Gumnut Bulletin 6, 2025

Education Manager

Welcome everyone, 

"A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when, in the whole community the virtue of each one is living".

- Rudolf Steiner  

What a joyful and heartwarming time we’ve just shared as a school community! Our recent Spring Festival and Open Day were a vibrant celebration of growth, creativity, and connection, and we are so grateful to everyone who contributed to making it such a special occasion.

From the moment families arrived, there was a palpable sense of warmth and community spirit in the air. It was wonderful to see parents, grandparents, friends, and future families come together to experience the richness of life at Leaning Tree.

Our students truly shone as they proudly performed the Maypole dance and shared their learning journeys with their families. Each classroom was beautifully curated, offering a glimpse into the rhythm and depth of our curriculum, from handwork and form drawing to main lesson books and seasonal crafts. Their sense of ownership and pride was inspiring.

The Art Exhibition was a true highlight, transforming our art room into a gallery filled with colour, imagination, and expression. The variety and quality of artwork on display spoke volumes about the creative nourishment that lies at the heart of Leaning Tree Steiner School.

The Open Day also offered a valuable opportunity for families to engage in conversations with our dedicated teachers, deepening the connection between home and school. These moments of sharing and reflection help to strengthen the supportive relationships that are the foundation of our community.

As we look forward to the final weeks of Term 3, we carry with us the joyful energy and sense of togetherness that the Spring Festival and Open Day inspired through to our Family Fun Day this Friday.  It looks like it is going to be warm, so be prepared!

We are also pleased to announce that two students from the Rivergum Room (Class 4) were successful in the Randolf Stow Young Writers Awards. There were 677 entrants from all over the Geraldton region. 

Melaluka Currey-Sullivan received a highly commended for her entry in the Lower Primary Prose: The Boy and the Mulberry Tree. 

Hunter Prins received 3^rd prize for his entry in Lower Primary Poetry: Loki Steals the Moon.

And the excitement continues! Eight Middle School students have their artwork featured in the Genesis Art Exhibition, currently at the Art Gallery. The winners are to be announced shortly.

I look forward to sharing in all the reasons we have to celebrate, together.

Thank you all for your continued support, presence, and participation in the life of our school.

With gratitude,
Lisa Scamporlino

Business Manager

Hello Families

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

I will be taking Long Service Leave from 11th September until mid-January 2026. During this time, Claire and Dylan will be filling my role, and we are also very pleased to welcome our new admin member, Tash. Please introduce yourself and make her feel welcome when you see her.

Admin Contacts:

• Claire - Tuesday and Thursday: managing non-teaching staff matters, day-to-day operations and admin, IT and WHS. Email: business@leaningtree.wa.edu.au
• Dylan - Monday to Wednesday: day-to-day admin, managing all things finance (payroll, accounts, school fees etc.). Email: accounts@leaningtree.wa.edu.au
• Tash - Term 3 Monday to Friday (Term 4 schedule TBA): day-to-day admin. Email: admin@leaningtree.wa.edu.au

The business@leaningtree.wa.edu.au inbox will continue to be monitored, so if you use this address, one of the admin team will respond as soon as they are able.

Courtesy Reminders

• 2026 Student Intentions: An email will be sent in Week 9 or 10 regarding your child/ren’s enrolment for 2026. Please complete this promptly to assist with planning.
• Family Commitment Hours: Please complete your hours by 30 September 2025. Where hours are not completed, an invoice will be issued in October.
• School Fees: All school fees are due in full by 30 November 2025, unless prior arrangements have been made.

Enjoy the upcoming term break and I hope to see you all in the new year.

With blessings

Lisa Thackray

Business Manager

Community Manager

Greetings LTSS Community,

It certainly has been a very active term, and we have had many wonderful experiences for the students. As usual, book week did not disappoint, and there were many creative costumes on parade.

Our display for the Chapman Valley Show reflected the colour and handwork that brings our curriculum alive.  Once again, a credit to the students’ will, diligence and creativity and inspiring teaching of our teachers.

Currently, our Class 6 students from the Lighthouse room are journeying from their Pinjarra camp. We wish them and Kelly and Peta a restful weekend before they keep rolling and take the Year 5s to Perth for their camp, including participating in the Greek Olympics along with students from the 6 other Steiner schools in WA.

