YEAR NINE - Castlemaine Steiner School · YEAR NINE PROSPECTUS 2017 PAGE 2 MIDDLE SCHOOL OVERVIEW Years 7, 8 and 9 are important developmental years for the teenager and form a series

YEAR NINE PROSPECTUS 2017

YEAR NINE PROSPECTUS 2017 PAGE 2

MIDDLE SCHOOL OVERVIEWYears 7, 8 and 9 are important developmental years for the teenager and form a series of transition points in the progress of students in the Middle School as they prepare for their senior years.

Year 7 is the first step from our Class Teacher years in the primary school where one teacher provides overall curriculum and pastoral care to the class. In Secondary School, students have a Class Guardian who works closely with the students, meeting and greeting all individual students every morning and teaching several main lessons with the year group.

As students mature and grow, they look to a range of authorities who can be specialists providing guidance and leadership in their subject disciplines. This transition occurs over several years from primary to high school, and our Middle School will be the bridge between the two.

Our Middle School curriculum is developed from the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework and has been designed with needs of the student in mind. Year by year, following the developmental stages of childhood, the curriculum mirrors an individual’s inner development allowing for the students’ educational experience to reach its full potential. In addition to providing a balanced Steiner education, Mansfield Steiner School complies with all aspects of the National Curriculum and state government requirements.

In the Middle School the daily routine and timings of the day change slightly from primary, thus to reflect the significant change as the student moves into their senior years. The school day begins at 8:45am, where students attend Guardian time for the first ten minutes of the day. The day is made up of eight forty minute periods, with the first two periods of each day representing main lesson time.

Our model for Middle School creates a structure that meets the needs of students moving from a younger stage of learning to the demands of high school learning and pastoral care. While from time to time our staffing arrangements may change depending on people available, their qualifications and specialist abilities, the broad shape is as follows:

PAGE 3 YEAR NINE PROSPECTUS 2017

YEAR 7 & 8 COMPOSITE In Year 7 and 8 the Class Guardian plays an important role within the year group. Each morning the Guardian greets the students and has a significant role in teaching their specialist subject area, including several main lessons. Other main lessons are taught by subject specialists, who also teach the students during their daily practice lessons. This arrangement

is much like the class teacher period (primary years), enabling the teachers

to get to know the students and their families very well. Teachers

provide a warm, supportive environment for students

to enter the high school environment,

engendering positive and consistent

teacher student relationships.

YEAR 8 SINGLE STREAM Year 8 would be set up similarly to Year 7, If

Mansfield Steiner School

became single stream in Year

7 and 8. Where possible, the Year

7 Guardian would continue with the

class and become the Guardian in Year 8. The

Guardian would continue to teach some subject areas,

while other subject specialists would teach other main lessons and

practice lessons.

YEAR 9 SINGLE STREAM In Year 9 a new high school Guardian is appointed who provides pastoral care only, while the students are taught by a range of teachers with specialist qualifications in their subject. The Guardian meets the class each morning in dedicated Guardian time, 10 minutes at the start of every day to greet the students

individually, take the roll, review homework and begin the day. This regular contact maintains the pastoral care relationship and enables the Guardian to monitor each student’s wellbeing daily. The main lesson subject teacher then takes over to deliver the main lesson. At the end of the day the Guardian re-joins the class for the last 5 minutes after Period 8 to finish the day with a closing verse, and wish the students a good afternoon.

SENIOR SCHOOL OVERVIEW YEAR 10 As the school grows and expands into the Senior School (Years 10, 11 and 12), the Guardian will follow the class through these years. Year 10 will be an enriching and exciting year, as the students complete their final year of the Australian Steiner Curriculum before embarking on the journey through the International Baccalaureate (IB). This year could be viewed not only from the standpoint of academic preparation, but also from its contribution to the student’s developing sense of self. As students come to know the world, they come to know themselves. To this end Mansfield Steiner School will offer a programme that supports the students both academically and socially as they approach adulthood.

