School Newsletter Term 3 Week 8

Kaya WCSS Community

We are honoured to be situated on the ancestral lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people and how beautiful they are looking at present. The lovely clear, blue Djilba days we have had and some refreshing rain, have helped our gardens bloom even brighter! It is such a pleasure to see the children enjoying outside play and learning activities in the warm Spring sunshine.

Last week, we were delighted by the Class 4 play and this week at Assembly our Class 1 students made us smile with their beautiful recorder playing. The children played with such confidence, and everyone very much enjoyed the pieces they played. It brought joy to our hearts.

Next week is a busy one at school with Photo Day on Tuesday 13 September, several Class 6 play performances, and the Greek Olympics for Class 5 at Perth Waldorf School on Friday 16 September. We wish Class 5 lots of luck for their events which they have been practising for all this term. In our final week of term, we look forward to celebrating the Kindy Spring/Djilba Festivals and holding our Michaelmas Festival for the Primary classes on the last day with co-operative team game events and a play performed by Class 5. We hope you can attend these special festivals.

Students and staff have been enjoying the Wednesday lunches parents and community members are providing and we thank everyone involved in this. Market Day food is also very popular. We are so blessed to have families who take the care to nourish us so well.

You will have received an email link to our annual MMG School Survey. I encourage you to take a few minutes to complete this to give us feedback so we can continue to offer your children the best education we can. One or both parents can complete the survey. If you wish to both compete it or to do a survey for each individual child (if you have more than one here), please follow the instructions in the email you received from MMG to request an additional survey link.

May your week be lived with warmth of heart and gratefulness,

Jenny Dougan

SA/Principal

ANNUAL PARENT SURVEY

As part of our continuous improvement process, we provide opportunities for all parents and staff to contribute feedback relating to their views of the School.

All parents and caregivers should have received a survey link from MMG Education last Friday. The questionnaire is accessible until Sunday September 18. Please take the time to give your feedback.

If you have any queries regarding the questionnaire email tony.pfeiffer@mmgedu.com.au or call (02) 9369 1449. 

Google Review

Google Reviews & Testimonials

We invite WCSS parents, past parents, alumni, teachers and staff to post a Google review in support of our school. In a highly competitive, increasingly digital world we would be grateful for anyone with a positive experience to share.  Being a smaller school means we have to work harder than others to spread the word. The more families we have enrolled the more resources we can provide!

Share your appreciation – leave a Google review

If you are interested in providing a Parent Testimonial for use in our communications please email marketing@wcss.wa.edu.au

Blackboard Beauty

Class 2 blackboard by Donna from the main lesson, Saintly Lives. The stories of saints are brought to Class 2 children as they embody the ideal qualities of goodness, selfless service, compassion, love, hope and strength.

Shining a light on....

In each newsletter we will shine some light on a particular school policy as an easy refresher for parents. Do let us know if you have an area you would like featured.

WCSS Electronic Devices Policy

West Coast Steiner School focuses on imagination, physical activity and learning through creative hands-on tasks. We believe that for children electronic devices inhibit creative thinking, imagination, movement, human interaction and attention span. We also believe that children should be presented with age-appropriate material and that electronic interaction often results in a premature awakening of the child.

WCSS actively discourages the use of the internet and electronic devices on school grounds. Students are not permitted to bring any electronic devices (phones, game consoles, smart watches etc.) without the school's express permission. The school reserves the right to confiscate these items until the end of the school day.

Applications for an exception must be discussed with your Teacher and/or Administration.

From Administration

LOST PROPERTY

We are so glad to see some of the children collecting their mislaid property. Please remind your child to check the items before the end of term. Anything not collected will be donated to charity.

MSP - School Photos 

School Photos will be taken on Tuesday 13 September by MSP.

Order envelopes (with ordering intstructions and your child's unique shoot key) have been sent home . Log on to www.msp.com.au and follow the prompts to place your order.
If you lose your shoot key, WCSS Reception will have a copy to quote back to you.
Online orders must be received by Sunday 25 September 2022.

Any orders received after this date will incur a $30.00 archive fee.

STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

All WCSS staff were enriched by an interactive session with Peggy Day, Lead Writer for the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework, founder of the Glenaeon Intensives and Coordinator of the Educational Section of the School of Spiritual Science (Anthroposophical Society of Australia) amongst many other things. Peggy has been active in Steiner education for over 40 years and has a wealth of wisdom which she shared with us. 

FAMILY COMMITMENT HOURS AVAILABLE

Don't leave your Family Commitment Hours until the last minute! We have so many ways you can help. Volunteers are always needed for the Parent Kiss'n' Drive, we still require fence painting, the kindys and library often have jobs and much help is needed for our upcoming School Fair on October 29.

Contact Reception for more information.

