THE THE MESSENGER MESSENGER Term 4 Week 3 Wednesday 21 October Term 3 Week 7 Wednesday 3 September 2025
Dear School Community, On Saturday we will come together for the annual Spring Fair. This event celebrates the life and spirit of the school and is also an opportunity for students to share their school experience with others. It is a great occasion for those not directly involved with the school community to learn about what we do and become inspired to become more connected. It can’t be done without your tremendous support, and we can all be thankful for the willingness of all to contribute. Events in Wangaratta on Monday are disturbing on many levels We must experienced and need to be have acknowledged as such. Your children may be asking the divine within ourselves, questions and it’s worth considering how we respond and what before we can discover it in communicates. What thoughts and underlying messages our response our environment. - Rudolf feelings does this situation provoke in you and how do you share these Steiner (or not)? Goodness (kindness) is one of our three core values along with beauty and truth. Kindness, empathy and connection with/to others require an understanding that we share an essential humanity that exists independently of our own thoughts, feelings or indeed political persuasions. The difficult task of responding, rather than reacting, out of this understanding amidst our swirling, ever-changing thoughts and feelings is what I imagine real freedom to be.
The wishes of the soul begin to germinate, The deeds of the will begin to grow, The fruits of life begin to ripen.
We are more aware of our interconnectedness on a global level than in any other point in history and that complex picture can feel like too much. Rather than retreating into echo chambers of isolation and apparent safety, the kindness we can offer each other in real and tangible ways can be an antidote to this separation. One of the benefits of a small, diverse community is that we are regularly required to interact and work with others that might not share our views, thoughts, or feelings. Finding common ground and understanding the perspective of others is vital for us to practice and students to learn. The morals and ethics that arise out of a conception and feeling for our shared humanity will hopefully be the basis on which our children create their future. PRINCIPAL Glenn Hood
I feel my destiny, My destiny finds me. I feel my star, My star finds me. I feel my purposes, My purposes find me. My soul and the world are one: Life becomes clearer around me, Life becomes more difficult for me, Life becomes richer within me. Seek peace, Live in peace, Love peace. Rudolf Steiner
GRAPEVINE PLAYGROUP Laura Herridge
Lady Spring is well and truly here and isn’t she beautiful! Our mornings together at playgroup are truly delightful as the sun trickles into Nelawon. The children are so settled, and at home, in our rhythm and our cosy space. Morning circle has been lovely and harmonious as we sing songs of honeybees, flowers and frogs. We have recently celebrated many birthdays which happened some weeks ago, with a yummy honey cake and a little felt pocket heart for little hands to hold and treasure. We are all very excited for the upcoming Spring Fair!
MORNING STAR Tash Kavanagh
Honeybees have enjoyed coming back to kinder feeling Father Sun on their face. The flowers have well and truly blossomed and the children have listened to stories explaining how the flowers love to dance in the spring breezes. The Honeybee’s have started having lunch outside making the most of the sun. We watched the cheeky magpies on the fence eyeing off our lunch.
ALL SCHOOL EVENTS AND DATES: MANSFIELDSTEINER.VIC.EDU.AU/CALENDAR
ROSA MUNDI Jack Finegan Spring in Rosa Mundi has been a time of
change and preparation, both in the yard and in the children themselves. Since returning from our break the flowers are blooming and the yard has sprung back to life. As we prepare for our Spring Fair, we are singing songs of blossoms and our gardens growing strong and now that our garden has been producing healthy food we have been using the ingredients to create our morning tea and provides the perfect toppings for our pizza each Thursday. We have recently met with our future buddies up in Grade four, reading books together and getting to know each other ahead of our upcoming transition into the big school.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio We have begun our term with a new morning circle that takes us all on an adventure into the vegetable garden. Planting seeds, watering them and watching them grow with warmth and love. The theme is different to previous circles, we tell the story using words and gestures and link this all together with a chorus that the children sing. The story will continue as our new circle emerges about birds and the changing season. Our Nature Days on Fridays have begun with a walk in the big school. Balancing on logs, climbing, and jumping on the GIANT log, discovering little bush corners and we have found a creek! Each week we will go a little further adding to our morning adventure. This term we are visiting the prep room on Friday afternoons to watch the preps perform their weekly play. This is the new highlight of the week for the children. The year is moving on, and the children are growing as fast as the vegetable garden. I am cherishing our last 6 weeks together. What a wonderful group these little children are.
