THE MESSENGER
Term 2 Week 10 Friday 21 June 2024
Dear School Community,
You will have noticed the dwindling daylight hours recently, the chilled crips mornings, and Jack Frost still visiting. Friday 21 June is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and we have marked this event with our Winter festival this week. This quiet, reverent festival is a chance to reflect. As each student walks the winter spiral, we consider and appreciate the unique light they bring to the world.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the P&F Trivia night last Saturday, it was a fun night in which we raised approximately $3000.00 for P&F. A huge thank you to Amber and Bernie, who have both done an enormous amount of preparation, along with Tamara, Lauren, Tom, Lisa, Kirsty, Tash, and Rachel who helped to set up and pack up the event, and to Quiz Master Geoff Wright who ran the evening. Congratulations to ‘Table 5 is Alive’ who, after forming their team at the last minute, now hold bragging rights as our intellectual superiors. They also won the right to grace the cover of this highprofile publication.
My eager heart aspires, to be a torch, to bear the Spirit’s light. Into the dark night. Of a wintry world blessing and blest
RUDOLF STEINER
We hope that you, and your children, had an enjoyable term and that the holidays provide a chance to relax and recharge. There are certainly some tired children who are ready for a break.
Next term will hopefully bring with it the snow, and our students will again head up to Mt Stirling and Mt Buller as part of our Ski Program. Thank you to those who have signed up to assist. The supervision required means we cannot run this program without significant parental support and, as always, we thank you for your contributions. Finally, it is with sadness that we say farewell to Claire Little and Anthony Jensen.
Claire has been a committed part of the music department for many years and countless children owe their love of music to her. We thank her for the dedication, time, and joy she has brought us. Anthony has been at the school for nearly 4 years and has endeared himself to the students and staff. Anthony has shared his love of Art and ceramics with children and adults, and we are lucky to have shared his expertise and warmth. We will miss Claire and Anthony and wish them the best in their new adventures.
Enjoy the Winter holidays and we look forward to seeing you next term.
Glenn Hood
ALL SCHOOL EVENTS AND DATES: WWW. MANSFIELDSTEINER.VIC.EDU.AU/CALENDAR
GRAPEVINE
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio
Mornings are becoming cooler and cooler, King Winter is in the land and we have had visits from Jack Frost! As the term comes to an end we are preparing for Winter Festival, practising songs with Prep next door and spending quiet times finishing our pom poms and folding Winter window stars. Our craft this week will be sculpting a clay candle holder with glittering gems that the gnomes have left behind on their journey underground. Festivals are a special time in our Kinder. The children enjoy working towards these special days with their friends and teachers, caring for their Kinder and preparing seasonal treats to share on festival day giving them a true sense of belonging in our community
ROSA MUNDI Jack Finegan
The Rosa Mundi young people have been welcoming King Winter into our routine. Staying warm inside by the fire each morning whilst we sing of Jack Frost and focus our thoughts on the upcoming Winter festival. We have spent the days keeping our hands busy making library bags, practicing our plaiting and creating necklaces to share with the Kinder children for Reconciliation Day. Outside we are turning over our garden beds and creating mountains in the sand pit, moving our bodyies and keeping warm through physical activity.
CLASS 1 Liz Morrell
Class One performed the play ‘The Golden Ring’ enjoying the process of contributing to the script, learning lines, choosing costumes and singing songs. The Main Lesson titled Local Surroundings has been centred around two young explorers venturing into the surrounds of Mansfield and learning about the animals of the area. So far we have written about and drawn the kangaroo, brushtail possum, and the sugar glider with much more to come!
CLASS 2 Amy Burns
Class Two have just about made it to the end of ‘The King of Ireland’s Son’, just in time for the holidays! Despite multiple attempts to finish the story and move on to new worlds and adventures, the Class Two children have been so entirely enraptured by this tale that it carried us all the way through to the end of the book. Filling most of the term, it has been the heart of multiple Main Lessons, guiding us through new spelling rules, vowel sounds and into counting by hundreds and thousands. It has been an absolute delight for Sarah and I to watch the children react when swords were swung, reach out like a hag with poison nails and gasp when giants fell to the ground during each day’s story! The children’s capacity to remember minute details has enraptured many families around the dinner table, and it feels sad to be saying goodbye to the characters that have begun to feel like old friends.
CLASS 3 Ariel Stava
Class Three have had lots of fun working in their Measurement Main Lesson. They began by experiencing the first measurement tools - their body. They measured their desk with their digit, hand, span, foot and cubit (from the tips of their fingers to their elbow). They then went out on the oval and used their cubits to measure Noah’s Ark, which after much calculation they determined would fit on the school oval, albeit hanging across the basketball court to the trees and a bit past the goal posts at the far end. After all of this measuring they came to the conclusion that there needed to be a standard for measuring as all of their body parts were quite different. Marley and Tor joked, “If we built a door frame together each side would be different because your cubit and my cubit are not the same.” They experimented with making their own ruler and then were introduced to the metre introduced by the French in the 17th century as a fraction of the distance between the north pole and the equator. They decided that the earth would not change allowing for a more suitable standard. This week we have worked with volume and will finish with weight. Before the holidays the children will make a start on the House Building Main Lesson work and will have their model home building project to present when they return to school.
CLASS 4 Lou Pullar
Class Four are enjoying hearing the old Norse tales of men long ago. They are learning about different types of poetry and together they wrote this alliterative piece about trickster Loki.
LOKI, THE LAUGHING LIAR
Loki was wild and wise,Sneaky and selfish, Kind and caring, Cheeky and charming, Nice then naughty, Cunning and crafty, Mischievous and misguided, Manipulative and malicious, Destructive and despised, Careless of consequences to come.
