THE MESSENGER
Term 3 Week 4 Wednesday 13 August 2025
Dear School Community,
At the beginning of Term 3, kind souls volunteered their time on the working bee day, to mend costumes for the Year 8 play. To Eileen, Tori, Cindy, Agnes, Suz, Lou P, thank you for spending a cold Saturday morning helping, we greatly appreciate it!
The Year 8’s, looking fresh in recently improved costumes, did an excellent job with their production of Romeo & Juliet. Bringing Shakespeare to life is no easy task, and the students conveyed the story very effectively. Performing on stage requires preparation, bravery, and ultimately a willingness to forget yourself for a short period. Thanks to the staff who helped the students continue their progression towards this goal.
We have just received notice from the Bendigo Community Bank that we have been successful in our application to receive a grant of nearly $20,000 for the Sustainable Minds Project. Devised by Briony and Dion, this project enables the school to conduct hands-on practical experiments with a sustainability focus for Year 7-12 students. The purchase of high-quality materials will be used to enhance the curriculum and enable student-led investigations into ‘Plastic Free
Futures,’ Turbine Dynamics,’ ‘Crystal Clear Project – Water purification,’ ‘Future Proof Homes, ’ and ‘Next Gen Fuels.’ A huge thanks to Briony for her work in securing this grant opportunity for our students, and of course, to the Bendigo Bank for their ongoing support of the school.
Those of us who have children who participate in extra-curricular ensembles and orchestras were treated to a beautiful performance in Melliodora Hall last week. The time you and the staff put into helping the students practice and getting to early morning or after-school rehearsals is appreciated. The work certainly pays off.
On Friday this week, P&F will host the Trivia Night Fundraiser. Thank you to those who have purchased tickets and to Amber, Bernie, and the rest of P&F for their work in preparing and running the event. I’m sure it will be an enjoyable night with plenty of laughs.
GRAPEVINE
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio
Snow drop, snow drop little drop of snow
What do you do when the cold wind blows?
I hang my little head and I say Cold winds cold winds go away
Snow drop, snow drop dressed in green and white
What do you do when the sun shines bright?
I shake my little head and I say Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling here comes spring
Primary students have been enjoying time in the snow on Mt Stirling for the last 3 weeks and will have one more session next week. Parents play a vital role in supporting staff and students in this program, and we again thank you for your time and effort. We hope you enjoyed your days in the mountains.
Glenn Hood | PRINCIPAL
Morning Star children have been enjoying the crisp mornings by the fire, working on sewing projects, pom poms and wax paper origami stars. Some children have had very clever fingers and made some snowflakes to settle on our windows! We heard the story of how the kangaroo got her pouch for Naidoc week. The children were amazed with the magic of the dreamtime story and sat quietly as the story unfolded. Our morning circle has been full of movement, snowflakes falling and twirling, kings and queens in castles marching, princes and princess’s skipping and cats and mice tip toeing. Movement is an important sense for children to develop fully in their younger years. We look forward to our last Winter circle for the year beginning next week and then before we know it welcoming Lady Spring into our garden. The children have enjoyed choosing their spoons from this wonderful collection.
ROSA MUNDI JACK FINEGAN
The start of Term 3 has been all about listening to our bodies, keeping warm and dry in the mornings and ensuring we head back outside to move and play in nature and ready our garden for spring. Our circles and stories have been focussed on the chill in the air and the falling snow on the mountains. To celebrate Naidoc week we listened to the dreamtime story about how the Kangaroo got her pouch and had an excursion to the local wetlands to visit the Indigenous Art Exhibition.
CLASS 1 Samantha Charlotte
Class 1 has had a fantastic start to the term, following some of our favourite characters through their adventures in Numberland in the Four Processes Main Lesson. King Counting, Queen Equals, Farmer Plus, Ms. Minus, Tommy Times and Daisy Divide all made regular appearances throughout story time, and the class have worked towards helping ensure that the magic of the land is restored, all while learning about how each of the four mathematical processes work and interact. Our literacy practice lessons have been full of life, with students learning how letters work together in a digraph to create new sounds. Skiing at Mt Stirling has been a highlight of our week, with students enjoying the beautiful alpine surrounds and improving their skiing each week.
CLASS 2 Liz Morrell
Class 2 have just finished a Main Lesson called World Tales. This 3 week block brought to the class a variety of stories from diverse cultural regions of the world. An appreciation of these world traditions was observed across the class through their vivid retelling of the stories and extended sentence writing. The class also explored the world of poetry and wrote their first free poem using their experiences at the snow and brainstorming words to describe what they saw, felt, and heard. Games each week have included the time old favourite of ‘crocodile, may we cross your golden river?’, along with Dragon’s treasure and Number ball toss. We now look forward to our next Mathematics block.
CLASS 3 Amy Burns
Class 3 have spent the beginning of term learning about trading, bartering and finally… money! The children have very enthusiastically created tokens of goods and services to exchange with one another, as well as inspecting many coins and notes from all around the world before inventing and designing their own currencies. They then chose one of their designs to imprint into a clay coin. They met each of the coins and notes of our Australian currency and practiced grouping coins to make total amounts, counting many of the same coin, and learning to give change from larger quantities of money. To celebrate, the students will now begin creating special items to sell at their own market stall at the end of this term. Lots of very excited ideas are flowing!
