School Newsletter Term 1 Week 8

Kaya WCSS Community

A Heartfelt Thank You!

A huge thank you to Class 2 parents, students, and Joanne for the incredible Celtic Dance celebration last Friday!  The parent body put in so much effort planning and preparing for the evening, and by all accounts, it was a resounding success. The joy and energy were evident in the photos I’ve seen – music, dancing, and a wonderful sense of community were shared by all. A special shout-out to Cristina and the orchestra for their outstanding performance – it truly brought the event to life.

I was disappointed to miss the Celtic Dance, but I had the privilege of representing our school at the Steiner Education Australia (SEA) Delegates’ Meeting. Over two days, I connected with the SEA board and Steiner colleagues from across the country, discussing topics such as teacher training and mentoring, staff wellbeing, the findings of the Assessment Research Project (in which WCSS is a participant), and strengthening communication between our peak body and the wider Steiner community in Australia. It was an inspiring and productive experience, and I’m excited to bring these insights back to our school.

Celebrating Harmony Week

Australia is one of the world's most successful multicultural countries, and our cultural diversity is at the heart of who we are. With over half of Australians born overseas, or having at least one parent from another country, Harmony Week is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate inclusiveness, respect and belonging. At WCSS, we are so fortunate to have a rich cultural tapestry within our community, and it was heart-warming to see everyone come together today—sharing traditional costumes, stories, and delicious food. These moments remind us that no matter where we come from, we are united by values of freedom, respect, fairness, and equal opportunity.

Exciting Developments Ahead

Next week, we will be sharing our latest “Looking Forward” update, outlining the many options the school council has explored over the past 12–15 years, leading to the decision to rebuild our school. In Week 9, preliminary drawings will be displayed around the school for parents to view, followed by a chance to hear directly from the Council on the last Tuesday of Term 1, April 8, after school at Market Day. This will be a great opportunity to ask questions and share feedback at the brainstorming spaces we will have available, where you can contribute your thoughts!

Throughout my 30-year career, I’ve been involved in several school redevelopment projects, always ensuring that the best interests of students remain at the heart of the process. At Mount Barker, we successfully relocated a primary school in two stages to create the first regional K–12 public school in WA, and at Golden Hill Steiner School in Denmark, I managed the redevelopment of our Administration block. These projects required adjustments—our admin team of four even shared a classroom while waiting for our new front office! However, the transitions were smooth and, ultimately, highly beneficial for the school communities.

I look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible before the term break. Thank you for being such a vibrant and engaged school community!

With warmth,

Jacqui Hollingworth

School Administrator/Principal

Celtic Dance 2025

CELEBRATE WITH US!

West Coast Steiner School is turning 30 this year and as part of our celebrations we warmly invite past and current parents, staff, WCSS community members and alumni to join us for a relaxed night of camaraderie and conversation at The Oxford Hotel. This is an adults only event with a light supper provided. RSVP is essential for catering purposes - reception@wcss.wa.edu.au by April 30.

Administration Matters

School Council

Family Commitment Opportunities

Steiner Spotlight

In Episode 4 of Steiner Voices XYZ, Steiner Teacher, Katherine Arconati discusses her move from California to Sydney. In this episode she reflects on her recently completed 8 year teaching cycle  and shares her professional joy in accompanying children as they grow through a critical phase in their learning development, her love of Mathematics and Geometry, and a student who could recite Pi to 400 decimal places!

Shining a Light On....

In order to ensure our policies and procedures are highly visible to parents/carers, we highlight a policy or important procedure in each newsletter. If you are interested in a specific policy check the Key Info Tab on the school website or email Reception to receive a copy. 

All WCSS policies are reviewed periodically and updated and/or amended guided by compliance and best practice and ratified by the School Council.

In this edition we highlight the Attendance Policy, particularly prolonged absences during the school term. 