CLASS 5 Clare Bennetts
Class Five have been studying Ancient Persia over the last couple of weeks; where people began to domesticate livestock and grow crops. They heard stories explaining that the Ancient Persians were one of the first races to form settlements because they did not have to hunt and gather anymore. This lead to building temples, forming governments and developing irrigation systems. This ancient history has fascinated the class as have the stories of the gods and goddesses which helped the Ancient Persians to explain natural phenomena. To compliment our writing exercises we have drawn with oil pastels to create symbols of Ahura Mazda, the god of light, battling the evil powers of Ahriman, the god of darkness. We have used clay to form miniature temples and mapped this region, (now called Iran), looking closely at the geography and how this impacted the progress of civilisation. This early stage
of history resonates with the 11-year-old who is wanting to develop perspective and be able to place themselves in the history of humanity. Next we move west to Mesopotamia, where the two rivers meet then onto Egypt where we will try and fathom the construction of the great pyramids.
CLASS 6 Jacinta Walker
We have put our play to rest for a while as we learn our music and songs, ready for performance early next term. Our last Main Lesson for the term is our first Physics Main Lesson. In the first week we enjoyed playing with sound through music. Last week we started to play with optics - discovering what happens when you look for a long time at different coloured squares on a white background, how colours change with the amount of light and the intensity of light. This last week, the approach of the solstice is a great time to look at warmth.
YEAR 7 Kate Hood
The Life Processes Main Lesson promotes understanding of the connection of all living organisms on Earth. We have explored the respiratory system, the circulatory systems, and the reproductive systems and menstruation cycles. The students have collected and analysed their own wellbeing data across 7 days to help understand their growing responsibilities of their own self-care.
YEAR 8 Nicholas Koschitzke
This Main Lesson has seen the Year 8s begin their deep dive into famous English playwright William Shakespeare. They have learnt about the history of the Globe Theatre and the contributions that Shakespeare has made to the English language and literature overall. This lesson will be capped off by their performance next term of A Midsummer Nights Dream.
YEAR 10 Seamus Kavanagh
The Year 10s have engaged positiv ely with Early Human Civlisiations, a Main Lesson which explores the Paleolithic and Neolithic time periods. Tackling the fundamental questions of where did we come from? How did we evolve? And just how different are we from the prehistoric Homo Sapiens? Invesitgating the importance of Fire, Shelters, and art to cultural and linguistic development, students have researched modern hunter gather societies, and have started preparing for an intraclass debate. As this Main Lesson serves as a beginning point to Anthropology in Year
YEAR 9 Dion Hall
The Trigonometry Main Lesson takes a thorough investigation into Pythagoras’ Thereom and its extension into Trignonometry focussing on an algebraic way of evaluating right-angled triangles. Along the way we will look at this deeply important transition in human culture that developed during the era of the Egyptians and Babylonians to help create the largest structures in the world at the time. To keep our hands busy we will be looking at some old tree-felling tricks using similar triangles to judge the height of trees and distances of objects on the horizon.
11, Leith has visited to share her experience and ideas.
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
Last Friday, the secondary ensembles performed for each other and some primary school classes. For many students, this was the first time performing in their new ensembles as part of the secondary school. There was a warm and supportive atmosphere in the hall as we heard Boomwhackers, Choirs, Rock bands, the Celtic String group and the Stage Band (which wowed with clarinets, trumpets and saxophones!). It was heartwarming to hear
such a diverse range of musical styles and to see all the students giving their best effort when performing.
Sadly, for us, we will farewell Claire Little at the end of this term. Claire has been with the Music Faculty for the last 9 years and has made a vast contribution to the Music program and the school community with her expertise in many instruments and orchestras. Claire is off to take up her dream job of Acting Head of Woodwind at Melbourne Grammar School. We wish her all the best in her new position.
Holiday FUN
There are lots of holiday programs and events with Mansfield Shire Youth Program and at the Mansfield Library.
IB - EXCURSIONS Mackenzie Henderson & Willow Matthews
PREPARE FOR SKIING NEXT TERM
Warm Beanie, Gloves, Goggles & Waterproof Gear
THE PUSHUP CHALLENGE
Many teachers have been participating in the 2024 Push Up Challenge in order to raise money and awareness for mental health support services!! The challenge requires us to complete 3249 push ups between the 5th and 28th of June!! We’re hoping to raise $500 for the cause!! Please support our efforts by making a small donation to our team or on our individual Facebook pages!! With many thanks from your sore shouldered friendly teaching staff!!
Reconciliation Action Week is a time for communities to come together to reflect on the presence and history of the traditional owners of the land, and their cultures. In keeping with this notion, during the week the IB students undertook a key role in organising and participating in the school’s assemblies. These gatherings were a wonderful opportunity for all students, from primary to secondary, to come together for reflection and learning.
The week kicked off with Ella from Year 11 and the primary students serenading our special guest, Wiradjuri woman Auntie Anne Marie, with the familiar song ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’. Following this was the primary focus of the week, the weaving project “Reclaiming the Void, Weaving Country Whole”. This project involved people and communities from across Australia sending in circular rugs to be woven together, to craft an extensive Indigenous dot painting. This artwork will eventually be draped over an abandoned mine in Ngalia country, WA. It was inspiring to see each class from our school joyfully contribute to this project and to weaving the country whole. To close the assemblies, I (Willow) had the honour of speaking to the secondary students. I focused on the rich history of the Mansfield area and expressed the sadness we feel for the loss of 50,000 years of Indigenous knowledge. Ultimately, these assemblies were more than just events; they were heartfelt moments of learning and connection to the land and cultures of our region.