CLASS 4 Michael Britton
I’m Michael Brittain, and I’m excited to be the new Class 4 teacher (Monday to Thursday). It’s been a wonderful start — especially getting to know the students during our cross-country skiing adventure at Mt Stirling. It was a fantastic way to connect outside the classroom. In class, we’ve been spending time getting to know each other through games, painting, and exploring where the group is at in their learning. During our first three days together, we did a general maths overview, and this week we’re beginning our new Maths Main Lesson. We’ll be diving into fractions, prime numbers, number patterns, and more.In Form Drawing, we’re working with beautiful Viking patterns and Celtic knots, and we’ll continue with our weekly spelling lists while also bringing new songs and poetry into our morning circle.
CLASS 5 Lou Pullar
Class 5 have been listening to an amazing array of stories from around the globe, detailing how their families came to be in Australia. From stealing bread, forging documents, paying for a passage and choosing to study in Australia. What a wonderful tapestry of life.
CLASS 6 Clare Bennetts
We have experienced some wonderful physics practicals that have involved writing about what we observe not what we expect to see. We have learnt about light, warmth and sound phenomena found in nature and human made. Tania has begun a world geography Main Lesson on Fridays that has begun with a research project about a natural landscape in Australia. We all look forward to our ski camp tomorrow at Mt. Stirling. Thank you to everyone who has helped provide dinner, dessert and a very special thanks to Evan Brophy, Jess Cassels and Amy Jewson for accompanying us.
YEAR 7 Seamus Kavanagh
The Year 7s have also been working hard to complete their Medieval Main Lesson. Exploring the structure of society in the feudal system, and learning about the lives of those who lived this period of history. They have heard stories about the great migration and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and started to investigate Islam and the differences it has compared to Catholicism
YEAR 8 Nicholas Koschitzke, Suz McKay, Amy McMahon
The Year 8 students have been busily preparing for their production of Romeo and Juliet, which will be performed in the PAC on Tuesday, 12 August. As part of this process, they have developed their own character profiles, with many also contributing to the production program—designing the front cover, writing the synopsis, and compiling the cast list. Throughout rehearsals, students have shown patience and perseverance, while also stepping outside their comfort zones— projecting their voices, dramatising their performances, and embracing stage makeup. Following the performance, Year 8 will begin their next Main Lesson, Earth: Origins, Processes and Landforms, which will also tie in with their Northern Territory trip in Week 6. Well done, Year 8—and break a leg!
YEAR 9 Suz McKay
Year 9 landed at Bogong with high expectation. There had been a significant snow shower in the days before we arrived. With skis, boots and laden packs we skiied out under grey cloud from the Windy Corner carpark towards Watchbed Creek. Glorious, soft, fluffy snow skated out from behind our turns. This is a rarity in Australian snow. The camp kitchen, beautifully crafted by the Year 9’ from packed snow, provided us with an out of the wind place and near constant pots of hot water for warm drinks. It was cold, cold, cold. This snow trip represents the culmination of snow program that begins in Class 1. Students carry packs, sleep in tents on the snow, prepare meals in the snowy environment and ski out in the backcountry on ungroomed terrain.
YEAR 10 Andrew Raftery
Into Orbit. Across three weeks we have made our way into orbit. Beginning with Newtonian laws of motion, we derived the SUVAT equations of straight-line motion under constant acceleration. Extending into two dimensions, water rockets were built and launched to explore projectiles under the influence of gravity. I wonder, how fast would a rocket need to move to remain at a constant height without ever hitting the ground?
Last Thursday, we had a wonderful celebration concert of all our extracurricular orchestras and choirs. The audience was delighted with the diverse range of repertoire and the musical skill of the students. Many thanks to the parents who get their children to school for early morning rehearsals, sometimes several times per week, and for the ongoing support of our vibrant music program.
Our solo concerts are fast approaching, beginning with the Year 10 solo concert next week on Tuesday the 19th of August at 6pm. All are welcome to attend.
TERM 3 MUSIC DATES
Week 5 Year 10 Solo Concerts
Week 9 Primary Solo concerts
Week 10 Secondary Solo concerts
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
you
are warmly invited to
Mansfield Steiner School IB Year 12 Final Art Exhibition
Monday September 1 6-7pm Music & Refreshments
SECONDARY ART Charlote Dayman
Year 9 students have been sculpting their self-portrait clay heads. Students looked at the origins of Greek and Roman busts, typically sculpted in marble. They explored the historical significance of these busts often depicting gods, heroes, emperors and prominent figures in society. Through this Main Lesson, students have been exploring the interplay of concave and convex forms, studying the different features on their faces to scale and in relation to one another.
Last week, Year 7&8 students visited the Mansfield Information Centre to view an exhibition by Melbourne-based artist, Iluka Sax-Williams. Sax-Williams is a multidisciplinary artist with deep roots to the Taungurung people. Students learnt the story of Gunnawarra through the work in the exhibition and about the technique of pyrography which he uses to burn detailed patterns into kangaroo skins and wood.
IB DIPLOMA YEAR 11&12 Saskia Schultz
As part of our NAIDOC week celebration IBDP students, Elise, Grace, Matilda and Molly facilitated a whole school collaborative work. The work was inspired by the NAIDOC theme for this year, “The Next Generation; Strength, Vision and Legacy”. Primary students were invited to contribute to a printed textile artwork using bulowin (Taungurung word for potato) prints to create it. The painting was the centrepiece for the NAIDOC celebration during our whole school week 1 assembly.
The 11s have been busy preparing for their Anthropology internal assignment, in which they will explore parts of our contemporary culture that are of personal interest. Research will take place in locations ranging from our own school grounds to Sarawak, Malaysia.
The 12s have been working on their English Individual Orals, which explore two texts chosen from those they have studied in connection with a shared issue. Following their completion last Friday, the 12s will turn to complete maths Investigation, one of their final major assessments on the road to course completion.
Long Distance In Close Proximity, grey lead on paper, by Molly Diepeveen