YEAR 11 & 12 In Year 11 and 12 the Mansfield Steiner School will offer International Baccalaureate’s Diploma Programme. The Programme is a challenging two-year pre-university course, which leads to a qualification that is widely recognised by the world’s leading universities. The IB Diploma Programme is a natural continuation for the Senior School which will be underpinned by a rigorous and creative Steiner pedagogy in the Primary and Secondary Years, enabling the School to provide an education of international recognition. We are confident the transition for students from a Steiner pedagogy to that of the IB will be an easy one given the depth and breadth of the Steiner curriculum up to Year 10.


YEAR 9 CURRICULUMIn Year 9 we will offer a diverse, exhilarating and academically rigorous curriculum, designed to develop every individual. With the framework taken from the Australian Steiner Curriculum, there will be a key focus on the core subjects of English, Maths and Science, where students will participate in a wide range of engaging main lessons and experiences. Each subject will build their interest in the world and prick their interest in questions of humanity and nature. A wide variety of supplementary subjects will further allow the students to have a broad range of experiences in all areas of their schooling life.

ENGLISH

Main Lessons

Australian Literature This unit provides a rich reservoir of material that meets the indications of the Steiner approach in regards to the importance for students of this age group to experience the tragic and the comic, to understand the use of humour in writing, and to observe various styles of writing that relate to different evolutionary periods of development and to the wide variety of cultural influences represented in migrant literature. The topic area gives students the chance to explore the unique Australian character of the literature; one way of doing this is to compare the poetry of the Australian romantic writers (e.g. Henry Kendall and Charles Harpur) with that of their English contemporaries (e.g. William Wordsworth and John Keats). There is scope for daily practice of writing skills, choral and individual speaking and singing as well as for the study of a wide variety of literary forms which supports the students’ growing understanding of the stylistic elements of language usage. Examples of such forms include ballads, biographical texts, diary entries and letters, humorous verse, short stories, poetry, novels, documentaries and film versions of the texts.

Tragedy and Comedy This unit forms part of the Aesthetics stream of the curriculum which explores major cultural periods and the changing stages of consciousness. The survey includes the historical development of architecture and the arts, and literature, which encompasses the three areas of epic, lyric and dramatic writing. Aligned with the focus of the curriculum in Class 9, the study of drama looks at the development of the theatre buildings from the early Greek period up to Shakespearean theatre. A further indication considers the emotional confusion and imbalance which frequently accompanies this stage

of development and suggests that the study of the polarities of tragedy

and comedy can have a nurturing effect on the socio- emotional

growth of the Class 9 student. The subjective tendency in

Class 9 students is balanced by the study of comedy

and humour which leads them out of themselves; in a corresponding way, the archetypal focus

of tragedy on inner trials assuages the existential

nature of their suffering during this period.


MATHEMATICS

Main Lessons

Trigonometry Students gain knowledge of some of the key individuals/groups/nations that helped to form this area of study and the reasons for which this area of study was important for those individuals/groups/nations. Students understand a geometric proof of Pythagoras’ theorem and apply Pythagoras’ theorem in practical situations to find the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle. Furthermore, they apply Pythagoras’ theorem in practical situations to find the length of a side of a right-angled triangle given the hypotenuse and one other side. They understand the origins of trigonometry with regards to scale diagrams, similar triangles and ratios and apply trigonometry to find unknown sides and angles in practical problems involving right angled triangles. They use the sine rule, cosine rule and tangent rule in practical situations to find unknown sides and angles in right angled triangles, developing an understanding of angles of elevation and depression and how these angles can be calculated or used to find distances in real situations.

Conic Sections This topic provides an experience of the creation of form in space through the polarities of the radial and peripheral growth processes. These polar processes find their expression in the construction of the conic sections, firstly by the intersections of concentric circles, and then through the construction of their envelopes. Through the process of construction, it becomes clear that the conic sections are all merely metamorphosed forms of the circle. Over the course of this topic the conic sections are described both graphically and algebraically.

SCIENCE

Main Lessons

Geology – The Forces that Shape the Earth (Cross-curricular Science and Geography Unit) Students study the forces that shape the earth, acting both within and above the structural elements of the earth’s crust. Topics include stratigraphy,

rock types, volcanism, glaciation, earthquakes, mountain building, mountain erosion, geological

structures, the rock cycle and the cross structure of the alpine mountain ranges

across the earth. They produce a book that describes the class discussions, experiments and drawings. Students learn to demonstrate knowledge of the course content; understand key concepts in both the area of Geology and Geomorphology; draw and interpret

geological maps and convert them to block and elevation diagrams; identify

selected rock types and know about their origin.

