Celebrating Birthdays in Kindergarten
13 Mar 2024
Birthdays in Kindergarten are festive occasions that give us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge each child with love and reverence. We make a birthday book, bake a cake, decorate a seasonal candle table, share songs and share the food we have prepared. The teacher prepares a little handmade gift for each child and at the center of each celebration is the telling of the birthday story by the teacher. This story brings an imaginative picture of each child’s unique journey into the world. The children hear the story of Little Starchild who looks down from the heavenly garden and longs to be born on earth. The Starchild journeys through the heavens with their angel and receives the heavenly gifts from the sun, moon and stars that they will bring to earth. And then, when the right parents have been found, the right preparations have been made and the time is just right, the angel leads the Starchild to the gate of birth. The child is born on earth and welcomed to their new abode.
It was 6 years ago today, today
That __________ came down from the heavens to stay
S/he came to bring gladness and joy to the earth
Good people and angels were there at her birth.
Now let us all join in singing
Happy Birthday dear ____________.
This story, brings enormous security to the children. They feel welcomed, acknowledged and held in a bigger picture of the unconscious wisdom that brings meaning to our lives.
Read morePlaygroup Term 2 Registrations Now Open!
13 Mar 2024
Glenaeon’s family-style Playgroups are joyful and supportive of you and your child’s development. Our highly skilled Steiner Playgroup Educators create imaginative activities to ensure families enjoy an enriching, uplifting time together. We welcome all families with children from birth to five years of age.
Term 2 registrations are now open, if you or a friend/family member with little ones are interested in learning more click here.
A peek below at Sandra's Wednesday morning playgroup at our Castlecrag campus. A morning full of celebrations for the changing season - nature table, story time, bread baking, conversation, little hands washing up and outdoor play.
Read moreSummer Advent Festival at Preschool
08 Dec 2023
Our Willoughby campus and neighbouring park was filled with festive spirit as Glenaeon Preschool celebrated their Summer Advent Festival. Thank you to the lovely educators who welcomed families to join the children in Advent story time and circles. The joy shared was palpable.
Read moreHonouring Indigenous Wisdom Through our Biodynamic Gardening
13 Sep 2023
In her book "Braiding Sweetgrass”, Robin Wall Kimmerer says: “Becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”
The practice of Biodynamic agriculture is rooted in indigenous knowledge. This means that in the Glenaeon Gardens our lessons are founded in the active observation and listening of all living things: plants, animals and fellow humans.
90% of what lives in the soil and what is active in the atmosphere is invisible to the human eye. We are cultivating our children to use their senses, to perceive the physical needs of the atmosphere and soil for the benefit of our plants and animals. In this way we are “gardening” our children! Inspiring and nourishing them to form a foundation for their sense of belonging to nature.
Children all over the world grind rocks as part of their outdoor play. As rocks are composed of minerals, the rock dust itself vitalises the soil when we sprinkle it around our plants.
We are aware of the abundance that biodiversity provides. At Glenaeon Gardens we harvest the weeds that have grown voluntarily. For example at Castlecrag campus one of the weeds we harvest are bindi weeds. Bindi weeds grow on depleted lawns. By fermenting the bindi weeds in water and pouring that water into those lawns, the result is a sweetened soil that has made an ideal condition for clover to grow. The lawn no longer being prickly, children can now roll in the inviting clover.
To learn about plants, we start with wonder and ask the question: what's growing here? The plants are having a relationship with us too. We're watching, we're listening. We are cultivating this culture of communicating with the natural world. When we suck the pollen from the flowers we taste what the bees are tasting.
In younger grades we sing: “What story, what story do you tell?” and we listen. What is this plant trying to tell us? Mother Earth is communicating. What can we do to help? Water? Prune, aerate? In older grades the conversation about observation as a form of enquiry is explicit, and quickly the students get hands on and hands in.
We encourage everyone to practise this act of conversation. Stop and observe. Listen. Wonder. Be present. When the person we are with, be they young or old, says: ‘Look at that bee’! We must stop and enjoy this captured moment of active life.