NOTICE OF FEE INCREASE

School Fees will increase in 2023 to offset rises in teacher's salary, materials and utilities. WCSS has not raised school fees for several years and endeavours to make a Steiner education as affordable as possible. Discounts (such as for concession card holders) will increase in line with the fees. As always, any families experiencing financial distress are encouraged to contact our Business Manager (financeofficer@wcss.wa.edu.au) to see how we can help. The 2023 Fee Schedule is included below for your reference.

Early Childhood

Rose Kindergarten

Term 3 is a beautiful transition term in Rose Kindergarten. We are still experiencing the cold winter days but also little tastings of the spring days to come. Every week we go out for a walk beyond the kindergarten’s picket fence. We are learning to listen, to follow instructions where there are no walls or a circular carpet to guide and support us. Throughout the year we have been moving in a line with a friend as a partner, but we are now able to move as a group and hold ourselves within the imagined boundaries of the class bubble without needing the form of the line. We are finding ourselves in space. Our space, our friend’s space, and the space of the place itself.  We are learning to be still and observe the changes that are happening around us. We locate and watch the progression of a mudlark’s nest, a honeyeater’s nest and multiple ravens and their partners. We wonder at the different shapes and strategies the birds have applied in choosing the location and making a home for their babies. I wonder out loud why no bird has chosen this tree to build its nest. “It’s too open, there are not enough leaves to protect it” a small child observes. We notice the ravens high up in the pine trees. We notice the shape. We know that these trees have traditionally been used to make the masts of tall sailing ships. I explain about the lookout at the top of the mast, the crow’s nest.

Next, we wander from tree to tree. We know them each by name. They are each different, even within the same family grouping. The bark patterning on this one is larger than its neighbor that is the same width and height. We know that one tree has spongey, cork like bark, another is smooth and cold as ice. We notice that one side of the tree is wet, the other is warm. “The rain came here" and “look the sun is shiny on this side, mmm it’s so warm.” Below our feet the children notice a carpet of tiny daisy flowers. A galaxy of flower stars twinkles and shine up at us from the green carpet below. The children run to greet the next friends, the grandmother, and the grandfather trees. But there is a new arrival today. A toadstool has grown at the base of the tree. A child extends their foot to knock it over. We talk about the importance of fungi and mycelium networks under the ground. We imagine little telephone lines under the ground connecting all the trees, allowing them to communicate, share resources and coexist together.  The foot withdraws and we all stand in reverence of the magical world in which we live.

We balance and imitate our way around the basketball courts to finally run up the mountains of mulch. Here like intrepid explorers, we survey the landscape. Sometimes it’s just us and other times the oval is a beehive of activity. We arrive, find our feet, and close our eyes. Three things, what can you hear? We share. Ok, now go further, what can you hear in the distance? We close our eyes again. What can you feel? “The wind on my face”, “the air going into my body”,” the sun on my skin”, “my heart beating”, “the earth beneath my feet”. We smell our environment, the smoke from a chimney, the flowers, someone cooking a delicious meal. We notice three things with our eyes, we are looking keenly now. Sometimes the world is so alive that we can even taste it on the platter the wind delivers to our tongues. We open our eyes and run, jump, or walk down the mountain and gather on the lawn.

Imagine one of the birds that you saw today or one that you may already know of. Can you close your eyes and imagine you are that bird. Lift your wings and be ready to fly. On cue, the wind blows, and the children take flight. “I’m an eagle”, I’m a raven” they cry as their imagination lifts them to the sense experience of a bird in flight.

We fly back to the school gate and sometimes we play games that help us to move together as a group. Sometimes we play trust games that will lay the foundation for beautiful supportive relationships in the primary school. And sometimes we are full, just from being, being fully present.

“Has anyone seen Rose Kindy?”. “I think they have gone for their walk”. We have gone for a walk, but it is so much more than that. So very much more than that.

Vanessa Fountain

Rose Kindergarten Teacher

Primary News

WALKATHON

Classes 1 - 6 participated in WCSSCA's annual walkathon this week. Well done to the children for collecting sponsors and enthusiastically walking laps to raise funds for their school. Thank you to our parent volunteers for the nourishing refreshments. Don't forget to collect and return your sponsorship money!

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Class 1 have been exploring the mathematics processes in Main Lesson. Each process has been introduced as a character with story and drawing. The characters then come together to show how the different processes interact. The children have enjoyed sharing buns with Happy Addy and May the baker. They have relished the tale of long lost siblings Mul du Plier and Prince Divider and have been given gems from the magic cave of Minus Miner to help with their learning. 

Jayne Wylie, Keyen Teacher 

Class 2 

Mathematics is a source of endless delight and joy.  It constantly keeps you on your toes and never gets monotonous, with each new day of learning bringing something unexpected and a challenge to look forward to.  What makes a square number square, and a triangular number triangular?  The excitement in the classroom when a problem is solved which initially seemed impossible, is wonderful to witness.