Science of Communication The students gain an insight into the emergence of two inventions that continue to have a profound impact on human life on earth. The technology is based on the practical application of how the human voice can be reduced to electric signals and how fuel combustion principles can power engines.


HISTORY

Main Lessons

Making of the Modern World In this main lesson students study major events and turning points from the beginning of the 19th Century to the present-day. They examine current world issues and trace their historical roots. They consider accounts of events from multiple sources and perspectives to understand international relations from a variety of viewpoints. The inner experience of the 15-year-old is characterised by powerful polarities - sympathy and antipathy, confidence and uncertainty. Comparative biographies can be chosen to bring historical information and to facilitate exploration of the inner questioning of the students.

Australian History to the Modern Era

This main lesson examines major

developments in Australian

political, social and cultural

history from Federation

to the present time.

Aspects of Australian history

previously studied are re-examined, now

from the perspective of the ideas and inner

motives. Students research the biographies of well- known Australians along with representative lives that illuminate experiences of ordinary people and give a picture of their part in Australia’s story. Students will consider the changing relationships between Australia and other countries and the role that wartime events had in shaping Australia and its international relations. The unit has strong links with other disciplines. Studies of art, music, geography and literature inform and deepen the students’ understanding.

GEOGRAPHY

Main Lessons

Geology – The Forces that Shape the Earth (Cross-curricular Science and Geography Unit) Students study the forces that shape the earth, acting both within and above the structural elements of the earth’s crust. Topics include stratigraphy, rock types, volcanism, glaciation, earthquakes, mountain building, mountain erosion, geological structures, the rock cycle and the cross structure of the alpine mountain ranges across the earth. They produce a book that describes the class discussions, experiments and drawings. Students learn to demonstrate knowledge of the course content; understand key concepts in both the area of Geology and Geomorphology; draw and interpret geological maps and convert them to block and elevation diagrams; identify selected rock types and know about their origin.

Communities - Ecosystems and Human Culture The experience and understanding of the enormous diversity of the earth’s surface characteristics in the ‘Geology – The Forces that Shape the Earth’ Main Lesson is extended in this topic to observations and understandings of the influence of such characteristics on life and on culture. Students increasingly explore the people who inhabit a region, their relationship to the environment, the cultural overlay of human presence, and their relationship to flora and fauna. From physical environment to resource availability and development, climatic and agricultural variation, and population and settlement distribution, students begin to examine the physical, social and cultural evolution of the world including contemporary events and issues. With the expanding consciousness of the adolescent such a topic can be approached from the point of view of contrasts and polarities.


ART

Main Lessons

Rome to Renaissance – Birth of Europe

This main lesson deals with cultural developments which gradually transformed every aspect of life and culture in Europe, and led to the birth of modern culture after the Renaissance. The focus in the first place is in Roman Italy, and on the cultural developments which led to the emergence of the Byzantine and Islam civilisations and their associated artistic impulses during the whole medieval period. We look, firstly, at the basilica as the architectural form which eventually took shape as the Gothic cathedral, at Roman and Byzantine mosaics, and at the different art and architectural forms which flourished during the medieval Byzantine and Islamic periods. Turning then to European developments, we examine the form and function of illuminated manuscripts, sacred geometry (in Gothic cathedrals), and the rise of painting, beginning with Cimabue and Giotto, leading to the mature Renaissance forms.

Clay Heads

This main lesson looks closely at the head, skull and cranium from an artistic perspective. Students develop many skills through drawing, painting and sketching the head. The main lesson culminates with the students sculpting a life size head from clay.


Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, artist and scientist. He founded his first school in Stuttgart in 1919 after a request from the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory on behalf of employees and their children. From this initial social impulse after the First World War, Steiner/Waldorf schools have spread to more than 65 countries. Rudolf Steiner is also known as the founder of biodynamic agriculture, and his work in spiritual science, therapeutic medicine, art and architecture, as well as education, continues to have an influence in the 21st Century.