We look forward to seeing all volunteers and friends of the Glenaeon gardens who are able to join our Garden Party this Sunday, 26 November at 10am - 12pm, in the garden at Middle Cove. Details in the invitation below and please register here: https://www.trybooking.com/CNGBK
For parents and carers who are looking for a way to join and be a part of this community, please feel free to contact Sandra: s.frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Sandra Frain (and Parent Garden Volunteers),
Gardening Teacher
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Play is Enjoyed Individually and Together
30 Aug 2023
Play is enjoyed individually and together: children and adults in Glenaeon Playgroups!
Our rocking horses provide an opportunity for bringing ourselves into motion in a contained way. Keeping ones’ balance while rocking back and forth repeatedly with a song to mark the time is joyous at all seven of our playgroups.
While the children are (usually) riding alone on the rocking horse, there are other children watching, waiting their turn, or perhaps riding along- side on a companion horse. Adults sing a rocking song and laughter permeates the playgroup room.
What laughter we have when an adult joins the rocking horse riding too. Why should the children have all the fun? Adults too enjoy the soothing and exciting sensations in ‘standing motion’.
The children and adults have been excited to crawl in the tunnel at Castlecrag campus and up the steps on the new climbing structure at our Preschool Campus. New skills are developed, and friendships formed as we play and share life in a group setting.
Many adults exclaim that they get as much out of our playgroups as the children do. Our Playgroup educators emphasise the healthy balance of play and meaningful tasks for all ages. The adults too feel safe to learn and grow together. Our adult discussions are carefully facilitated to encourage this social support.
To join our Playgroup Families contact: Sandra Frain playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Read moreThe Sixth A
03 Jun 2021
In our last Newsletter Dani Finch outlined how our program of 5A’s meets the six 21st century capabilities. But there’s a sixth A, though we don’t talk about it much.
Julia Baird’s recent best-seller has brought it into the open and it’s time to talk about it. Her title says everything: Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder, and things that sustain you when the world goes dark. The book has sold 150,000 copies in Australia and was the publishing phenomenon of the pandemic year. In the year when so many things went dark, her beautifully written book spoke to so many people about how to seek and find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the inner light in the ordinary world around us. Julia’s book told her own story of survival through extraordinarily challenging difficulties of pain and loss, and how she built reserves that in the face of these challenges, brought her “immense beauty”. She touched death numbers of times and she learned a number of lessons to cope.
A key lesson? “Seek awe, and nature, daily”.
As I read her book, I thought again of a constant question in my mind: how can we prepare children to find that feeling of awe, the sustaining sense that life is spectacular and grand, and we all have a place in it.
If this is such a human need, why aren’t schools making it a part of daily life? How can schools make sure that awe, and nature, are part of every child’s daily education?
Her book is a reminder that we all need bread as much as stones to nourish our inner lives. Feelings of awe nourish our inwardness. How sad that the language of education is yet to embrace this profound and essential human need as a fundamental for schools, just as much as other subjects.
Glenaeon draws on the rich heritage of Steiner education to embed feeling of awe and wonder in our daily school journey. Here are some of the ways we do it:
Morning verse: we start each day with a mindful reflection on the great powers of life. In a little touch of daily awe, a simple non-denominational verse starts our work for each student and teacher/mentor/guardian with a reminder that we are part of a bigger whole, that our lives are woven into a grander design than our minds can sometime fathom.
Stories: the special moment in a primary class day is story time, usually just before morning Recess. When all is quiet, a candle is lit and the teacher tells, in person, a story from world tales or their own imagination. For a teacher there is no more special moment in the day than seeing this crowd of expectant faces, waiting to be moved and touched by the power of imagination. So many of the stories carry the curriculum and in primary school even Maths and Science lessons can be woven out of and developed from a well-crafted story. Right up into high school, our classes enjoy a moment of wonder as the story unfolds, and the mind is taken to far off places and remarkable deeds.
Poetry: Our commitment to spoken poetry through the school says so much, just as a poem compacts meaning into a few lines. How much awe is in these 29 simple words?
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Festivals: a man of aboriginal descent recently told me how impressed he was at his children’s Steiner school because they celebrated seasonal festivals, such as MidWinter when the children carry a candle and build a communal spiral of lights on the year’s darkest day. He hadn’t found other institutions so connected with the rhythms of the year, something which to him as an indigenous person was so fundamental. Our western style seasons have of course been simplistic and blunt compared to the nuanced and embedded aboriginal consciousness, but at least we have a feeling of awe and connection with the turning of the year.