Our Pupil Free Days at the end of the term, 25^th & 26^th September, afford our staff an opportunity to travel to Perth to attend the Steiner Schools Day for professional development and networking. This broadens our connection to others living the Steiner approach to education and life!

The last day of term is Wednesday, 24^th September. Students can wear free dress.

As the cut-off for Family Commitment Hours is closing, please contact me if you would like to offer your service for any tasks to enrich our school.

Wishing all an opportunity and time to enjoy the magic of Spring, our land is truly alive and buzzing right now. A river walk, a drive through Chapman Valley or wildflower country will reveal nature’s magic and warm the heart.

Kind regards,

Lara Sampson

Starflower Kindergarten/Pre-primary

I can hear a mother bird, singing in the sun

Telling all her little ones Spring has begun!

Spring is here, spring is here, birdies build their nests

Weave together straw and feather, doing each his best

Spring is here, spring is here, flowers are growing too

Pansies, Lillies, Daffodillies, now are coming through!

As term three draws close, the lovely warm weather and spring flowers are finally here! We have been enjoying the weather and sunshine at Bush Kindy, whilst making the most of it and learning to create daisy chains. How lovely is this childhood memory of sitting and making daisy chains, to be proudly worn as a crown.

We are so fortunate to have access to the beautiful resources at Bush Kindy. Part of our weekly rhythm includes walking under the big gum trees, building bush forts and shelters, making a fire to cook damper on and enjoy it hot from the camp oven. Tree climbing and investigating are great skills for improving gross motor development, whist combining measurement as the children judge which branches are the most suitable.

The children in Starflower children have also been busy in the kitchen baking up a feast for our Early Childhood Spring Festival. We have had lots of fun measuring and mixing dough for scones, rolling and cutting pastry for sausage rolls and harvesting fresh spinach from our garden for quiches. We have enjoyed constructing our own crepe paper flowers, which are proudly displayed in our room waiting for the festival.

We are proud of all of the wonderful creations that our Starflowers are creating and look forward to sharing more wonderful adventures with you next term.

Warm regards,

Nina, Kathy, Helen, Charlotte. 

Sunflower Room Class 1/2

Our days have been full of story, colour and joyful work together.

For Bookweek, the children delighted in becoming part of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Each child stepped into the story through an art piece and together we transformed into the living pages of this much-loved tale. This celebration of story has carried into our lessons, where the children have been reading with great enthusiasm, writing their own imaginative versions and drawing pictures to share with others. In this way, they show not only their comprehension but also their own creative voice, bringing the stories alive in word and image.

In the kitchen, we have enjoyed the wholesome rhythm of cooking. The children measured, stirred, rolled and baked—turning simple ingredients into pancakes, rice paper rolls and golden jam tarts. These shared meals nourish more than the body; they also foster the virtues of cooperation, patience and the joy of working together.

Outdoors, the children have been watching with wonder as our daffodils lift their green shoots towards the light. Golden buds are swelling, promising to bloom very soon. The children are eager to gather them, yet we remind one another: not yet! The time of blossoms will come and with it the beauty of seeing them in their fullness.

Through stories, writing, art, cooking and care for the garden, the children are experiencing the interconnectedness of learning and life. Each activity nourishes head, heart, and hands—planting seeds of curiosity and reverence for the world around them.

Kind regards,

Ally and Jasmah

Seabreeze Room Class 3

Dear Families,

What a joyful and busy term, here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been exploring and enjoying in class recently:

**Main Lesson: Exploring Time** 

This term, we have been deepening our understanding of how humans have kept track of time throughout history. The children particularly enjoyed making their own sundials, which helped them see how the sun’s position tells us the time of day. We are also excited to soon create our own clocks, learning about how different mechanisms measure the passing hours.

**Mathematics** 

In math, we’ve been practicing our multiplication tables and exploring the relationship between multiplication and division. The children have been solving exciting word problems that help them understand how these operations work together in real-life situations.

**Book Week Fun** 

Our book week was filled with creativity and imagination! The children looked wonderful dressed up as their favorite characters, bringing stories to life and sharing their love for reading with friends.

