THE THE MESSENGER MESSENGER Term 3 Week 3 Friday 5 August 2026 Term 3 Week 7 Wednesday 3 September 2025
Dear School Community, P&F Trivia – Friday 14th August. Get your tickets at humantix now!! Just in case you missed it. Please see this important message regarding the use of devices at school. We has must have experienced There been increased the divine within ourselves, incidence of negative online before we(mostly can discover in interactions out ofitschool our and environment. - Rudolf hours) students feeling the Steiner need to use their phone between classes or at lunch time. It is well recognised that the presence of a phone can be distracting, even if it is not in use. We continue to highly recommend students under the age of 16 don’t have portable internet-enabled devices, and that parents enforce the social media ban in line with federal legislation. The school is mandated by the Victoria Government to ensure that students do not use phones, smart watches and wireless earbuds at school. Our preference is that Years P-10 students do not bring phones, smart watches or wireless earbuds to school at all. If they must bring them, they may not be used or worn from
Deep in the ground of the human soul, of victory assured, the Spirit-Sun is living. All through the winter of the inner life, the faithful heart divines it. RUDOLF STEINER first arrival through to departure, or at all during the school day. Secondary students must keep devices in their lockers and primary students must store devices at the office. All contact with others (including parents) must happen through the office. Students who are found using phones or smart watches at school will have the device confiscated, and a parent will need to collect the device in person from the office. Repeated device use will require the student to attend Extra Help from 3.20 - 4.20pm to engage in community service. Beyond this, more serious consequences will be considered. Young people do not have the requisite skills to prevent their attention being captured by algorithms designed to do just that. They can struggle to communicate effectively, honestly and with
kindness through social media and even simple messaging apps. Interpersonal face to face communication with ‘real’ people, where the effects of their actions are seen and felt teaches kindness, respect and empathy. These skills take a long time to develop, arguably well beyond 16. Our students and families understand the importance of these issues, and we are well placed to ensure our children can grow into effective and aware users of technology. It does, however, take a lot of willpower, action and sometimes consequences to ensure that our children become users, not the used. Thank you for your support in helping our children to remain present and active in the world, not trapped staring blankly at reflections of it. Glenn Hood | PRINCIPAL
GRAPEVINE PLAYGROUP Laura Herridge It has been a delight welcoming our
playgroup families back again this term. Some new friends have joined us and we have all settled into our rhythm beautifully together. A warm mug of chai awaits parents and carers first thing, while the children eagerly sit down at the table to roll their sourdough bun. We cut fruit together, nibble on some too! Then we quietly play, draw and enjoy our cosy space. Morning Circle is joyous, as we sing of winter and warming up. After the children eat their morning tea they go outside to run, dig, jump, stomp, splash, build. Lastly it is story time inside, and it is such a beautiful thing to witness such little children sitting so reverently, eagerly awaiting our story with woollen blankets over their legs. Our mornings together are lovely and nourishing, what a blessing it is to be here together.
MORNING STAR Tash Kavanagh The Honeybee’s have been galloping
into Term 3. After playing horses in the yard during Term 2, the children are now practising caring for horses and riding them in our morning circle. This term we begin experiencing colour in a new way, using natural materials to dye large socks with the aim of creating a rainbow of hobby horses for the children to use in the yard. In the first week of term we dyed with cabbage making purple dye and this week we added a little bit of magic and the children watched in delight as the dye changed from purple to blue right before their eyes.
ALL SCHOOL EVENTS AND DATES: MANSFIELDSTEINER.VIC.EDU.AU/CALENDAR
beauty. As the Echidna children arrive each morning we are gathering by the outside fire and nourishing our bodies with warm banana cake and peppermint tea. When we have all arrived we gather ready for a morning nature walk to begin our day. Following the same path each day allows us to see what part of nature is slowly waking as the season moves on. Our morning circle is full of movement as we sing of dressing for the outside cold, twirl like snowflakes, build snowballs and snow men and march and skip to keep warm. The story’s for this program have been, the Mitten and The Star Apple. These stories link to our morning circle and the Winter festival we finished Term 2 with. The children are able to recall these stories, and we are seeing them played out at inside play in both games and retelling the stories themselves. Craft has begun on Fridays and they begin sewing their felt gnomes using clever fingers to do diver dolphin stitches. Term 3 has begun well.