Routine and rhythm are a fundamental part of the school day at WCSS and teachers attempt to bring continuity to lessons from day to day and from week to week. Regular attendance and participation at school is important for all children enrolled at WCSS, including those who are not of compulsory school age, to succeed in education and to ensure they do not fall behind or experience difficulties socially or academically.

Student Holidays in Term Time

Student absence as an extension to the school holiday period is not encouraged. Children should not begin holidays or take leave before the end of school term, nor return from holidays after the first day of the new term. If there are extenuating circumstances, leave must be applied for before the event in writing to the School Principal.

To read the full policy visit the link below.

Parent Education

12 SENSES ONLINE WORKSHOP (all ages of children and adults) by Lou Harvey-Zahra

In today's world, understanding the 12 senses is vital tool in understanding how children of all ages can thrive. All the ideas create emotional calm and well-being in children and stronger family connections.

Understand the 12 Senses and particularly the FOUNDATION SENSES of touch, movement, balance and a sense of life and how to easily include activities into daily life to create, happy, balanced and healthy children (and families). WCSS staff have completed Professional Development with Lou on the 12 senses and highly recommend this workshop for parents.

Parent Engagement

"West Coast Steiner School - it starts with We"

Did you know parents and caregivers can significantly impact children's academic success through active engagement at home, including creating a supportive learning environment, monitoring progress, and fostering a love of learning? Through our Parent Engagement Initiative we will offer ways for our families to support the Steiner curriculum and their child's learning and holistic development.

In this edition we focus on the importance of connecting as a family as often as you can. Sharing meals and playing board games are great ways to do this whilst strengthening social and emotional skills and cognitive function. Research has shown that regularly sharing meals with at least one family member is associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption, stronger family bonds, and better performance in school (Snuggs & Harvey, 2023). Our Games Specialist, David Hammond will regularly recommend board games with age appropriate guidelines as a way you can support your child's learning at home so watch this space!

CONNECTION:  FAMILY FOOD RHYTHMS

Children love to help make 'Pancake Sundays!' for breakfast - it's a winner! Weekly rhythms glue families together. If children live in two houses - create the same fun meal when returning back to your house to provide continuity. 

Five Meal time Connection Tips 

1. Play a ‘grateful’ game - say one think each that you are grateful for before eating!
2. Play ‘Weather Report’ game: each person describes their day like the weather: sunny moments, cloudy moments etc (adults go first and children usually follow)
3. Play the ‘Rose’ game: stem is something you learnt, flower is something you liked and prickle is something you didn’t like or was funny!
4. Play ‘High, Low and Buffalo!’ Say high of day and low of day and something funny! Take it in turns! 

From Happy Families, Table Talk by Lou Harvey-Zahra

EMPIRE GAME OF THE WEEK

Articulate for Kids (aka Junior Articulate) is a fast-talking game where players cooperate with their team to describe words as quickly as possible. The thousands of card choices were compiled by an educational specialist and feature categories of object, action, world, person, random, and nature.

This game is guaranteed to generate laughter and is wonderful for developing linguistic flexibility, breaking words into chunks, and lateral thinking… “How else could I describe this word?”

Released in 2006 by Drumond Park, this new version of the 1992 game “Articulate” features fantastically fun and fast literacy for larger groups sized from 4 – 20 players (best with 4-8), ages 6+ (community vote: 10+), for around 30–60 minutes.

You can pick up this gem for around $35-50.

I, David, still love playing the adult version of the game with my parents and family friends every month or so (even though some of the People category are wildly outdated)!

I hope you enjoy playing it and would love to hear your feedback!

David “The Wanderer” Hammond

Teacher and Host of our school games club, Empire

www.empireboardgamesclub.com 

2025 Illuminating Australian Children’s Literature Course

In collaboration with the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) we are delighted to announce the 2025 Illuminating Australian Children’s Literature program - designed to inspire engagement with quality Australian children's literature.

The course, designed and hosted by Professor Alyson Simpson from the University of Sydney, will highlight this year’s CBCA shortlist and award winners. It will provide all participants with opportunities to spend time exploring books and sharing ideas.