CLASS 1 Kristi Mulvihill Fairy Fae
The term began with great excitement as the children returned to school to find a special surprise waiting for them. Having completed their recorder bags last term, each child discovered a recorder tucked inside their handmade bag, ready for the musical journey ahead. This marked the beginning of a wonderful Main Lesson focused on a delightful character named Fairy Fae, who lives in an old tree in the forest and helps birds in need. The birds come to rest in her home, called Windy Hollow, and reside in the different hollows within her tree. Through stories, songs, movement, and artistic activities, the children were immersed in the rich imagination and world of Fairy Fae. Fairy Fae’s adventures provided a gentle and engaging way for the children to explore early musical concepts.
CLASS 2 Samantha Charlotte Magic of Numbers
Class Two have leapt into the final term with their characteristic enthusiasm and joy. Over the past week, the children have been observing the birdlife around our school grounds and are using their findings to create their own data displays. In Mathematics, they are experiencing the magic of numbers through the discovery of triangular numbers, hearing the tale of the Square City, and exploring the connections between the numbers that make up the city and the times tables learned in previous Main Lessons. Preparations for the Spring Fair have been full of energy and delight, and the children are very much looking forward to sharing their maypole dance with the school and wider community. We are also enjoying a class novel together, with every child taking the opportunity to read aloud to their peers and contribute to our shared enjoyment of the story. By the time you read this, the class will have enjoyed a Gnome Picnic, sharing their lunch with the charming knitted gnomes they lovingly created. Specialist lessons continue to provide both challenge and enjoyment. We are also looking forward to Eurythmy next week. Beyond that, the class will soon begin an inspiring new Main Lesson, Saintly Lives.
PRIMARY
CLASS 3 Liz Morrell
Class 3 enjoyed three days and two nights camping on the family farm of our high school teacher, Nick, in Brocklesby, NSW. The camp brought our Farming Main Lesson to life as the children watched sheep shearing, spent time with horses, explored the farm on walks, and learnt about worm farming and composting. Much time was spent actually being sheep in the yards and sliding down the shute! Camping together provided opportunities to develop independence, help one another and enjoy the outdoors. Thank you Skye and Rob for keeping the children fed and happy! A heartfelt thank you to Nick and his family for welcoming us and sharing their knowledge and farm life with the children.
CLASS 4 Clare Bennetts & Sarah Tehan The Art, Science and History of Writing
The Art, Science and History of Writing must be one of my favourite Main Lessons to teach. We experience a snapshot of so many ancient cultures and work our way to the present moment by trialling many different tools to write with and to write on. Some favourites have included creating an ink well adjoining a quill holder, crushing ash to make ink and carving a stylus wedge to write in Cuneiform. We look forward to Spring Fair in which we can show case our beautiful work. Thank you to all the volunteers, especially our class rep. for making this day a success.
CLASS 5 Micheal Brittain
Class 5 has been building confidence with fractions and decimals, particularly using equivalent fractions to add and subtract. We have also practised punctuating direct speech and begun preparations for our class play, Perseus and Danaë. The students have given their preferences for parts, and have started to speak individual parts. The class had a great day at the friendly Ultimate Frisbee competition with St Mary’s and Mansfield Primary School. Their practice paid off, and the children felt confident and proud of how well they played. We have also been rehearsing for our Class Orchestra performance at Open Day and look forward to sharing our music with the school community!