ROSA MUNDI Jack Finegan The start of Term three has been all about
listening to our bodies, keeping warm and dry in the mornings and ensuring we head back outside regardless of the weather to move and play in nature throughout the day. Our circles and stories have been focussed on the chill in the air and the falling snow on the mountains. The children have enjoyed making the most of the weather and having fun together in the yard, helping to make our new Mud Pit and villages of sand in the sand pit. Our routine has also changed with the increase in responsibility moving forward towards class one. The children are ready for their independence and have loved completing their class jobs each day.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio Late Winter is upon us and it brings so much
CLASS 1 Kristi Mulvihill Tales From Around The World
Class One has been enjoying Tales from Around the World during this Main Lesson Block. They have been delving into folklore from places like Sweden, Bangladesh and Poland. The children have been hearing the stories, drawing beautifully constructed images from their imaginations, and doing forms to represent the castles and shapes within the stories.
CLASS 2 Samantha Charlotte
Sums Main Lesson We have begun our cross-country skiing days, and although snow has been relatively scarce, each trip has still been filled with fun, wonder, and a touch of winter magic. It has been heartening to witness how much the children have grown in their independence, confidence, and resilience as they navigate the challenges of the day. In our Layout of Sums Main Lesson, we have been exploring the structure of number work. Inspired by the stories of The King of Ireland’s Son, the children are counting, adding, and subtracting two-digit numbers. During our practice lessons, we have revisited the phonics patterns and rules introduced in Term One, strengthening and consolidating these important foundations. The children have also been enjoying handwork during the chilly afternoons, bringing warmth, creativity, and care to their learning - they recently worked over several afternoons to form a snow wombat from clay.
CLASS 3 Liz Morrell
The Class 3 children are learning all about indigenous homes and shelters in their Shelters of Humankind Main Lesson. Each Monday, they will learn about a different kind of shelter through storytelling, geography study, and practical building skills necessary for each type of shelter. This week we learnt the skill of tripod lashing to build a strong foundation for a Tipi. All of the children worked diligently to achieve this skill and were proud of their efforts. In the coming weeks they will practice different, useful and integral skills that are essential in building the shelters they will explore. Out in the garden, Class 3 have been tending to their worm farm. The discussion and learning has been rich, as we have all been discovering what makes a worm farm healthy. In the next few weeks the children are keen to make some biodynamic tree paste and tend to the freshly pruned and scarred trees around the school. This will provide great healing, protection and nourishment - much like a warm, loving home does for us all.
PRIMARY
CLASS 4 Clare Bennetts & Sarah Tehan Norse Myths
We have been happily busy this term working on Viking shields and listening to stories of Norse Kings and Queens. In Morning Circle we have learnt how to Bush dance, recite poetry and sing various Norse songs. During our Geometry Main Lesson we have been working on deriving different shapes from dissecting circles as well as forming reflections (symmetry) and Norse knotted forms (a bit like Celtic patterns). All of this work helps with developing fine motor skills, cursive writing and spatial awareness amongst other things. It is not difficult to connect lessons with nature as sacred geometry is all around us: in flowers, shells, bee hives and the greater universe. Each day we manage to squeeze in some spelling practice and money maths. We are also preparing our garden beds for Spring and weaving a fence around the yarning circle that was planted last year. We look forward to Tuesdays in which we will spend time up at Mt Stirling skiing and enjoying nature.
CLASS 5 Micheal Brittain Ancient Greece
Over the past few weeks, the class has been immersed in our Ancient Greece main lesson, hearing the great myths that form the foundation of Greek culture. The students began with the primordial beings of creation, Gaia and Uranus, before moving onto the next generation of gods, the Titans, including Kronos, who overthrew his father Uranus to become ruler of the universe. From there, they met the Olympian gods, including Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. The students are also learning about dactylic hexameter, the poetic rhythm in which The Iliad and The Odyssey were composed by Homer thousands of years ago. Over the coming weeks, they will continue to hear many more Greek myths while exploring the geography of Ancient Greece, its art, pottery, language, and the many ways in which Ancient Greek civilisation continues to influence our world today. On Fridays with Carol, the students are studying geometry, creating beautiful, precise and accurate geometric forms using a protractor, ruler and compass.