Steiner education aims to develop a lifelong love of learning and strong moral and ethical capacities; to build resilience, which Steiner educators believe is connected with early-childhood experiences and requires reliable, loving, stable relationships, learning through example and positive school experiences.

There are 43 Steiner schools in Australia as well as teacher-training centres, Steiner streams in State schools and Steiner early-childhood centres. The Steiner approach focuses on experiential learning; making, doing, creating and producing, with learning based on what is relevant and appropriate to the student's stage of development.

Early Childhood

In early childhood, Steiner aims to create a nurturing environment involving natural play materials, vegetable gardens, and in some cases chickens to care for and to collect eggs for baking. Young children learn to cook, paint, sew, garden and use tools. They explore their environment, learning sharing, cooperation and social skills. Young children are given the time to play, enjoy childhood and build strong

foundation skills before formal academic learning begins.

Primary School

In the primary years, Steiner students form a strong social group with their class, and usually have the same teacher throughout their primary years. Learning of all subjects is taught using a creative and artistic approach, such as stories, biographies, poetry, speech, music, drama, physical movement, games, nature studies, art and technology. Learning foreign languages is also valued, while literacy, numeracy, science, geography and history are taught in three to four-week blocks. This allows students to engage in a particular subject for a sustained length of time, to embed learning through an integrated approach and express themselves in an artistic and creative way.

High School

The high-school student is ready to engage in complex conceptual and creative thinking, develop observational and analytical skills, and form conclusions from their own experiences. Steiner Class 12 students are given the opportunity to undertake a year-long individual project involving research skills, analysis, thesis writing, creativity and design and an oral presentation to a large public audience. Many students create their project on social or ethical issues or sustainable/ecological living. By the end of high school, Steiner students will have experienced a broad curriculum and be prepared for their next steps.

Tracey Puckeridge is CEO of Steiner Education Australia.

EDUCATION: THE STEINER APPROACH


YEAR 9 OUTDOOR PROGRAM The Year 9 Outdoor Program focuses on an embodied sensual experience of engagement with place, self and others. The program has been developed in consultation with several outdoor specialists and specifically seeks to support the developmental stage of the Year 9 student, creating a space for them to appreciate the natural world. Within these trips the activity is always used as a medium through which to explore relationships with the place, others, and ourselves. An imperative in the planning of trips is to deliberately avoid being busy, as many of the sensory and soulful responses to place and one another for which we are planning, are fragile and easily crowded out. The trips are responsive at their very core, and intend through valuing reciprocal interactions with place, to cultivate a deep awareness of others, ourselves and the happenings in the place.

A key component of the program is to expose students to a different environment on each trip. Each trip is also a part of an ongoing process of development of self-sufficiency, bush competence and deep, knowing relationships with place. On each trip, the area visited has been chosen, above all, as a beautiful natural place. This is part of a continuing theme of appreciation for and empathy with nature. An important part of achieving this aim is the intentionally uncomplicated nature of each trip; the less gear you carry and the less impact you make, the more receptive you are to the passive lessons the bush has to offer. The way we visit each place is a very specific response to the place itself.

With this philosophy in mind, following is an outline of the program, detailing places we will visit.


TERM 1 – MOUNTAINS AND BEACHES

In Term 1 we take advantage of the wonderful resources around Mansfield, including Mount Stirling and the Howqua River. The first two short hikes are a great starting point for the Year 9 Program. The gear requirement on these first trips is minimal and we will aim to take little and work out what we actually need.

For the second trip, we head to Wilson’s Promontory for a short hike along the beach near Waratah Bay. This is a beautiful and varied stretch of coast including everything from basalt reef platforms and high cliffs to the vast, white expanse of Waratah Beach. It is a great place for a bushwalk in summer and the trip is uncomplicated in terms of navigation and safety issues.

TERM 2 – CANYONS AND ICE

Term 2 begins with a trip to the Blue Mountains and an exploration of a spectacular and remote canyon. Students are taken down a rarely visited road and then hike a short distance to a campsite, which is the beginning point for the hike. This area is quite spectacular and students visit an incredible canyon, walk through a glow worm tunnel, look at geological phenomena and see some ancient Aboriginal rock art.

