THE MESSENGER
Term 1 Week 7 Wednesday 12 March 2025
Dear School Community,
We have recently welcomed Autumn, but it still feels very much like summer, and I think most of us are keen to see a bit more rain on the horizon.
Since the last Messenger, many students have competed in sporting endeavours. Our annual Swim Carnival was a lot of fun, where participation was the order of the day. Primary students participated in district and regional swimming events, and Scarlett D’Arcy represented the school at the National Mountain Bike Interschools competition in Thredbo. Other students will soon represent the school in mountain bike inter-schools events at Buller and Falls Creek. Additionally, secondary students will be heading out to various schools for the round-robin competition.
Over the past few months, Dennis Bainger has been working with the fine people at the Men’s Shed to produce some beautiful, robust stools for Morning Star Kindergarten. P&F supplied the funds for this project, and Dennis provided many hours of elbow grease. Thank you to all involved!
ABC’s Long Read from March 2nd – ‘AI is changing our future, but we have the power to shape it’ (link below) - makes for some sobering reading. The interrelated nature of the society we have created and the decisions to be made in the future will require our children to draw on creativity, hope, and an ability to grapple with complex, multilayered questions. They will need to appreciate the perspectives of others while not sliding into complete moral relativism. This is no small task. As I read this article, I repeatedly felt thankful and heartened that our senior secondary education will serve our children well. The IB Diploma Program, approached with Steiner pedagogy at its foundation, is an excellent beginning for our children to develop the skills and disposition they need to bring compassion and understanding to their endeavours.
SCHOOL EVENTS AND DATES: WWW.
GRAPEVINE
We look forward to welcoming families from all year levels to enjoy ‘Strings on the Green’ on March 28th. P&F will be creating delicious baked potatoes as their first fundraising effort for the year and look forward to your support. As we speak, P&F fundraising from last year is enabling stage curtains to be installed in the Melliodora Hall. We can’t wait for the first performance! Happy Autumn!
Glenn Hood | PRINCIPAL
LINK:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/ ai-and-our-technological-future/104305614
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio
Lady Autumn would love to visit but Father Sun is being a bit bossy! We are singing songs of Autumn days, bees are visiting, ducks are paddling, fish are swimming and frogs are jumping. Our stories have been chosen to help the children learn to care for one another as they become more and more familiar with the Kinder space and the friends that visit each day,’ The Kindness ball’, has filled all of our hearts with love. Tidalick is this week’s story, an aboriginal story about a frog that has an enormous thirst and drinks all of the rivers and lakes in our times of drought. Luckily the old man eel made him laugh and the waters flowed again as Tidalick laughed and flooded our land with the water he drank.We are learning to wet felt and have made felt sunflowers so we have them to make us smile as the tall ones in our garden fade.Our festival preparations begin next week and we will be busily making easter baskets, felted nests for our baskets and Autumn headbands to wear at our festival. On Nature day last week we visited the big school garden and harvested some potatoes with Finella. We then busily washed them and sliced them up ready to cook rosemary chips for afternoon tea. A lovely way to finish our week together in Morning Star.
ROSA MUNDI Jack Finegan
Rosa Mundi have been eagerly awaiting the cool change, spending what time we can out in the yard and watching the leaves slowly change into their Autumn clothes. Our garden is ready for planting and we have been busy little bees creating craft pieces for our Easter festival and working hard on our toy boats. Whilst inside the cool of our classroom we have welcomed our table gnome who lives on our new centre table. The children have helped him create small worlds and have taken him on new adventures each day.
CLASS 1 Samantha Charlotte
Class One have been busily exploring the land of the alphabet. We have met each of the letters, learned their name and sound and created beautiful images that reference the letters’ forms. We have just entered the Kingdom of Numbers and will be experiencing the quality of numbers up to 12, including how each number looks and sounds and what they represent in our world. Class One are loving their craft projects, busily knitting and weaving during story time in the afternoon, and their joyous presence is strongly felt in the schoolyard during playtimes.