FOUR-WEEK ONLINE COURSE – APRIL 24 to MAY 22, 2025

You can watch a short introductory video for the program here.

The cost for this four-week program is $99.00 (GST inclusive) and registration is available here.

This course is open to everyone. Please direct any registration queries to Nina Goodwin at nina.goodwin@sydney.edu.au or 02 9351 6329.

Early Childhood News

Greeting from Gumnut Kindy 4!

Our Gumnut Kindy 4 students are settling beautifully into the rhythm of kindergarten, enjoying outside play on arrival where parents can settle them in and say happy goodbyes, and then sunny morning teas on the veranda! 

Gungurra, Sunflower and Rose families are warmly invited to attend the Kindergarten Djeran (Autumn) Festival on Wednesday, 9th April from 8.30am - 10.30am. Please dress children in earthy tones (brown, green, yellow, orange, red) and bringa generous fruit contribution on Tuesday, 8^th April to be shared on the festival day and children’s clothing for our swapping table (Last donations to be accepted on Tuesday, 8^th April).

With love,

Gungarra, Sunflower and Rose Kindy Staff

Primary News

Class 1 Keyen 

Class 1 have been working through their letters and are now forming their first sentences! Here students are writing and drawing pictures about who they are. I am brave! I am kind! I am helpful! I am clever!

 Mel Lenzi

Class 1 Keyen Teacher

Class 2 Koodjal

Class 2 presented several items at this week's assembly and then invited parents into their classroom to see what they have been learning this term. 

Class 3 Dambart

Last week, Class 3 and Class 5 enjoyed an excursion to Brownes Dairy in Balcatta. The visit offered the children a chance to learn how milk travels from the cow to the kitchen table and to experience some of the real work behind dairy farming and food production.

We began our visit with a short talk from farmer James, who told us how milk is collected, transported, and turned into foods like yoghurt and cream. The children were full of curious questions.

During the day, we explored both the factory and the Innovation Kitchen. In the kitchen, the children tasted different yoghurts and learned about food safety. The milking demonstration was a favourite, many children were amazed to see a cow being milked and loved learning how to do it by hand!

We are very grateful to the friendly staff at Brownes Dairy and to our parent helpers who supported us on the day. The children came back not only with a yoghurt pouch but also with a new understanding and appreciation for the journey food takes before it reaches us.

Kasia Rymarczyk

Class 3 Dambart Teacher

Class 4 Koodjal Koodjal

By the time you read this, Class 4 will have completed our double Main Lesson block on Norse Mythology. What a great way to start the year!

We have loved every moment of this Main Lesson and become quite attached to the characters: from the wise Odin to the fiery Thor; from the kind and gentle Freya to the mischievous and ultimately wicked Loki; and the many minor magical characters that populate the universe of Yggdrassil, the World Tree. We were quite bereft to learn of its demise, but we certainly enjoyed the courage and bravery shown at the long-anticipated battle of Ragnarok and were comforted to learn that it was replaced by an even better world.

This Main Lesson has provided us with the opportunity to strengthen skills and experience new challenges across many domains. We enjoyed several visits from artist Chris McClelland who helped us to refine our artistic skills and work more boldly with colour. We loved creating new songs and verses alongside the traditional Norse ones. We were challenged by a range of activities that allowed us to build our skills in listening, comprehension, creative writing, summarising, working with nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and to develop our own creative autonomy when choosing which element of each story to represent artistically. We have especially delighted in working in teams to create our own Viking board games, filled with mystical runes and clues from each of the stories we have studied.

We have not left the mythological world of the Norse behind entirely and will continue with our Norse novel study. But for now, we are excited to turn our minds towards our own natural world, as we begin our study of Man and Animal, in preparation for our upcoming horse-riding camp. Lucky us!