This trip is followed by the regular Mansfield Steiner Ski Program, before the term culminates with a ski in ski out Snow Camp run by Stirling Experience on Mount Stirling.


TERM 3 – FIRE – THE PLAINS

The trip in Term 3 is one of the most amazing experiences to be had in Victoria. We travel 35 kilometres west of the tiny Mallee township of Hattah into what is called the “Sunset Country”. We camp on the edge of the Raak Plain, which is an 80,000-acre saltpan covered in bluebush and samphire scrub. The experience of space offered by this place provides an incredible contrast to the commercial, material and technological aspects of our lives. We carry all our water for this trip in our packs. The cleansing effect of this remoteness and space are exceptional. This trip includes an extended “solo” experience intended to provide an opportunity to focus on our personal relationship with the bush. A simple trip in an exquisite place.

TERM 4 – FORESTS, RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS

Term 4 involves two contrasting and exhilarating experiences. The first trip takes students to Barmah Forest. On this trip, students consider how we have come to take for granted the linkage between technology and the bush in terms of the equipment. In essence this is a ‘back to basics’ trip, where the class sleep under the stars and take minimal luggage. Barmah Forest is the ideal location for this style of trip as we can walk along the river and therefore overcome the need to carry water, while there is ample firewood as well as many wonderful campsites along the river. This trip will challenge all of students in many ways but will provide much stimulus for thinking critically about choosing the role technology plays in our lives.

The final trip is in many ways the most challenging and exciting. We begin at the base of the western and most remote and rugged of the Grampians. Our walk is a five-day circuit incorporating a half-day solo perched on the top of one of the many spectacular sandstone outcrops that characterise this area. This area provides the potential to use natural shelter on most of the nights. Picture awakening under a burnt orange sandstone overhang at the top of an escarpment looking out to the sun rising over a jagged ridge line heralding the beginning of another day’s adventure. This area is rarely visited and is extremely beautiful, especially in the spring with all the wild flowers in bloom. The Grampians are subject to quickly changing weather so this walk requires careful preparation. As the final walk, the leadership is almost entirely the responsibility of the students. The Grampians are spectacular and 5 days on the top of a remote and rugged range seems a fitting way to finish the Class 9 Program.


Peter Henderson

Secondary School Coordinator English/Humanities Teacher Guardian of Class 9Peter Henderson – Class 7/8 TeacherPeter joined the school in 2017 as Year 7/8 class teacher. He has a long association with the Steiner system, having gone through kinder to Year

12 at the Melbourne Rudolf Steiner school. Over his 11 years in the teaching profession he has taught in a variety of schools. Most recently he spent

five years at Glenaeon Steiner School in Sydney as a class guardian and class coordinator for years 7 and 8. Previously he spent five years teaching English at a

secondary comprehensive school (state school) in London. Peter is a specialist English, History and Drama teacher but has taught most secondary subjects.

Kate Hood Science/ Positive Psychology Teacher Class 7 and 8 Guardian“To instil a love of learning in young people through education while contributing to the development of a sustainable world”.

Kate has taught at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop Campus as teacher of Science, Maths, Positive Education, Geography and Physical Education.

Amy Jewson Maths/ Physical Education Class 7 and 8 Guardian

“I believe it is essential to develop and educate the whole child. I have a genuine enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning. I feel it is important to create an environment where students are encouraged to develop positive risk-taking behaviour, genuine values and independent reasoning to achieve a well-rounded education”.

Amy has taught at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop Campus as teacher of Maths and Health and Physical Education. Prior to that Amy taught for several

years at Mentone Girls Grammar

Sue Plumb Art/ Design Technology Teacher

“Art and Design Education has always been a driving force in all facets of my life both personal and professional.”

Sue taught at Yarra Valley Grammar School for many years as Head of Art, Design and Technology and Chair of the Sustainability board. She has taught

in many different settings over the years and it has always been her dream to teach in a Steiner School.