CLASS 2 Liz Morrell
Class 2 have been focusing on sentence writing this Main Lesson block. The class have been working with Subject and Action to construct a series of simple sentences. The King of Ireland’s Son story has been the inspiration for sentence writing, and mirrors the children’s challenge to write independently. The King of Ireland’s Son story appropriately provides imagery of an individual who is striving to develop. The King’s Son is tested as he meets many challenges along his journey. He faces these challenges with the support of his companions who share the journey. In numeracy we are using ‘split strategies’ to work out addition and subtraction and we continue to practise skip counting by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.
CLASS 3 Glenn Hood
Class three is enjoying their time with Carol, who is doing a wonderful job of providing a seamless program while Amy is away. They have been working hard at their grammar main lesson with Queen Noun and King Verb, teaching some important parts of language.
CLASS 4 Julie Beer
Class 4 have been learning about our First Nations Peoples and their connection to place and to each other. We have learnt about the Taungurung (and Kulin) creation stories, and Bundjil’s instructions to his people regarding caring for country and kin. We have learnt how our First Nations lived in familial relationship with everything in their environment, and in our writing we have imagined what life would have been like in the different seasons, before the Settlers came.
CLASS 5 Lou Pullar
Class 5 have been introduced to decimal fractions with the story of Decimal Island. They are investigating how decimals are an efficient way to measure a range of things and have measured themselves to find out if they are a square or rectangle! Last week at assembly we shared Dorothea Mackellar’s beautiful poem ‘My Country’ and a rousing rendition of Bound for Botany Bay. Athletics has started and they had their first go at javelin which will also be a part of our Greek Olympics activities in Term 4.
CLASS 6 Clare Bennetts
Class 6 have completed their first Geometry Main Lesson, learning how to measure the radius and diameter of a circle and working towards understanding the ratio or relationship between the circumference and the diameter. We also learnt to use a compass to draw circles and then mark the exact location around the circumference to connect and draw a perfect hexagon, pentagon and dodecagon. We are now learning the script of the Sabine Women and how best to present this story to an audience. Lots of activities are undertaken each day to warm up the body, voice and spirit, such as juggling, marching, singing and tongue twisters!
LUNCHTIME DANCE
Following from Leith’s Celtic Dance work with the Class 2s last year and years before, she would like to offer lunchtime lessons as a taster before hopefully making a full-time spot on the weekly schedule for coming terms. So for the next two weeks of term, beginning next week Thursday the 20th of March and Thursday 27th of March, students from Class 2 to 5 can meet in the hall at 1.15pm. Any student from these classes keen on giving their best go in traditional dance styles (Celtic and others to come) is very welcome.
YEAR 7 Seamus Kavanagh
The Year 7 chemistry of combustion lesson has encouraged students to use a scientific approach to explore the fascinating nature of fire and its impact on the world. Through experiments, they examined how fuel thickness, oxygen supply, and different ignition sources influence fire behavior. They then applied this knowledge to real-life scenarios, using Victorian bushfires as a case study to understand the complexities and challenges of managing a large population in the world’s most fire-prone region.
YEAR 8 NICHOLASKOSCHITZKE
Year 8 have just wrapped up their time looking deeply into the Renaissance and the explosion of art and philosophy that came along with it. Students explored the mind of Leonardo da Vinci, the master painter who also devoted his time to medicine, architecture, engineering, and human anatomy. They also understood the dedication and passion of the Renaissance masters, particularly Michelangelo who spent four years painting on his back. This Main Lesson sets them up well for Shakespeare next term.
YEAR 9 Suz McKay
Year 9 students are well into their Outdoor Education year. Now secure of operating in the systems of camp routines, they are able to enjoy their surroundings and begin to observe, learn and question about the landscapes they are emerged in. A recent trip to Mount Buffalo saw students walk the challenging 11km ascent, through changing ecological systems to arrive amongst the boulders of the plateau which they then revelled in, among, through and atop.
