Built by our Class 8/9's with the help of Gill and then finally, popped on the wall by Ken. 

This library is a place where you can borrow a book, and in return, you are encouraged to leave a book for the next reader to enjoy.

We are so grateful to welcome Silvia back to her role in leading playgroup on Tuesdays. Silvia led playgroup 10 years ago when her children (now young adults) were young.

Laura and Silvia x 

We have had a busy start to the term and a very exciting first day as the children walked through the door with their amazing house models, a traditional task which stems from the Building and Shelters main lesson. We had a wonderful response from children and parents who played the trades assistant role. Over the last few weeks, we have heard from each child as they have presented their model describing the area, climate, and resources that influenced the type of dwelling. The children then explained how they built their model. It was a lovely opportunity to share and for us all to learn the difference between a comment and a question as audience members. We were also fortunate to visit the new high school built along with architects David and Mel this week to see an actual build and the sequence and trades involved. It was lovely to think that the children will be part of our new high school journey and use the classrooms and space we previewed.

Gardening and Farming are a central theme of the Class 3 curriculum. Children become more capable of a more sustained interest in plants and animals, and it lays the foundations for an active caring of our planet Earth. Farming and gardening prepare the students to understand the pertinence of the seasons as they approach their main lesson, and the early farming practices work in with the Old Testament stories. We have covered many farming practices and have heard from each other about our backyard gardens, to Delilah’s sheep and spelt farm at Mt Barker.

Bees were another topic we learnt about and how important they are to our ecosystem. A trip to meet the resident Beekeeper at Bartholomew’s Meadery was met with much excitement, some great questions, and, of course, some honey tasting and an ice cream to top off a great morning out.

To consolidate our Farming main lesson, we headed off in the bus last Thursday to the Grove's Family farm at Mount Barker, home of Kate, Jeremy, Delilah, Jake, Brady, Daisy, and Will. We were shown around the various machines to prepare and mill the spelt and the final product of spelt flour in delicious banana spelt muffins prepared by Kate. Off to the sheep yards with Jeremy was next on our agenda, along with working dogs to corral sheep and a little herding ourselves. Plus, some fun facts and a demonstration of ‘ball binding’ to create a few ‘ew’s and aah’s. We then ventured up the hill to collect sticks to build a fire to sit and have lunch with a stunning view of the Porongurups. An introduction to seeding to follow, and then we were back on the bus, homeward bound. A fabulous day and a big thank you to the Groves family and to Kylie Cook and Lesley Wybenga for joining us.

Class 4 had an absolute ball at Svenson’s Farm on Friday, 16/5.

After a long drive through to Tingledale, Class 4 were warmly met by Karene & Bo Svenson and their herd of cattle! After a brief information session on cattle uses and living standards, Class 4 were eagerly shepherded to the marron dams, were Bo spoke about how their family farmed marron ethically and sustainably. Bo & Karene then further led the excursion by organising individual marron fishing opportunities for each child, as well as cooking fresh marron and beef sausages for lunch! All of this was completed without any falls in the many dams on the farm, which was a tick for Blake!

Please send your warmest thanks and gratitude to Karene & Bo. They truly deserve it, as they spent hours of preparation time getting everything ready – thus culminating in an unforgettable and immersive experience for the Class 4 children, which I’m sure they will remember forever.

Thank you sincerely, Karene & Bo Svenson, parents of Class 4 student – Jasper Svenson.

In Class 6, we have followed the history from the heights of Greek civilization, which we learned about last year, and on to the founding of Rome, starting with the story of Romulus and Remus.

We have been discovering, with wonder and amazement, how the strivings of individuals, both good and bad, in many ways led to changes in history and the rise of the Roman Empire. We hope you like some of the photos of our Roman main lesson book work.

After all our hard work, it was such a treat to enjoy some authentic Roman cooking.  The children worked so well under Massimo's direction, with assistance from the wonderful Bridget.

The children cooked, cleaned the kitchen, set the tables, cleared, and washed up with teamwork and enthusiasm.  Lunch was heartily devoured, with many coming back for seconds and taking some home too!   Massimo shared some of his experiences of growing up in Rome amongst the sites and places we have been hearing about in our history lessons, too. We heard how tomatoes and potatoes were not part of the cuisine of Ancient Rome but were introduced later from the Americas.

In our Human Fertility main lesson, we have been learning about the way adolescence was not acknowledged as a separate phase of life in many traditional cultures.

Children often attended special ceremonies or ‘rites of passage’ to mark their transition from childhood to adulthood, with no time of ‘adolescence’ in between.

In this way, we are coming to see the teenage years as a special gift where we have the opportunity to find out who we are with our unique strengths and perspectives, before we take on the responsibilities of adulthood. We have been having fun with communication and trust activities, exploring what it means to really listen to others and discussing what we think are admirable human qualities. Investigating stereotypes in our culture, especially stereotypes of teenagers, has been very interesting.

