and enduring connections that unite us across cultures and generations. We will keep you updated as we continue our journey of exploration and discovery in the weeks to come. 

Warm regards, 

Kelly, Helen and Molly. 

Rivergum Room

Lighthouse Room Class 5/6

Dear Families

A warm summer greeting to you all!

The Lighthouse students began the term exploring what it means to be a Lighthouse student, getting to know each other and exploring how to stay safe online and in the real world. Apart from our main lessons, we came together in a circle, practiced math, literacy skills and started work on our class play.

In week two we were learning about Chinese New Year. 2024 is the year of the dragon. Our class has dragons, snakes and two horses! We created a beautiful main lesson page, practiced using chopsticks, tried drawing/ painting Chinese characters and learned to draw dragons.  We enjoyed learning Mandarin from an expert, thanks to the Mandarin Society visit. Mandarin is the language most spoken in China and is very tricky!

Week three saw us begin our trip around the world with “Geography”. We will be exploring the 7 continents and 5 oceans that make up our fascinating planet. While I was on holiday, I went to the Antarctic Centre in New Zealand. I learned so much and enjoyed sharing stories and facts about our first continent, Antarctica!

Students have loved exploring Art with Dani so far and the lucky year 6’s are now learning guitar during the week. We look forward to the weather cooling down so we can get outside more.

Warm regards,

Lisa Keeffe

Voyager Room Class 7

Voyages for the Voyagers

Dear Voyager families,

A productive start to the year has seen the Voyagers engaged with a range of activities and experiences designed to give the students a sense of where they belong both geographically and individually on their voyage through life.

After their ‘re-knightification’ and bestowing of their guiding virtues, the Voyagers have shown great skill and promise for what is an exciting year ahead, filled with opportunities at every turn.

Initially looking at where we all fit in the universe, the students have recently focused their attention on early sea-faring voyages of the past, particularly of the first two circumnavigations of our globe and the interesting storylines tied into each.

Looking ahead, we next turn our attention to observing our world through a scientific lens: Acoustics, Optics and Warmth, as physics main lessons will kick into action.

I look forward to seeing what connections and creations can be made over the next few weeks!

David

Voyager Class

Handcraft

Hello everyone,

Handcraft has started off to a smooth start.  All the classes are joyfully sitting in their new rhythms, learning new skills as they embark on new projects.

Through storytelling in the early years, the children learn about nature and fibres and how they are used for certain purposes.  For example, the Sunflowers, so eager and wide-eyed have heard a story about a little fairy weaver and then they get to inspect the hessian they are decorating and see how the threads are woven.   In class 2 the Jilinbiri children are hearing tales about a young boy and girl, Jane and Jeremy, who learn how to make their own knitting needles and learn to knit.  This brings a connection to the children and they will also learn a little verse (part of the story) to help them remember how to knit.

Class 3 Seabreeze children are embarking on felting their pencil rolls.  They have eagerly laid out the roving wool in anticipation of what is to come.

Class 4/5 Rivergum children are learning simple embroidery to decorate a table centrepiece. Some are finishing off gnomes and a few will also create felt pencil rolls.

Class 5/6 Lighthouse are working on fingerless knitted gloves for the class 5’s and crochet slippers for the class 6’s.

All in all, they are all off to a great start and the dynamics in the rooms resemble harmony ♥

Lisa and Helen

Handcraft

Music

We welcome Richard to our school!

In a music lesson, they find their place,

In every melody, a smiling face.

For in the heart of their musical play,

Children thrive in the light of day.

Governing Body

A message from the retiring school Chair – Wendy Watters

I have no doubt the new Governing Body team will step into the role with renewed enthusiasm to carry on where the retiring members have left off. 

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