Class 2 have discovered the “Land of the Square Kingdom,” finding all the ways that nine numbers can be placed on a 3 x 3 grid, so that the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals, add up to 15.  We have learnt about square numbers using the Cuisenaire Rods, and created farms with pens of differing square values for different sized animals. It is so satisfying to watch Class 2 Mathematicians at work.

Donna Shaw

Koodjal Teacher

Class 3 have been busy creating a beautiful garden sanctuary and have made many grand plans. We have spent many weeks weeding the area and have finally planted our first seedlings, including tomatoes, beans, peas and broccoli. Sunflower and Diamond, our class chickens, came to visit us while we were planting and helped to keep our weeds under control. The chickens have been living at Aimee’s mum and dad's house since we raised them as little fluffy chicks that hatched last year in our classroom in an incubator. They are now laying and providing Aimee’s parents with lots of yummy eggs. In fact they laid a total of 4 eggs while they were on a visit to the school, including one egg on the classroom floor. Unfortunately that egg cracked!  

We have also learnt how to build a wooden fence and make cement as we started to edge our garden with a picket fence. Aimee’s dad John, taught us how to use a spirit level and string line to keep the posts straight and worked with us to finish our first class building project.  

The garden is taking care of all our scraps, as we have also created a worm farm and compost. We received a Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant to create our beautiful garden, so please come and check it out over the next few weeks to see how it evolves. We will be working on our garden for the rest of the year!  

Aimee Waller

Dambart Teacher

Class 4 Play - The Death of Balder

Class 6 ran last week's Hot Lunch Wednesday Sausage Sizzle with the help of their teacher, Renee and some dedicated parents. Thank you to our parent helpers and those supporting our Wednesday lunches!

You are warmly invited to attend Class 6's final  Primary School Class Play, Fiddler on the Roof.

Performances are on Wednesday September 14 at 1.45pm and 6.00pm and Thursday September 15 at 9.00am and 6.00pm in the Performance Room. 

Music News

This term is full of performances for our students! In Week 1 we had a Choir Assembly; they performed very well and are now busily learning the music for their next performance in Term 4.

Then, in Week 6 we finally had our first Strings Assembly of the year! Usually by this time of year the students have a number of performances under their belt and performance nerves have mostly been conquered. However, with the pressure of their first performance of the year some classes who usually play with confidence got a bit shy and didn’t shine as brightly as they usually do. However, like everything we do in life this too is a good learning experience for the students. Overall the performance was well received. The Class 6 students’ performance of Silver Forest was considered a highlight by many. The Orchestra came together beautifully to perform the pieces, Chinese Street Festival and Beyond the Thunder. Beyond the Thunder was particularly impressive.

The Orchestra’s next performance is coming up very soon! We will be performing at the ABODA Junior Orchestra Festival on Sunday, September 11. The session that the Orchestra is performing in goes from 1.10pm to 3.05pm, however we are scheduled for 2.05pm so the students will not have to be in our warm-up room until 1.30pm. All Orchestra members are asked to wear white tshirts. The Orchestra will get a chance to perform Beyond the Thunder again, this time on a real stage! We will also play a piece that we have not performed yet, Ice Mountain, which like Beyond the Thunder has a very exciting ending. The performance will take place in the Concert Hall of Churchlands Senior High School and all are welcome to come and watch the performance. Affordable tickets will be sold at the door and it is possible to enter the venue during a session, as long as it is not in the middle of a performance, so it is possible to just watch the WCSS Orchestra, although the two orchestras performing immediately before us should be very good, so they will be worth watching. All members of the WCSS Orchestra are required to be there and I hope to see many family members watching in the audience!

The weekend following Week 6 saw some students step up and perform solo at the AUSTA Festival. The festival took place at Trinity College on Sunday August 28 and all three WCSS students who performed chose to do so with piano accompaniment. All three did a wonderful job and got fantastic feedback from the adjudicator. Isabella Taylor-Siu from Class 6 performed Jupiter and played with beautiful tone that carried over the piano. Gabriel Eklund from Class 4 performed Gypsy Dance with a lot of character. It was a joy to watch him perform a piece that he obviously knows really well. Austin James from Class 4 performed Barrier Reef. Despite being a bit nervous Austin set himself up well and played with a great posture and bow hold. All three were presented with a medal and a certificate as well as feedback from a professional musician. They can be proud of their performances!

The Parent and Staff Choir has started weekly rehearsals and it is not too late to join! Rehearsals take place on Mondays from around 3.10pm – 3.50pm in the Performance Room. All are welcome and no prior musical experience is necessary. As we get together and sing we will gradually learn how to read music, so if that is a goal that you have always had come along and join us. We always start with a warm-up and then work on some songs. We have some folk songs to help us feel the beat, and we have just started working on an ABBA medley. It is a lot of fun!