Elaine Meyer

Class 4 Koodjal-Koodjal Teacher

Class 5 Maar

In Class 5 we have embarked on an exciting journey into the history of Australia’s settlement. We have delved into the fascinating, and challenging, stories of the early European settlers, particularly the convicts who played a pivotal role in shaping our nation’s history.

The children have been listening to stories about the lives of the convicts – tales that paint a picture of resilience, hardship, and survival, and gaining a deeper understanding of what life was like for the men, women, and children who were transported to Australia.

The stories of life aboard the convict ships, the challenges of building a colony in a foreign and unforgiving land, and the interactions between the settlers and Indigenous Australians are all sparking thoughtful discussions in our classroom. We have been looking at different perspectives and reflecting on how this part of Australia’s history continues to impact our country today.

Through map-making, diary entries from the perspective of a convict, and role-play exercises, history is coming to life in a very interesting way.

Donna Shaw

Class 5 Maar Teacher

Class 6 Maar Keyen 

Class 6 are still buzzing with good vibes after their epic camp to Wadjemup, aka Rottnest Island. Our camp was a unique and memorable learning experience. We stood on the beautiful shoreline at Thompson Bay and gave thanks to the beautiful island, the way Grandma Freda taught us on Immersion Day.

With pristine white-sand beaches, tranquil swimming bays, vibrant reefs, enticing surf and breathtaking views it is no wonder that we had the most amazing time. I was so proud of the Class 6’s as they cycled up hill and down, for hours visiting the spectacular features and coastline of this beautiful island. The children enjoyed learning to surf, (and what amazing surfers they turned out to be), snorkelling at the Basin, climbing the lighthouse for the impressive view, and exploring, learning and connecting to country. We stood in places where history was made, as we learnt some of the sad history that we hope will never be repeated. 

Our volunteer tour guides were sweet and kind and would constantly tell us how knowledgeable and well mannered the students were. We gazed at the stars on the beautiful clear nights locating the star constellations and deepening our knowledge of astronomy, building on what we have learnt in our Main Lesson. With renewed curiosity, awe and wonder about our beautiful world, Class 6 truly had a magical, wonderful time that we will never forget.

Aimee Waller

Class 6 Maar Keyen Teacher

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Music

It was a delight to see the orchestra play at the Celtic Dance last week. All their hard work paid off and each piece came together perfectly. This was also the debut performance with the orchestra for our Class 4 students and our double bassists. They all did a wonderful job! I hope the students are as proud of themselves as I am of them. Class 2 have written some lovely thank you cards to the orchestra which I showed them during our rehearsal this week.

The orchestra has now started working on new pieces which they will be performing next term. Class 4 are now playing the same parts as the older students and tackling more challenging music alongside Class 5 and 6.

The Class 4, 5 and 6 students still have one more performance to look forward to together this term. On Thursday April 3 the Choir will be performing at the 8.45am school assembly. We have been working on three songs and are excited to perform them. Parents are welcome to come to this assembly and hear the orchestra, and  to hear the choir sing.

Cristina Filgueira

Strings Specialist

Soft Handwork

Woodwork

Sustainability

A reminder that all clothes and accessories are accepted in our donation bin regardless of condition. All donations are diverted from landfill and it is a fundraiser for our school. The bin is located at the front of the staff carpark but donations can also be left at Reception.

WCSS Community Association

Dear School Community,

Easter and the end of school term are fast approaching. To help celebrate the beauty and wonder of Easter, we invite you to join Sarah for some Easter Craft activities such as felting, origami and basket weaving. Join her for some fun at the Community Hub at 12.45pm on Thursday 10 April for a gold coin donation. Everyone is welcome!

In other news, we are working towards beautifying our Hub to make it an even more special place for families to meet, create friendships and support each other. To do this, we will be weeding, tidying, planting, maintaining the garden, providing more seating, and looking at solutions to weather proofing our deck. Please join our Hub Captain Courtney , on a Wednesday morning at 8.45am to help out. Volunteers can enjoy one free coffee on us as a thank you for your commitment to our school community.