CLASS 6 Lou Pullar Astronomy
Class 6 spent Monday night camping out and stargazing on top of the South Blue Range with local amateur astronomer John Esiner who guided us through the sparkling lights of the southern sky. We were fortunate to have plenty to discover with clear skies, rising planets and a waxing moon. The walk up and back was epic, encountering hidden caves, scorpions, blue tongue lizards and cool dark pine forests. Thank you to everyone who helped make our little camp so memorable: Van der Heydn family, John Eisner, Emily Ploschke, Laura Carter, Dion Hall, Andrew Wettenhall, Skye Meek, Anna Speirs, Aunty Angela and Carol.
YEAR 7 Seamus Kavanagh Voyages and Journeys of Discovery
Voyages and journeys of discovery have been the theme for the Year 7s Main Lesson. Spending some time looking at the importance of the telling of time, through festivals, and tides has set the scene for exploring how ancient peoples would navigate and mark important events. We spoke about the shifting in consciousness that happens as a result of the Crusades, looking at the ill-fated third crusade, and then retold the epic travels of Ibn Battuta. To make this Main Lesson lived, the students have been exploring their own journeys of discovery, and researching about modern voyages of discovery.
YEAR 8 Dion Hall Money and Society
In their Year 8 Money and Society main lesson, students have been exploring money as a human invention and its role in shaping societies, facilitating trade and replacing traditional bartering systems. They have applied mathematical skills to real-world financial situations, investigating different payment systems through graphs, tables and rules, and used the Spring Fair pizzas as a practical financial case study. Students have also explored percentages and compound interest, developing an understanding of how interest can contribute to growing debt or help build wealth through investment.
The Year 9s have spent their first Main Lesson of the term looking at Conic Sections. They began their exploration with clay, creating cones and using fishing wire to discover some of their conic sections. This helped them to develop a hands-on understanding of circles, ellipses and parabolas. They went on to discover how curves can emerge from carefully arranged straight lines, deepening their appreciation of mathematical patterns. Through further investigation into the features of these straight lines, the Year 9s have spent a lot of time graphing scenarios linked to the preparation of their Long Journey – such as booking campsites, bus travel and grocery shopping. An unexpected lesson for all of us has come through the experience of failure. We have encouraged students to embrace setbacks, including the occasional exploded clay cone, as valuable learning opportunities that build perseverance and mathematical thinking.
YEAR 10 Andrew Raftery
After returning from Timor-Leste at the end of last term, Year 10 students have been preparing to share their adventure at Spring Fair and in presentations to the student body and Friends of Venilale. Over the next few weeks they will study the form of a personal essay and use this to reflect on a global issue through their experiences in Timor-Leste.
SECONDARY
YEAR 9 Amy Jewson and Bel Bainger Conic Sections
IB DIPLOMA Years 11 + 12
IBDip YEAR 11 Phoebe Brown Performance is an integral part of these
weeks in Year 11. The music students have recorded their first pieces as part of the Presenting Portfolio. Each student performed a song or piece on their main instrument, for myself the French song Maison by Lucie. The class have also been working on a retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that will be performed next Monday during assembly. The Literature and Performance students have chosen a scene in the play to develop that will be the subject of a formal analysis on different dramatic elements. The literature students are support actors, and provide the throughline of the play to convey the plot in its entirety.
IBDip YEAR 11 Saskia Schultz In our penultimate week of classes, for many of us it is surreal to think about. We are all studying hard for exams that begin at the start of November and following this, the re-journey of the school and graduation, will cast off into the wild to put what we’ve learnt to good use. From the Year 12 cohort, we want to thank everyone here for their unending support of us, for not only the IBDP but the whole duration of our schooling here, as long as it was for each of us.
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
The Year 12 students have been industriously adding the final touches to their IBDP music submissions. Over the course of two years, they have completed four different portfolios: Presenting, Exploring, Experimenting and the Contemporary Music Maker project. Each portfolio has included performances, research and composition. Students have studied diverse musical stimuli; from classical, jazz, ambient, EDM and many more genres. In other music news, our class orchestras and extracurricular groups are looking forward to sharing their music at the upcoming Spring Fair from 10am onwards.
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