School Newsletter Term 1 Week 10

Kaya WCSS Community

Here we are at the end of our first term and what a wonderful term it has been! In this newsletter, you will find just a taste of some of the vibrant activities and learning that occur in a Steiner school. Thank you to everyone involved in making this term such a happy and enriching time for all.

Our Celtic Dance was an especially memorable event. Class 2 performed with much joy and grace and our thanks goes to Class 2 parents for creating and holding this special festival for us. I hope you enjoy looking at the lovely photos in this newsletter.

On Tuesday evening we were fortunate to have Lisa Devine speak to our community. Thank you to the parents who attended this talk. We hope you can apply some of Lisa's pragmatic suggestions and ideas to your parenting practices.   

We have now moved into the Noongar season of Djeran and it’s such a relief to enjoy cooler nights and mornings and to see our earth preparing for the rains of Makuru. I look forward to seeing our grounds renew after the first rains.

To our families celebrating Passover, Happy Passover to you – Chag Pesach Sameach! To our families celebrating Easter and Orthodox Easter, Happy Easter, and blessings to you all! May we all enjoy the opportunity to reflect on new life and renewal and may the holidays be filled with happiness and joy with much time for restoration and reconnection.

We look forward to seeing children and families back at school for Term 2 on Thursday 27 April.

With warmth and gratitude to all our community for a great term’s work!

Jenny Dougan

SA/Principal

From Administration

Family Commitment Hours Opportunities

This newsletter section includes special Family Commitment Hours projects but there are many ways to help out and claim hours including joining WCSSCA Committee, gardening, volunteering at Golden Threads or the Library, monitoring Kiss 'n' Drive, baking for various events and attending talks on Steiner education. Voluntering at school provides many benefits beyond FCH.

RAMP REBUILD

The ramp joining the Staff Room and Music Room is in need of repair. Before engaging a contractor we thought we would offer this job to our school community. If you would like to take this on for Family Commitment Hours please let Audrey know by March 26. E: financeoffier@wcss.wa.edu.au

Easter

Creating a Meaningful Easter by Susan Laing

Sustainability

Containers for Change

West Coast Steiner School is a collection point for the Containers for Change initiative.

You are encouraged to bring your containers to school where we have two bins available to leave your items in.

One bin is at our Sustainability Hub (adjacent to Rose Kindy) and another larger bin is in the staff carpark.

If you  take your containers to another collection point and would like to donate the funds raised to our school please use the membership number as shown.

What containers can be deposited you ask?

JUST CHECK FOR THE 10¢ MARK

Most aluminium, glass, plastic, steel, and liquid paperboard drink containers that are 150ml to 3L are accepted.

This includes:
• Most single-serve water and fizzy drink containers up to and including 3L.
• Most single-serve alcohol containers, like beer bottles and pre-mixed spirits.
• Flavoured milk containers that are 150ml to 999ml.
• Coconut water, pure fruit, or vegetable juice containers that are 150ml to 999ml.

~Make sure you take off any lids as they are recycled separately~

Early Childhood

Rose Kindergarten

Beautiful Kindergarten 5 and 6 craft projects for Easter. As is always the case in our Handwork curriculum, skills learnt in one project are utilised for the next. The pom pom  will be revisited next term for the top of our K6's winter beanies. 

The 3 Rs Strategy

By Julia Noronha

On pupil-free days, staff come to school and gather for Professional Development (PD). It is a valuable moment in which we explore and deepen our knowledge and understanding of various teaching-related themes. One topic that we have explored recently is Restorative Practices. By definition, restorative practice is “a whole school teaching and learning approach that encourages behaviour that is supportive and respectful. It puts the onus on individuals to be truly accountable for their behaviour and to repair any harm caused to others as a result of their actions.”  Although it focuses on school practices, I found that there was information worth sharing with you as it can help support your child at home.

One theme discussed in the PD that caught my attention was how to support our children in dealing with stress, frustration, irritability, or anger, which can be described as emotional dysregulation. Often when we are experiencing those emotions being asked to calm down is not helpful. It may actually have the opposite effect! Because of how our brain works, we have difficulty relating to others or engaging in reasonable conversations until our emotions are regulated. So, to better support our youngsters when displaying signs of emotional dysregulation, Dr Bruce Perry, a clinician and researcher in children’s mental health and neuroscience, suggests “The 3 Rs Strategy” – Regulate, Relate, Reason

To read the full article click the link below.

Primary News

Class 1 

We have come to an end of a  great Term 1, our very first learning adventures created incredible memories that we will treasure forever. I feel privileged to have been able to watch your children grow every day and in many ways. New friendships have formed not only among the students but also among the parents, which is lovely to see. We took part in many assemblies and watched an amazing Celtic Dance. We painted, sang, played, and learned letters and numbers. We listened to many wonderful stories that took us to the land of dreaminess and wonder. We have created our very first Main Lesson books with care and love. To celebrate the last days of the term we took time to reflect, look back on our books and acknowledge how much we have achieved. This industrious group are now weaving their recorder bags in preparation for what is next. The seeds have been planted. I wonder what will grow and thrive within the group in Term 2?

All my doing now has ended,

What I have learned will rest.

When I have done my best,

Wisdom, Love, and Strength will grow,

And I shall bless all folk I know.

With love,

Kasia Rymarczyk

Class 1/Keyen Teacher

Class 2

Celtic Dance

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Class 3 

As their perception of the world becomes ever more objective, the nine year old has a natural desire to quantify and measure, and so Class 3 have completed a Main Lesson on time. Students are now allowed to wear analogue watches to school should they wish to continue their exploration with time!

Donna Shaw

Dambart/Class 3 Teacher

Class 4 prepared healthy, nutritious after school snacks such as tiropita and mango lassi for their Market Day slot.