Nature: “the quiet healing properties of Nature” writes Julia. Our Middle Campus is a haven in the busy north shore, with a backyard that includes the exquisite Scotts Creek as it winds through mangroves to Middle Harbour. Our Outdoor Education program explicitly takes students to wild outdoor places where as well as stretching themselves against the forces of rivers and rocks, they can sit and absorb the quiet majesty of wilderness. The power of place is a sense in itself, and needs regular educating.
Cuttlefish: “For me, cuttlefish are symbols of awe” says Julia. Our Main Lesson curriculum charts a course through the rich stories of history, Science, Maths and literature, finding an implicit sense of wonder in our human connections with the world’s phenomena. How special it was to read Chapter 1 in Julia’s book which is titled Lessons from a Cuttlefish. We traditionally start our study of animals in Class 4 with the cuttlefish and examine their remarkable structure. Implicit in our scientific study is a sense of wonder at the extraordinary way the cuttlefish moves through the ocean.
The 5A’s of the Glenaeon journey educate the whole human being: Academic, Aesthetic, Artisan, Altruistic, Active Wilderness. But holding them all together is the sixth A, the special sense that life is grand and powerful, and we all have a place in it, the sustaining sense of Awe.
Andrew Hill
Head of School
The Power of Play in Nature
14 Feb 2020
Glenaeon is proud to present The Power of Play in Nature, a free public seminar featuring two of Australia's leading education experts: Professor Pasi Sahlberg, Professor of Educational Policy, Deputy Director, Gonski Institute for Education, UNSW and Professor Tonia Gray, Senior Researcher, Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University. After the keynote, there will be a panel discussion, facilitated by MC Lucy Clark, Associate Editor of The Guardian and Author of Beautiful Failures. The forum is on Thursday 5 March 4pm-6:30pm at the Concourse Theatre, Chatswood.
This is a ticketed event. Please register via www.glenaeon.nsw.edu.au/play
Read moreCastlecrag students enjoy outdoor play time
14 Feb 2020
Children at Castlecrag are enjoying their outside play and are full of activity as they jump, slide and swing!
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Parent Craft Take Home Packs
04 Apr 2024
There are some wonderful Parent craft Packs to take home for the holidays! Please come and get one or two and contribute to our school and Family Fair! Thanks to our Craft Coordinator Charlotte and to our parents and children who have so carefully collated each one - all that you need to get going! They are in baskets at the Castlecrag Reception – hearts, leaf beds, stars, butterflies, token pouches and more! There are stitching instructions if you need them as well and plenty of help available for beginners. Don’t be shy – give it a try!
Read moreKindy Harvest Festival
27 Mar 2024
Kindy celebrated the Harvest Festival with their trip to Bilpin in the Blue Mountains. There had been much excited anticipation as the children asked how many more sleeps until apple picking day. And when the day finally arrived, it was perfect; blue skies and cool, a touch of autumn in the air. Farmer Cedric was there as always, greeting everyone and explaining some important aspects of apple picking. Picnic rugs were laid out around the spreading oak tree and parents, grandparents, siblings young and old enjoyed Kindy’s Harvest Circle before filling their baskets with apples that were indeed ‘crispy and crunchy’. It was a glorious day and one that will be remembered fondly by all who came.
Read moreParent Craft Wet Felted Flowers
14 Mar 2024
Parent Craft Coordinator Charlotte ran a beautiful wet felting workshop in making stunning lily flowers. Starting with soft coloured fleece, parents used hot soapy water to roll and rub the fibres until they felt - then cut and shape them into flowers during the felting process. Parents chose striking colour combinations and the flowers will be made into lovely items for the School Fair in November.
Anyone is welcome to come and join Parent Craft - no experience is necessary. Come and learn to sew, felt, knit and take home a small craft pack to work on at home. There is an enclosed space for young children and a warm, social atmosphere. Thank you Charlotte for sharing this wonderful skill.
Read morePlaygroup Nutrition is a Foundation for Healthy Play
13 Mar 2024
Our Glenaeon Playgroups celebrate nourishing foods by providing whole grain porridge and sourdough bread or Miso soup and rice balls to accompany fruit and vegetables that families contribute to our generous morning tea. The adults often say that we are the only playgroup they know of that goes to such an effort and they really feel nourished themselves when they leave playgroup. Glenaeon Playgroup isn’t ‘just for the children’, they say.