YEAR 10 Suz McKay
Year 10 students have been immersed in the story of human evolution. Between forming an academic understanding of archeological, scientific human evolution they have been involved in building shelters, lighting fires with natural materials and seeking to communicate complex ideas without a shared language. These activities have sought to build the experiences of asking questions about what it means to be human within the time and place of our modern existence, as well as how and why things like Venus statues (which we had a go at carving out of soap), ochre paintings and hand prints in caves may have emerged at certain points during the human origin story.
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
The Melliodora and Wattle orchestras are busy preparing their repertoire for the Strings on the Green concert which will take place on Friday the 28th of March. Snowgum Strings, The Year 7/8 String group and Candlebark strings will also perform. Thank you to P&F who will be baking spuds which will be available to purchase on the night. Please BYO plate/bowl and cutlery as well as a picnic rug or folding chair. Food will be available from 5:30pm with performances beginning at 6.30pm. All members of the school community are welcome to attend.
SWIMMING Amy Jewson
Our primary school students have made fantastic progress in their swimming skills and endurance, all thanks to our amazing swim teachers. Throughout the four week swim program, they not only improved their strokes and stamina but also learned important safety skills. This was evident at the School swimming carnival where every student swam in an event. A big thank you to our swim teachers for their support! We had a great turnout at the District swimming competition, with many students choosing to participate despite being quite nervous. Well done to everyone who took part and gave it their best shot. Additionally, 25 students made it through to Division at Seymour, and 9 of them went on to compete at the Regional level, including 2 freestyle relay teams which is always a thrilling event to be a part of. Congratulations to all swimmers!
CRAFT Lou Jenkins
Class 1 have been finishing off their rainbow cushions and many of the students have started their recorder case weaving. Class2 crafters are knitting a fair Isle rectangle of color that will then be felted and sewn into a pencil case. Class 3 students are weaving a pocket for their music bag or embroidering stitches onto hessian that will then be sewn into their music bag. Class 4 continue to cross stitch a fountain pen case using symmetrical patterns and design. Class 5 have dyed their felt and will begin to cut out and then sew felt elephants ready for India main lesson. Class 6 have three projects underway. They are slowly finishing their embroidered pencil cases; they have designed a mosaic tile and are about to start needle felting an easter egg using merino fleece. Lots of activity and fun crafting times.
Strings on the Green
Friday March 28
Loaded spuds on sale from 5.00pm please bring plates and cutlery Music begins at 6.30pm
Wattle Orchestra, Year 7/8 string group, Candlebark Strings, Melliodora Orchestra
COMMUNITY NOTICES
HELP PLEASE
THANK YOU
If you would like a sewing project, Class 1 would love some people to make a few large weighted toy animals. Create your own or use a pattern. Please use natural materials that are plain and have texture. Corduroy, velvet and brushed cotton or wool (blanketing) are all good. You could put a couple of spoons of dried lavender together with the filling. sensorystreet.com.au/products/sensorymatters-weighted-animals
MORING STAR STOOLS
Thank you to Dennis Bainger and the Men’s Shed who built some beautiful, robust stools for Morning Star Kindergarten. These stools will be loved by generations to come.
This project was proudly funded by P&F.
IB DIP YEAR 11 &12 Willow Mathews
In recent weeks, the Year 12 students completed their group 4 chemistry project. The first of what will be a repeated series of projects by successive Year 12 students, involved a trip to Fords creek to assess the health of the ecosystem there. Several new chemistry probes were used in this process, including PH probes, dissolved oxygen probes and calorimeters. All useful in shedding light on the current state of Fords creek and potential steps that should be taken in future. This year’s metrics will serve as the basis for these continual projects, in which the school, and by extension Mansfield, will gain a sense of our impact on one part of a much larger ecosystem.
