THE MESSENGER
Term 1 Week 7 Wednesday 12 March 2025
Dear School Community,
Thank you for your support of Strings on the Green last Friday Night. We had over 200 people in attendance to see our students perform and enjoy the baked potatoes made by P&F.
It was a beautiful night with an impressive sunset providing the backdrop for an excellent performance. Thank you to all the parents who contributed to preparing, serving, and cleaning up and of course to those who purchased food in support of P&F. Thanks also to Eileen and the craft group who made some beautiful easter gifts that were quickly snapped up.
Thanks to the music staff that teach our students in individual lessons and to Danielle and Robyn for their work (and early mornings) with the orchestras and ensembles.
Class 6 has just performed the first play on the new stage. Thank you again to P&F for your fundraising efforts last year, which have provided fantastic new stage curtains. The improvement to the performance space is marked, and the students appreciate it immensely.
This past week, our Year 12 students and Briony have been working long hours in the Lab on their Chemistry Internal Assessments (IA’s). They have been conducting experiments based on questions that the students have developed and, with Briony’s dedicated support, they have been carefully collecting the results that
As long as Autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colours enough to paint the beautiful things I see.
will inform their reports. Thank you to the students for their efforts and to Briony for the many hours of extra support, enthusiasm, and guidance you have given the students.
It has been a big term for the students with many trips in year 9, camps for Year 7, Class 6, Class 5, Mountain Biking, Swimming, Athletics, and round-robin sports. Coupled with their regular class activities, they will certainly require a rest.
We hope that families have a wellearned break and that you enjoy the cooler Autumn weather that will start to turn the leaves any day now.
Warm regards,
Glenn Hood PRINCIPAL
ALL SCHOOL EVENTS AND DATES: WWW. MANSFIELDSTEINER.VIC.EDU.AU/CALENDAR
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio
The morning star children have been welcoming lady Autumn as the weather begins to change. Our days have been filled with preparations for our Easter Autumn festival to finish the term. The children have been making easter baskets from golden paintings, dyeing cloths to line the baskets and modelling clay eggs with clever hands. Our wheat is growing well and ready to take home to leave out for the easter hare on Easter Sunday. Our stories have reflected the seasons and the upcoming festival, telling the children tales of the gnomes that have awakened as Autumn arrives. We also heard the story of the Hare that travels to our side of the world bringing light in the eggs he gifts to the children. Our festival is almost here and we are all ready for a day of celebration with the arrival of Autumn and the coming of Easter. Happy holidays to you all.
ROSA MUNDI Jack Finegan
Rosa Mundi have been making the most of the lingering warmth outside, creating rivers and damns in the sandpit and tree houses up in the branches. Our inside play has shifted to markets and farmyard play with children making their own tiny worlds in which to explore. Nature day has seen us stepping out into the big school and having a picnic lunch down by the bower bird nest and the creek. This week has seen us using our busy hands to prepare for our Autumn Easter festival, finishing off our wooden boats, easter bunny pom pom’s and clay / beeswax eggs. We have even begun to weave our own easter nests from willow branches.
CLASS 1 Samantha Charlotte
Class 1’s journey into the Land of Numbers has been great fun! The children have enjoyed meeting numbers 1-12, and have built a sense of each number through gesture, building with pebbles and the recitation of verses and songs. The class have been practicing their letters through drawing, writing, recitation of verses and poems and group games. The gnomes visited our classroom to spread some Easter cheer and gifted us a bunny orchestra - while here, they would have seen our beautiful burnished clay eggs and hand-painted Easter baskets. Term 2 will see us pick up back in the Land of Numbers, where we will learn more about counting and grouping (informal processes).
CLASS 2 Liz Morrell
Class 2 have been hearing a story about Wardi the wombat who ventures along the Waring (Goulburn River) to experience the fauna and flora along the way. The central experience of this main lesson allows for future connection with the surroundings, for ecology and sustainability and for understanding of the interdependence of the creatures which Warki meets along the way. Painting castles from the previous main lesson was a challenge which the class undertook with great courage. Allowing for a little light to shine through the windows of the castle was experienced in a unique way by each student. We are looking forward to a wonderful break after a very productive term 1.
CLASS 3 Amy Burns
Class 3 have been busy back in the world of measurement after their wonderful adventures in Grammarland with Carol. The children have learned to use both hands to measure and rule lines with centimetres for the first time, carefully measuring twice before cutting and folding their Easter baskets. After blowing eggs for decorating, they carefully measured out just the right weight of milk and flour to make themselves one perfect pancake, topped with blood plum jam from the school’s garden (with thanks to Finella!).
CLASS 4 Julie Beer
The Norse story of Ragnaar Goatskin has given us many riches from which to draw the context for our fractions main lesson, as well as our grammar practice lessons. We have divided up the ‘king’s fields’ into fractions ranging from halves to 64ths (a worthy paper-folding challenge with a small square of paper) in order to plant them out with wheat, barley and rye. This story has also given us the inspiration for some wonderful writing about two very special eggs!