**Spring Festival Celebrations** 

We celebrated the arrival of spring with our annual Spring Festival. The children enjoyed dancing around the Maypole, making beautiful wreaths, playing with a parachute, pressing flowers to preserve nature’s beauty, creating colorful streamers, and helping in our garden by weeding. It was a delightful way to welcome the new season!

We look forward to more adventures, learning, and joyful celebrations ahead. Thank you for your continued support!

Warm wishes, 

Leisl Forsyth & Claire Mooney

Rivergum Room Class 4

The Rivergum Class has been busily engaged in a wonderful variety of learning experiences these past weeks, with curiosity and creativity shining through in every corner of our days.

Last week we began our new Main Lesson, Mapping the Mid West. The children have been exploring the landscapes, towns, and stories of our wider region, discovering how maps can be both practical tools and windows into the world around us.

This week, our learning took us into the Lighthouse Room with the Year 5s, bringing fresh energy and new opportunities for collaboration. We also enjoyed two days of cooking with Ann-Marie: chocolate muffins (with a surprise ingredient - red kidney beans!) and ham and cheese pizzas on English muffins. One child gave the muffins an 8/10 and the pizzas a 10/10 - a rating many agreed with!

Another highlight was working with Penny to design and build arcade games. The children worked hard on their creations and were thrilled to share them with the rest of the school, who had a ball playing the games.

Out in the garden, the beds are looking healthy and vibrant. To the children’s delight, our black snow pea plant is now blooming and even offering pods ready to pick.

From maps and shared spaces to muffins, pizzas, arcade games, and thriving gardens, our week has been full of hands-on discovery and joyful learning. We look forward to seeing where the journey of Mapping the Mid West will take us next.

Tara, Penny & Ann-Marie 😊

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Lighthouse Room Class 5/6

Kelly and the Year 6 children are currently enjoying their Camp. We look forward to hearing all of their news on their return.

Voyager Room Class 7/8

“Blue the sky, my heart is free; Full of blossoms is the tree.

Still the air, my eyes are bright life and joy are in the light.

Thousand bees, joy they sing, Song from heaven now they bring”

Words by Joseph Mani, 1986.

Welcome to Spring by the sea,

The Voyagers have been eagerly waiting for spring to arrive. On our bush walks we watched the golden wattle bloom and spider orchids dance in the wind. We are proud to announce that a student in Voyager has been learning how to take care of bees and their hives. Tending a beehive calls forth a sense of reverence, patience, and responsibility. It teaches students the value of quiet attention, thoughtful movement, and mutual respect between human and animal. Through caring for the bees, students also cultivate inner qualities: calmness, perseverance, and the ability to hold a task through time.

The bees become not only pollinators of plants, but also quiet teachers of character and will. Bees play an essential role in the life of our gardens, bushland, and wider community. Their presence supports pollination, biodiversity, and the health of native plant species. Our dedicated bush block provides an ideal environment—offering safety, for both bees and students, and a flourishing habitat for natural pollination to occur.

Speaking of pollination, our Spring Festival was a flourish of paper flowers and native flowers strategically woven into crowns. We were delighted to welcome the season of renewal with our joyful Spring Festival in week 6. The school came alive with the colors, sounds, and spirit of spring as students, staff, and families gathered to celebrate this special time of year. The students shared beautiful songs and watched the joyful maypole dance which captured the essence of growth and new beginnings. All classes took part in seasonal activities such as making paper flowers, parachute games, crafting wax paper and pressed flower bookmarks, and weaving the most colorful flower crowns.

It was a heartwarming celebration of community, creativity, and our deep connection to the natural world. A heartfelt thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us and helped make the day so memorable! Thank you, Voyagers, for cooking such delicious mini quiches for the day. Thank you, Voyager families, for your generous donations of ingredients.

Season's Greetings,

Sincerely Susan

Prospect Room Class 8/9

The Year 9’s have been busy with more Tafe tasters in automotive, lab sciences, vet studies and autonomous machines. All Year 9’s went out for a day to both Tafe and the Museum. We went “speed dating’, where students rotated around the health and education faculty to see what is on offer; childcare, community services, education, beauty, hair and nursing. At the museum, students were given an artefact and were told the story of the immigrant behind each one. All of these people contributing to our region in some way, from many lands.