CLASS 6 Lou Pullar Rome
We welcome Oskar to the class and just in time to join the preparations for our Class Play, Oliver With a Twist. This Main Lesson will explore the language and times of Dicken’s classic tale with a few changes in plot to meet our cast and audience. We will work on props and costumes and ask that if anyone has any old overcoats, top hats or hooped skirts, please let me know. We also started the term with the first part of our Science Main Lesson and will continue our Physics exploration after the play. This week the students are presenting their Roman Projects which are wonderful and reflect their enthusiasm and interest in subjects from jewellery and mosaics to the Colosseum, Emporer Nero and the Pont du Gard aqueduct. In the midst of project presentations, Councillor Tim Berenyi visited to share his ‘Pizza democracy’ analogy, and tales of his time at the school, when the largest class had 10 students! Thanks Tim.
YEAR 7 Suz McKay MiddleAges
Year 7 have been living into the experiences of the Middle Ages. We have simulated games that explore how the emerging kingdoms that arose after the fall of the Western Roman Empire used their power, resources, access to land, wealth and social structures to overthrow other kingdoms. We have participated in rituals related to the emerging dominant philosophies of the west, through the teachings of Saint Benedict, monastic chants and the creation of illuminated lettering, and in the East, through learning about Muhammah, listening to the Islamic call to prayer, learning about the Islamic greeting and painting the Blue Mosque.
YEAR 8 Nicholas Koschitzke Shakespeare
Year 8 have been hard at work bringing William Shakespeares’s ‘The Tempest’ to life. Over the last few weeks, they have been not only refining their acting skills but also building the sets that will help to tell the story. We can’t wait to show it to you and hope to see you at the PAC at 7pm Wednesday night! In this unit, students explored the history of energy generation, tracing its development from fossil fuel–based technologies such as steam engines and the modern four-stroke engine to the renewable energy revolution that is reshaping Australia’s energy market. They conducted scientific investigations into wind power, using the experimental process to determine the optimum blade angle and number of blades needed to maximise the voltage generated by a wind turbine. Building on this understanding, students constructed working electric motors using copper wire and magnets, as well as Morse code communication devices powered by electromagnets, giving them a practical understanding of electricity and electromagnetism.
YEAR 10 Charlotte Dayman
Year 10 students have been studying their Rome to Renaissance Main Lesson, researching art movements and musical genres from Gregorian chant through to the 15th–20th centuries. Working both independently and collaboratively, students have explored the connections between art and music, examining how each has shaped, and been shaped by, the social, political and historical contexts of its time. Music students have composed works inspired by historical periods including Renaissance, Romantic, Baroque and Classical, while art students have recreated significant artworks from the Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism and Cubism movements, gaining a hands-on understanding of these distinctive styles.
SECONDARY
YEAR 9 Dion Hall Physics of energy and communication
IB DIPLOMA YEAR 11&12 Phoebe Brown + Leith Pierce
This week we, the year 11s and 12s, arrived in Melbourne for a three day long camp, where we familiarised ourselves with the city. We had the pleasure to visit and study in the State Library, eat at an Ethiopian restaurant and enjoy a live band performance. Music students enjoyed a performance by the ACO (Australian Chamber Orchestra), while the art students went to ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art) to admire contemporary art.
IB DIPLOMA Years 11 + 12
These images (above) are from Campbell’s urban and night photography taken on the trip; part of his explorations for his art portfolio.
Last weeks Year 11 + 12 led Naidoic assembly ‘ planting the seed of reconciliation’ featuring with seedpod artwork created by the whole school.
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
Last week, a small group of students from Year 10, 11 and 12 had the opportunity to attend a Music Careers Expo at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. These students were selected to attend due to their engagement with our extracurricular bands and vocal groups. With transport organised by the Mansfield Shire Youth Council, our students were able to hear keynote speakers and industry experts discussing music careers, promotion and study options. One of our students also took the opportunity to perform an original on the coveted stage of the Corner hotel for the open mic session! Many thanks to Geoff for supporting the students on a big day of travel.