Class 5 

Class 6  

Throughout this year, students are encouraged to develop strong powers of observation, and precision and accuracy in their thinking. Whenever possible, emphasis is placed on strengthening a connection with the world by means of direct experiences. Mineralogy, geography, and physics lessons provide opportunity for in-depth encounters with the physical world while strengthening powers of sense-observation. In addition to being grounded by the lawfulness of the earth, students are also encouraged to develop expansiveness in their imaginative thinking. Astronomy draws students towards the heavens and provides opportunities for them to explore the mysteries of the cosmos. In an effort to recreate the experience of early astronomers, Astronomy is taught exclusively through observation of the unaided eye. Children were engaged, inspired and engaged, thoroughly, every single day for 3 weeks . Their lesson books, projects and scale model of solar system are some of the examples of this joyful lesson journey.

Ramneek Kaur

Maar Keyen/Class 6 Teacher

Class 6 Assembly Leaders. 

Indonesian

Class 6 penpal letters (see below) which will be hand delivered by WCSS Education Assistant, Claudia to students at our sister school in Bali these school holidays. Thanks Claudia!

Handwork

Class 5

Connection is important for adults and children alike. When we are connected we feel valued and value our world. Class 5 are about to revisit knitting and extend their skills with 4 needle knitting. Rather than give them a coloured ball of wool the children wind and dye their own skein. Each student plans the colours for their wool and learns that connecting with colour is an individual choice. The children will take extra care with their wool and pride in their socks or beanie as they have been connected with the process from beginning to end.

Woodwork

An array of Class 6 completed projects.

WCSS Community Association

Dear Community,

Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers and new members who have given of their energy this term. Thank you for supporting the work that WCSSCA does!

A reminder that our AGM will be held on Wednesday May 3 at 8.45am in the Hub. All are welcome to attend. The positions of Chair and Treasurer have been declared vacant and we welcome nominations to these roles and to the committee in general. Please consider if you can step into these roles or help out with WCSSCA in any way. 

We wish you peace and joy over the holiday break and will see you in the Hub in Term 2!

WCSSCA

Alumni Focus

Sam graduated from WCSS in 2017 and is now Year 12  at PWS

Sam Body - Perth Waldorf School Year 12 Project

A few years ago, I watched a video that talked about a wonderful idea called entropy. It involved someone animatedly talking about a fundamental principle that governed the way energy moved concerning time, how it was a statistical phenomenon, and would even lead to the eventual heat death of the universe. This captured my imagination, made me consider the world through a new and interesting lens, and was stuck in the back of my head (brought back to the forefront by the odd lyric in a rock song) until it was time to think about our project So, I've chosen to look at entropy and my question at the moment is:

What is entropy and how is it useful?

A good way I've found to think of entropy is that energy likes to go from clumped up and concentrated to spread out. If we define clumped up as ordered and spread out as disordered, we come to the popular one-line description of entropy; Entropy is a measure of disorder. More disorder equals higher entropy, less disorder equals lower entropy. The thing about entropy though is that it always must increase. So, it’s theorised that the energy of the universe is inexorably proceeding to a balanced equilibrium sort of state (a state of maximum entropy) where the concentration of energy is pretty much the same throughout. This would mean that nothing interesting could happen and leads us to the interesting observation that it's not energy that powers things but a difference in energy. For example, a heat engine needs both a heat source and a cold sink to run. Coincidentally, heat engines have been an area I've been looking into in which entropy is useful. Essentially equations of entropy are very applicable to these processes and through these equations, we have realised how to maximise the efficiency of heat engines.

For my Practical, my main idea so far has been to build a heat engine since they are so clearly governed by entropy. The specific engine I've been looking at is called a Sterling engine. A Sterling engine is an external combustion engine, so it relies on an external energy source. You can even find little handheld versions that run when placed on top of a cup of hot water. Funnily enough, they run even better if you put some ice on top of them.

I would say I am cautiously optimistic for this year since most things seem to be taking shape. My biggest problems will be the practical and understanding of the math behind these concepts but for now, I’m quite enjoying doing my research and learning about these amazing things.

Community News

📣 Calling All Young Creators 📣

Great opportunity up for grabs!

We're searching for talented young people to hold a stall or busk at our upcoming Young Makers Mother's Day Market.

Young people aged 8 - 20 can hold a free stall and sell:

 🎨 Homemade crafts

 🕯️ Homemade care products

🧵 Sewn crafts

 🧁 Homemade treats

We're also seeking buskers aged 8 - 25 to perform at the markets.

Stallholder and busking applications are open until 5pm Friday, 7 April.

This event will be held on Sunday, 30 April from 8.30 - 11.30am at North Perth and Multi-cultural Gardens

Apply for a stall: vincent.wa.gov.au/forms/young-makers-market/223

Go beyond the bark at WA Tree Festival! A community celebration of trees in our urban areas and beyond running from 10 April - 10 May 2023.

Visit our website for more information on the WA Tree Festival!

Coming Events

APRIL

Thursday 06: Term 1 ends 2.15pm

Saturday 22: School Busy Bee 8.00am - 1.00pm

Thursday 27: Term 2 commences

Save the Date : Parent Info Evening -Cyber Safety & Digital Wellness, Thursday May 18, 6.30pm.

For further Term Dates check the school website calendar.

WEEKLY
Craft Group
Thursdays 12.30pm at The Hub

Parent Study Group
Mondays 01.50pm at The Hub or Library

Yarning Circle
Tuesdays 08.45am at The Hub

WA Anthroposophical Study Group
Mondays 7.30pm in the Staff Room

Golden Threads
Monday-Friday 8.00am-10.30am
Mon, Weds, Fri 2.00pm-3.30pm
Thursday 1.30pm - 3.00pm