Warmly  

WSCCSA

Parent Business Directory

Welcome to the section where we share information on WCSS family owned businesses. If you are an enrolled WCSS family, run a business and would like to promote this to our school community please send your details (a few sentences describing your business, contact details and a logo or image) to marketing@wcss.wa.edu.au

Cheesebuddy is an Australian made Brazilian cheese bread which is gluten free, versatile, delicious... and owned and operated by a WCSS family! Cheesebuddy products are available at Woolworths, Costco, IGA, Farmer Jack’s and others. Chat with Yuri - M:0402730490

BREATHWORK: What is it? And how it can help?

Breathwork is a practice that relaxes your nervous system with the power of your own breath. 

Breathwork will bring you out of the fight and flight state your body and mind are constantly in,  allowing you to find joy, peace and bliss in your life. 

The benefits of breathwork are endless, including helping you work on your chronic pain as well as helping with PTSD and trauma. To learn more about breathwork contact kindergarten parent, Giulia on 0451 119 102

Rhema Group is a WCSS family owned  building and carpentry company specialising on all structural carpentry projects, from house framing to decks and patios. Contact them via the details below or visit their website to  learn more. 

Yol Creative

Run by our very own Woodwork Specialist, Yolanda Millar, Yol Creative provides creative workshops for anyone who would like to explore their artistic side. Workshops are great for team building activities, get togethers, birthdays or just if you would like to learn some skills and have some fun! Explore the Facebook Page for more info.

Author - Nicole Watts

WCSS parent and author, Nicole Watts has a Bachelor of Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts. She has been on both sides of the mental health divide, having worked in the mental health sector and having a history of depression and anxiety. Nicole's book, Little Bundle of Sorrow, is a collection of womens' stories of postnatal depression. Find out more at her website. Copies of the book can be ordered from Amazon or publisher, Austin McCauley.

Community News

CONGRATULATIONS ROBERTO!

A big congratulations to Class 5 student, Roberto on winning the title of under 35kg 12 year old State Champion in karate. Roberto is incredibly committed to his training and has worked hard for such an amazing result - bravo!

Triple P is the parenting program that helps make raising kids easier. It gives you tips and ideas to help raise happy and confident kids; see more of the behaviours you like and less of the ones you don’t; and have better relationships with your family.

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program is available to parents and carers of children in Western Australia. Free Triple P Seminars are offered in various locations. 

Start now with a free online program: Triple P Online (if your children are under 12), Fear-Less Triple P Online (if your children are 6+ years and having problems with anxiety), Triple P Online for Baby (if you’re a new parent or parent-to-be), Family Transitions Triple P Online (if you’re separating or divorcing) or Stepping Stones Triple P Online (for families of children with disability).

Coming Events

April

Thursday 03: Choir Assembly 8.45am

Tuesday 08: Community Redevelopment Forum at Market Day 3.05pm

Wednesday 09: Kindergarten Djeran Festival 8.30am; last day for K4 & K5 (10.30am finish)

Thursday 10: WCSSCA Easter Craft Workshop 12.45pm

Friday 11: Last day of Rainbow Kindergarten

SAVE THE DATES

Busy Bee Saturday April 26, 8.00am - 1.00pm

 WCSS 30th Birthday Sundowner at the Oxford Hotel, May 9, 7.00pm

For further Term Dates check the school website calendar

WEEKLY

Market Day: Tuesdays 3.05pm

Craft Group: Thursdays 12.45pm at The Hub

Parent Study Group: Thursdays 9.00am at The Hub or Library

Yarning Circle: Wednesdays 8.40am at The Hub

Weeding Wednesday: Wednesday 1.45pm - 2.45pm

WA Anthroposophical Study Group: Mondays 7.30pm in the Staff Room

Golden Threads
Monday-Friday 8.00am-10.30am
Mon, Weds, Fri 2.30pm-3.30pm
Thursday 1.30pm - 3.00pm