THE SECONDARY FACULTY 2018


FROM THE PRINCIPALI have been involved with Mansfield Steiner School since 1996, as a teacher, parent and now as the

Principal. The first term I was employed at the school it was in a little hand built mudbrick building at Maindample. It was with great excitement and a slight feeling of intrepidation that the

school community packed up the school and moved it to its present site in Mansfield. It was a vision realised and it was time. The school has grown steadily and solidly over the past twenty years, attracting families from not only the local area but from interstate and from overseas. In 2008 we extended to Class 7 and 8 and now it is time to take the next step into the future. My vision has always been for the school to go to Year 12. The Steiner Secondary

Curriculum is inspiring and uplifting, we have a great team of talented staff members who are passionate about their craft and the whole school community is excited about another option

for education in the vibrant, caring town of Mansfield.

MUSIC STAFFHoward Chaston– Music Coordinator and Strings TeacherHoward has been teaching music at the School since 2006. He completed his Steiner teacher training at Warrenwood in 2013. He teaches violin, cello and guitar and conducts the

School Orchestra.

Jen O’Donnell – French and Music teacher

Jen began teaching at the school in 2007. She has extensive teaching experience and has taught across all year levels in French and Music. She studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium, specialising in piano, and also teaches violin, cello, guitar, singing, recorder, piano accordion and African drumming. Jen also holds an Arts Degree in French and English and has taught all three of her subjects up to VCE.

Claire Little – Music Teacher2017 is Claire’s second year teaching music at the school. Her areas of specialisation are recorder,

singing, small ensembles and conducting the Junior Performance Orchestra. Claire has a Bachelor of Music and Graduate Diploma in Education from The University of Melbourne.

She moved to the region in 2006 to work as the Music Coordinator at Geelong Grammar School’s Timbertop Campus and held this role for four years. Since 2009 Claire has taught music in a number of schools in the North-East region and this year shares her time between MRSSK and Melbourne Grammar School, where she is the clarinet teacher.


SECONDARY SCHOOL ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIPSThe school will be offering academic scholarships for new and existing students in Class 9. Scholarships reflect our ethos of making our education as accessible as possible. Students will benefit from the opportunity to experience the unique qualities of a Mansfield Steiner School secondary education, and the school benefits by attracting students of potential and character to be part of our community and to take our school into the future.

ACADEMIC CRITERIA The applicant will need to demonstrate strong academic performance. In addition to excellent school reports, applicants will be assessed on references, other documentation provided and their interview discussion.

GENERAL INFORMATIONEligibilityMansfield Steiner School is coeducational and non-denominational Steiner School from Prep to Year 9. All scholarships are awarded on the basis of Academic Merit and are open to Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents.

Academic Scholarships AvailableFull Scholarships – One or more full scholarships will be offered, enabling students to complete their secondary education at our School without payment of any fees.

Part Scholarships – Several part scholarships will be offered, which provide up to a maximum of 75% fees.

Duration of Scholarships – Each scholarship is for the following academic year, providing student attitude, behaviour and progress are all considered to be satisfactory.

Application for ScholarshipSupport Material

The application may make reference to demonstrated outstanding involvement and continuous, positive participation in a range of co-curricular activities. Written reports may be provided attesting to the applicant’s level of participation and contribution as well as the applicant’s character and leadership qualities. Evidence of participation in Gifted and Talented Programs, school vacation programs and any other outstanding individual accomplishments, including social service will be taken into account when deciding on the applicant’s suitability.

Applicants must apply using our Scholarship Form and pay a non-refundable application fee of $20 (inc GST) when submitting their application.


Notification of OutcomeSuccessful applicants will be invited to attend a Scholarship Interview with the Principal. Scholarships will be awarded at the Principal’s discretion as soon as possible following the interview. All applicants will receive notification as to the outcome of their application. Actual order of scholarships will not be reported, other than whether it is a Full or Part Scholarship.

Additional Information Where possible, the application form requires confirmation from 2 caregivers (often both biological parents) that the student is permitted to apply for the Academic Scholarship. We understand that in some families this may not be possible.

download the application form mansfieldsteiner.vic.edu.au/enrolment/enrolment-documents/

91 Highett St, Mansfield Phone 03 5779 1445

www.mansfieldsteiner.vic.edu.au

Documents

YEAR NINE - Castlemaine Steiner School · YEAR NINE PROSPECTUS 2017 PAGE 2 MIDDLE SCHOOL OVERVIEW Years 7, 8 and 9 are important developmental years for the teenager and form a series