We have now moved on to our Business Math main lesson, where we are experiencing some of the processes, logistics, and maths involved in organising a class business. We are running a three-week lunch order enterprise at school. Conducting market research, tallying expenses and profits, and hearing the history of the development of credit and loans are all underway. Calculating interest rates, converting decimal numbers to percentages, and graphing our results are all part of the challenges to come! In the meantime, we hope that our heartwarming cooking with an Italian theme will be helpful and nourishing lunch options over the last weeks of the term.

Finally, Class 6 has been working well in woodwork with Gill, completing the artistic outer wall of the bike shelter.  Thank you, Gill. It looks great!  We built the bike shelter in Class 3 as our building project with the help of many handy, generous parent helpers. And Heather, our wonderful woodwork teacher at the time, guided and inspired the children with the artistic panels on the inside wall.

Also in woodwork, Gill will be preparing the firesticks with Class 6 ready for the lighting of the bonfire at the mid-winter festival in week 8.

We have been practising our poem and movements for the bonfire lighting and have heard the story of the phoenix – the mythical fire-bird who rises from the ashes when all hope is lost.

We look forward to sharing it with you on the night.

On the ashes of this nest
Love wove with deathly fire
The phoenix takes its rest
Forgetting all desire.

After the flame, a pause,
After the pain, rebirth.
Obeying nature’s laws
The phoenix goes to earth.

You cannot call it old
You cannot call it young.
No phoenix can be told,
This is the end of the song.

It struggles now alone
Against death and self-doubt,
But underneath the bone
The wings are pushing out.

And one cold starry night
Whatever your belief
The phoenix will take flight
Over the seas of grief

To sing her thrilling song
To stars and waves and sky
For neither old nor young
The phoenix does not die.

Pomodori al Riso (Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice) Traditional Roman recipe

Ingredients:

• Large tomatoes
• Medium-grain white rice
• Garlic, to taste
• Salt, to taste (enough to season both the pulp mixture and rice, slightly on the saltier side)
• EVO (use a generous amount to prevent the dish from getting too dry)
• Fresh parsley
• Fresh basil
• Water
• Potatoes, cut into 1.5 cm sticks

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 200ºC
• Cut off the top of each tomato and hollow out the insides with a spoon, reserving the pulp.
• Blend the reserved tomato pulp with garlic, basil, parsley, a generous amount of olive oil, and a little water until smooth; season generously with salt, as it will flavour both the liquid and the rice, leaning slightly saltier.
• Add the rice to the blended tomato mixture, using a 2:1 liquid-to-rice ratio.
• Mix the rice into the liquid, stirring well to combine.
• Scoop the rice mixture back into the hollowed-out tomatoes trying to respect the 2:1 ratio.
• Arrange the stuffed tomatoes on a baking tray.

• Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm sticks (small enough to match the rest of the dish cooking time) and season with salt, pepper and EVO
• Arrange the potatoes around the baking tray without crowding the tray too much in order to leave enough room for the rest of the mixture
• Pour the rest of the rice mixture around the stuffed tomatoes
• Cover with baking paper and tightly aluminium foil (we use baking paper to separate the ingredients from the al foil as the aluminium can “stain” the potatoes
• Bake for 1/2 hour
• Remove the baking paper and al foil and keep baking for another 1/2 hour at 180C or until potatoes are cooked and the rice mixture turns golden
• Let the stuffed tomatoes set for 30 minutes or longer
• Serve and enjoy warm or at room temperature.

Extra tips:

• For extra liquid mixture one more fresh tomato can be added to the tomato pulp
• The same recipe can be cooked on a large frying pan on low heat with a lid on. The result will be moister but with less golden visual effect.
• Smaller tomatoes can be used

In Indonesian this semester, Class 1 has explored the culture of Indonesia through folktales from the many islands of what is the world’s largest archipelago. We now include more Bahasa Indonesia in these stories so the children can be immersed in the rhythms and structures of the language. We have continued to build our vocabulary through games, songs, and everyday classroom language. We can now greet each other, introduce ourselves, and say our whole school verse in Bahasa Indonesia!

In Class 2, we are exploring the theme of animals, including our pets and animals that can only be found in the jungle. Did you know the word ‘orang hutan’ (jungle person) comes from Indonesian?

Class 3 have been learning all about the body and have successfully learned a new verse, whilst Class 4 are taking a deep dive into the weather and seasons. They now know that

Indonesia has only 2 seasons, and they are both hot!

In preparation for the Greek Olympics, Class 5 has been looking at sport in Indonesia, whereas Class 6 has been coming to grips with the art of haggling in the market.

In Class 7, we have been continuing our study of our new textbook, ‘Kenalilah Indonesia’, and getting more familiar with the speed and pronunciation of native speakers of the language as they speak about school in Indonesia.

While the yarning circle is not the place for grievances of a more serious or weighty nature, it is a chance for parents and school leadership to come together and be heard without people feeling the need to book in for a more formal meeting in the principal’s office.

As with all student-staff-parent communication, we do ask that everyone follows our regular code of conduct in these sessions, treating each other with courtesy, respect and consideration.