CLASS 5 Lou Pullar
Class 5 had a fabulous day in Melbourne last week visiting the Hare Krishna and Buddhist temples as part of our Ancient India Main Lesson. We caught the Vline bus from Mansfield then trams and trains in the city, which was an experience in and of itself, as we navigated routes, timetables and platforms. At Albert Park we caught a glimpse of the sea before sharing a midday ceremony in the Hare Krishna temple and a delicious curry lunch. Later, in the Buddhist temple, a short meditation revived the group and they heard the story of Prince Siddhartha who renounced his position to seek enlightenment and become Buddha. It was a long, but interesting day and the students’ considerate behaviour on the bus down, earned them a surprise box of chocolates from fellow travellers on the return trip! Their reflections were meaningful and insightful. Thank you to Andrew and Supriya for their help on the day.
CLASS 6 Clare Bennetts
Class 6 had a great time on horse-riding camp last week. We experienced staying in a pioneer style hut near the Buttercup Creek and riding around the hills of Merrijig. Lots of energy was spent chopping wood, playing murder in the dark and splashing them in the creek. We were sad to say goodbye to our horses but happy to go home to a comfortable bed! Our Class Play, The Sabine Women, will be performed on Wednesday at 12pm and 7pm and much work has gone into remembering lines and learning how to express characters effectively on stage. Thank you to Tania for helping us with the play and spending Fridays practising athletics, developing a love of the English language and learning new drawing styles. We look forward to working with you next term as we head towards Astronomy studies and continuing delving into Ancient Rome. Finally, thank you to everyone who supported our banana ice-cream and lemonade stalls. So far, we have raised $762.40 for our sister school, Uai Laco, in Timor Leste, and the Mansfield Friends of Venilale are very grateful on their behalf.
WHY TIMOR LESTE??
This term the school has
A little history of the conection between our towns: In 2000 the Victorian Local Governance Association and the Municipal
Association of Victoria decided to encourage friendship relationships between the newly established nation of Timor-Leste (East Timor) and cities, shires and councils across Australia. A prime mover in
this was Consul-General of Timor-Leste in Sydney Sr Abel Guterres, who later became Timor-Leste Ambassador to Australia in Canberra for ten years from 2010. Mansfield Steiner School
has been raising money for Uai Laco School in Venilale for many years. These funds help to provide scholarships for students to continue their primary or secondary education.
YEAR 7 Seamus Kavanagh
Students have been working on their play for next term ‘The Canterbury Tales’. Practicing their projection, physical acting and movement on stage has been a focus for them all. As part of this Main Lesson, students have also been creating a stained glass window, to be built from paper, for the autumn lanterns, and wax eggs.
YEAR 8 Dion Hall
This Main Lesson has connected students’ understanding of solids, liquids and gases to the influence of gaining or losing energy. Exploring the effects of changing pressure and temperature we have experimented with balloons expanding and contracting with a constant gas content, observed the movements of a convective cell, and used compression and stored energy to shoot rockets into the sky. Along the way we have reflected on how the physics of fluids have shaped the surface of Australia, create thunderstorms, enable ecological processes and the principles of buoyancy with famous thinkers such as Archimedes and Bernoulli.
YEAR 9 Suz McKay
Congratulations to the Year 9s on a wonderfully adventurous Term. The finale, a challenging traverse of the Crosscut Saw. Term One, done. Seven Hikes, many kilometres underfoot and under pack-weight, much elevation gained and lost, cracking sunsets, high fashion in the mountains (a fun skirt a must this year), cracking sunsets, driving rain (50mm in 5 hours overnight at Richie’s Hut), silent reverent sunrises and competitive Hackey Sack keeping the competitive spirits high. Year 9 have tackled the rigours of the Term 1, Outdoor Education program with a phenomenal sense of teamwork, goodwill and massive smiles.
YEAR 10 Nicholas Koschitzke
Year 10 have been hard at work rehearsing and fine-tuning their duologues for next terms performance. After honing their acting skills across the various performances in both high school and primary school these last few years, they are now ready to take the stage in one of acting’s hardest challenges. They have been in charge of creating their own characters and designing their own costumes, whilst also being given the freedom to bring their own ideas onto the stage. It has been an exciting process, and we can’t wait for you to see them.
FRENCH Andrew Raftery
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
LE CAFÉ AUX QUATRE CARRÉS
Year 7 hosted the secondary school students for a café snack at lunch on the last Monday of term. After discussing stereotypes and viewing streetscapes from films, the students developed first impressions of how the café would come to life. A visit from Will a Year 11 student, who travelled to France on exchange last year, led to some adjustments in the design of the setting and the menu. Teams worked on the menu, setting, and serving elements and presented to the class before finalising plans. Volunteers from the class made stunning gâteaux (au citron, aux crêpes, and au chocolat). Others worked the barbeque to create delicious croque-monsieur, or were employed serving drinks (les smoothies, la limonade, and la tisane). The tables were set with vases and tablecloths creating a humming and enjoyable atmosphere for the customers to chat over food and drink. The class raised $117 to be donated to the Venilale school in Timor-Leste.
Thank you to all the students, staff and parents involved in the Strings on the Green event. It was a fabulous evening, with perfect weather, beautiful music and delicious food. It is wonderful to see so many of our students involved in extracurricular music and we are lucky to have such great music staff to guide them. We are already looking forward to what music Term Two will bring.