The class has completed our main lesson on the 20^th Century, with our visual timeline of each decade up around the room ready for our open day. Students completed biographies of a significant person. We had a virtual incursion, with the Museum of Democracy in Canberra.

To prepare for our Spring Festival, we made batches of cupcakes with the help of a parent   ( thanks Brenda!) and turned them into butterfly cakes. We made over 100! The Year 8’s were expected to be leaders of each multi-age group, helping younger students, while the year 9’s were helpers at each station.

In Math, we continue our work on measurement but this time with “time”. Our new main lesson is called, “The Story of Stuff”. We are looking at our linear economy, how we might better deal with waste, what goes into making all of the stuff we buy and how we could do better as a society, perhaps even working towards a cyclical economy. To conclude this (spoiler), we will be putting a call out for mobile phones that we can collect and recycle, via the “Mobile Muster”.

Over and Out,

Lisa Keeffe

Leaning Tree Raffle

Some games depend on skill, and others rely on chance. Our Year 4 students designed and made their own arcade games, and the prizes were literally ...lemons! However, that is not the case for our Raffle Winners!

Leaning Tree Raffle Winners Announcement!

We’re thrilled to announce the lucky winners of the Leaning Tree Steiner School Raffle! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated and supported our school community.

First Prize

Evie Hebiton — Winner of the $2,000 Mitchell & Brown Voucher

Proudly sponsored by Mitchell & Brown Retravision

Second Prize

Lita Davis — Winner of the Luxury Package from Indah Day Spa

Generously donated by Indah Day Spa

Third Prize

Emma Harris — Winner of the $250 Fuel Voucher

Kindly provided by Maisey’s Fuels

A huge thank you to our incredible sponsors: Mitchell & Brown Retravision, Indah Day Spa, and Maisey's Fuels for their generous support of our school.

This raffle was conducted in accordance with the terms of our approved raffle permit.

LTSS Open Day held on behalf of Leaning Tree Steiner School

Permit: LS23716125

Draw Date: 31/08/2025

Permit Holder: LTSS

Contact Telephone: 08 99646555

Design and Technology

As you may or may not know the classes are split into their year groups for Design and Technology.

A brief rundown of current projects are as follows.

Year 7

Chris has been visiting and the class has been learning how to carve and whittle. Some fantastic outcomes below.

Year 8

The year 8 class has been making a pentatonic flute from bamboo. Here is a picture of some that are nearly complete.

Year 9

The Year 9 class have continued to work on their individual projects. These include the 3 furniture projects shown in the photo.

Handcraft

Hello everyone,

Most of the Sunflower children in Class 1 have finished their beanie and have begun stitching their initials and some patterns into hessian as a cover for their pencil tin and some have begun their wooden boat.  The children in Class 2 are now working on their knitted recorder cases.  This back-to-back knitting is important to consolidate what they have learnt and while it is a bigger project, it has rewards and markers of progress along the way as they change colour six times.

Seabreeze children in Class 3 continue knitting a gnome knitted in stocking stitch.  This is achieved by alternating rows between knit and purl.  The children choose their colours and will eventually get to embellish their gnomes with long hair or short, or even a beard!  After these, the students will make a climbing gnome with embroidered felt.  

In the Rivergum room we have some of the students knitting to a pattern with an animal of their choice while some finish their crotchet potholder.

In the Lighthouse room Class 5 are working on their Fair Isle Finger knitted gloves and some have designed and begun their cross-stitch with four-way symmetry.  Cross-stitch takes patience, care and forethought, having to consider the correct sequence so that the back is as neat as the front.  In class 6, more slippers have been finished and those that have are beginning whittling, making themselves a crotchet hook or two.  This is delicate work and involves learning safe working procedures.  They also will learn how to keep their blades sharp by using a strop.

Chris and Peta

Visual Arts

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to our Leaning Tree Steiner School Art Exhibition held during our Open Day. This was a collection of work completed from term 1 ceramics, term 2 mixed media and the beginnings of term 3 drawing. We will be working through painting in term 4.

Works have been inspired from the student’s main lessons they have been studying in class, bringing these ideas and themes to the art room to explore further.

Our budding artists from class 1 through to class 9 thank you for coming. Here are some glimpses of our student’s creative expression.

Wishing you all warm Spring Blessings,

Danielle Powys

Visual Arts Teacher

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