Issue Eighteen - 29th April 2019

Welcome to the eighteenth issue of our e-newsletter Talking Trees, which reviews some of the activities taking place in the school during recent weeks. In these newsletters, we aim to bring you some of the special experiences from day-to-day life in the school, mainly through photos. 

We always appreciate any feedback and we’re very happy for you to pass the newsletter on and share it with friends, family and contacts.

Ash & Rowan pupils

Ash Class pupils (age 6/7) helped dig in the hole for the maypole at the end of term, in readiness for our Mayday festival in the first week of term after the Easter holiday. 

Rowan Class

Rowan class pupils (age 7-9) have been immersed in farming and shelter building in recent weeks. During a trip to Gressenhall rural farm museum, the children helped the farmer clear stones from the field and steer the Plough pulled by two Suffolk punch horses.

Birch Class

The School Long Jump pit was finally completed in the last week of term. It has been a ‘long jump’ to get there and has been the result of hard work by pupils and fund raising efforts from parents.  Birch class, who are soon to graduate from the school lined the original pit and started digging out the run-up in July 2017.  The two photos above are of the work carried out at that time…

Willow Class

Sequoia and Maple pupils helped dig out the run-up and sift soil and stones to make it level and smooth and Willow pupils did the final hard work of shovelling 17 tons of sand out of bags and into the pit. 

Thanks are also due to our parent body who raised funds for the sand in 2018 through ‘Jump into January’. Also thanks to those who helped to lay turves to finish the run-up during the first week of the Easter holidays.

Maple class pupils (age 9-11) are getting fit in preparing for the Steiner School Olympics at the end of June; in future issues, we’ll publish a selection of photos. At the end of term performed a short play to their parents in French, called Le Secret - will the animals discover the secret of the mouse?   Unfortunately, we have no photos of maple for this edition, but will make up for it in the future!

Sequoia Climbing

Sequoia pupils (age 11-13) have been flexing their muscles in climbing lessons at the UEA Sportspark. Having one lesson a week for 6 weeks, the children learnt how to harness and rope themselves up safely and to belay one another as they scaled different climbs on the wall. 

Sequoia Projects

And in the classroom, the children of Sequoia class have been busily working on their Geography projects, where they have each looked at the geography, culture and food of a non-European country.  The snapshot above captures a page from three different pupil projects.

Willow Play

Apart from their hard work with moving the Long jump pit sand, Willow class (age 13-15) were fully occupied in the last three weeks of term rehearsing their class play, the story of the Passion. In the final couple of days, the class were beset with a couple of the pupils not being well enough for the second and final evening performance, the pupil playing the main character of Jesus was unfortunately unwell. The class were undaunted and remained good spirited and of the attitude: “the show must go on”. Well done Willow class.

Oak Surveying

Oak class spent a solid week out on some meadows, producing accurate maps through the use of measurement and calculations using theodolites. Surveying is one of the learning outcomes in the first year of the New Zealand Certificate of Education and a great example of applied maths. To Achieve this learning outcome pupils must produce a map from their measurements and calculations…the more accurate the maps produced are, the higher the grade for that learning outcome….

Birch Studies

The oldest pupils in Birch class (age 17-19) are in their final months of studying for the New Zealand Certificate of Steiner Education (equivalent to A Levels). Most of them are writing essays, but we managed to get one practical picture. This Birch pupil is studying Textiles as one of her specialisms and has just been learning how to make a puffed sleeve!

UPPER SCHOOL FACT - Pupils age 16/17 can still join the School and take part in studying for the New Zealand Certificate of Steiner Education (NZCSE). It’s not too late. The pupils in Oak class (age 15-17) are part way through their first year of this three-year qualification. However, it is still possible for new pupils to join this class and enrol to do the NZCSE, provided they have some evidence of equivalent academic standard, such as any other qualification (e.g. GCSEs) or work which allows us to assess standards of numeracy and literacy.  

If you have a son or daughter who is unhappy at school or struggling with the mainstream academic environment, have a look at some of our videos of upper school pupils speaking about this school, show them to your son/daughter and come and have a look at the school.

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