Cristina Filgueira

Strings Specialist

E: Cristina.filgueira@wcss.wa.edu.au

Handwork

WCSS Community Association

Dear Community,

We have lots of amazing events on at the moment.

A fundraising Sausage Sizzle will be held on Sunday October 16 and volunteers are required. Sign up here if you can donate an hour or two.

The school's annual Michaelmas Festival is on Thursday September 22 and food servers are needed to help out. Please contact us if you can donate some time on the day. It's such a fun day with the Primary School children participating in activities on the back oval. Scorers and cheerers are always needed!

Market Days continue to nourish hungry bellies after school. Please let us know if you would like to go on the back up baking roster and we will then contact you when we need a few extra items.

THE FAIR IS COMING! Our biggest event of the year, the Kambarang Fair and Open Day is on October 29 and organisation is in progress. Class responsibilities and rosters will be sent out soon for every family to contribute some time on the day. Please get in touch if you would like to help run an activity or be on the organising committee. We are always welcoming of fresh faces and new ideas!

Take home sewing kits are available from Sarah Jordan and are a great way to fulfil Family Commitment Hours and create items to sell at the Fair.

Finally, we will be holding a farewell for Jane, our Golden Threads Manager for the past 7 years on the last day of Term 3, Thursday September 22 at 2.15pm.  Please stop by to thank Jane and wish her well on her new enadeavour. Bring a plate to share if you can!

In community,

WCSSCA Committee

E: wcssca@wcss.wa.edu.au

Market Day Baking Roster

Check in with your Class Carer regarding the Market Day baking and serving roster.

Class 3 - 13th September

Class 5 - 20th September

Hot Lunch Wednesdays

All items are $4 with several weeks being fundraisers for classes. GF and vegetarian options are always available. 

September 14 - Sausage Sizzle (BBQ)

September 21 - Nachos

Kambarang Fair Raffle - Call for Prize Donations

We are asking for donation of prizes, however big or small to raffle at our Kambarang Fair. The raffle is always a great fundraiser and we love to have a selection of awe inspiring, envy worthy, good quality prizes! Please have a think and get in touch if you can contribute to the prize pool or if you have any contacts that we can tap on the shoulder to access some worthwhile major prizes.

If you’d like to help or donate a prize, please contact: financeofficer@wcss.wa.edu.au

SHOP NEWS

Spring Greetings,

Golden Threads is expecting some exciting deliveries over the next few weeks.  Pop in and check out what’s on offer. Lay by is available and goods don’t need to be collected until the end of Term 4.  

With the warmer weather the Hub is a delightful place to be.  We have some flowers blooming and I would like to ask parents to please encourage little ones to leave them for everyone to enjoy. It’s wonderful to hear the children playing and see parents taking a minute to enjoy the space. 

We are looking for some Hub outdoor furniture, so if you have some in good condition that you would like to donate please consider offering it to  us for the community to enjoy. 

With love and spring warmth,

Jane 

Community News

Our handmade giant chessboard is complete! Thank you to our dedicated parent helpers for bringing this project to fruition!

Try our Staff and Parent Choir which meets every Monday 3.10pm-3.50pm.

Coming Events

SEPTEMBER

Sun 11: ABODA Junior Orchestra Festival, 1.30pm

Tues 13: School Photo Day

Weds 14: Class 4 Zoo Excursion, $4 Hot Lunch,  Class 6 Play Performances 1.45pm & 6.00pm

Thurs 15: Class 6 Play Performances 9.00am & 6.00pm

Monday 19: Gumnut Kindy Spring Festival

Thurs 22: Sunflower, Gungarra & Rose Kindy Djilba/Spring Festival 8.35am, Michaelmas Festival 11.15am, Jane's Farewell at The Hub 2.15pm

SAVE THE DATE: Kambarang Fair and Open Day, October 29, 10am (compulsory attendance for students)

SAVE THE DATE: Parent & Staff Sundowner, November 4, 7.00pm (The Oxford Hotel)

WEEKLY
Staff and Parent Choir

Mondays 3.10pm - 3.50pm

Yarning Circle

Tuesday 8.45am

Parent Enrichment Workshops

Tuesdays 2.15pm (RSVP Essential)

Market Days
Tuesday 3.05pm
Golden Threads
Monday-Friday 8.00am-10.30am
Mon, Weds, Fri 2.00pm-3.30pm
Thursday 1.30pm - 3.00pm
Craft Group
Tuesdays 1.00pm at The Hub
WA Anthroposophical Study Group
Mondays 7.30pm in the Staff Room