At our Glenaeon Playgroups we believe that by nourishing the caretakers of the children, the children will have the modelling of adults eating healthy food in a group setting that includes a table-cloth and beautifully presented wholesome foods accompanied by herbal garden tea.
Many parents tell us that the Playgroup morning tea is their first meal of the day and that it is so generous they don’t have to have lunch! Many families tell us that their children are fussy eaters at home but that they eat multiple bowls of porridge and lots of fruit and vegetables at playgroup. They are impressed with how the children enjoy a dense home -made rye sourdough bread slathered with home- made miso or tahini butter.
Below is a letter one of our Playgroup educators received from a participant. The Magic Porridge Pot recipe is attached if you would like to indulge your family! Parents still contact us years after the children have passed through playgroup to say their children are still enjoying Glenaeon’s Playgroup porridge thanks to our sharing of the recipe!
Dear Natalie,
Would you mind sharing the recipe for porridge please? My daughter loves it and her breakfasts are normally very boring as she doesn’t eat anything different, but she loves your porridge.
Many thanks,
A grateful Playgroup mother
For the Porridge recipe, click show more.
Read moreParent Library
28 Feb 2024
The Parent Library at Castlcrag is now open!
Tuesday 2:45pm to 3:15pm and Wednesday 8:45am to 9:15am.
Our two volunteers Alex and Alice are there to help and books may be borrowed for 2 weeks. Come and choose from the large selection of parenting books that reflect the Steiner philosophy, as well as books on craft, gardening and nutrition. There is also a wide range of beautiful books for children up to 10 years, including well-loved classics and recently published.
Read moreParent Craft Embroidery Workshop with Elizabeth Ellean
28 Feb 2024
Handwork teacher Elizabeth Ellean came to run a wonderful embroidery workshop with parent at Parent Craft morning – organised by our inspiring Craft Coordinator Charlotte Fayle. Many parents came to learn the beautiful stitches that their children will also be learning throughout the Primary school Handwork Program. Parent Craft runs fortnightly in the Marion Mahony Griffin Hall kitchen at our Castlecrag Campus. All are welcome to attend, and no experience is necessary. There is an enclosed space and toys for younger children to play. Come and learn a new skill or use one that you already know! All materials are provided and Parent Craft makes items for the classrooms, teacher and our School Fair in November. Come to the office at Castlecrag reception and pick up one of the craft packs you can take home to work on!
Read moreLunar New Year Celebrations
14 Feb 2024
The Year of the Dragon was welcomed on Castlecrag campus with a bang and crash of drums, a scary, but friendly big lion (or was it year 1 disguised as a lion?), a flash of red, and over 150 dumplings homemade by Class 2 children and their talented parents. Students decorated their classrooms with the red paper cut outs they made, and participated in an energetic story told about the villagers who fought off the fire breathing dragon to save their beautiful mandarin orchard.
Gōng xī fã cái, Xin Nìan kuài lè, or however you say it in your own language, we wish all our Glenaeon families a healthy and happy New Year!
Outdoor Play at Preschool
14 Feb 2024
We welcome the warm weather at Preschool with exploring all that our outdoor environment has to offer. This includes playing in the garden playground at our Willoughby campus, and near by Bales Park and oval.
This week, the children enjoyed water play, making mud pies in the sand pit, shoveling soil for the garden, climbing trees with educator support and discovering creatures in the grass. The children enjoy free play in nature building independence, curiosity and motor skills, which is fundamental for child development. We are grateful for the warm February weather and space to explore and play.
Handwork at Castlecrag
14 Feb 2024
Handwork is underway and Classes 1 & 2 are busy making things they will use at school! Class 1 are sewing their Counting Bags, which will hold their little counting jewels when they learn numbers and mathematics, whilst Class 2 have begun sewing their etoile – a personal needle holder with their own initials stitched on the front. We warmly welcome our new assistant Meg Quinlisk who is helping Elizabeth Ellean this year
Meg brings with her a wealth of experience – she teaches at Sydney Rudolf Steiner College, has run the Inner West Steiner Playgroup for many years, is a writer and author and a very talented crafter herself.
Read moreSandpit Sensation
14 Feb 2024
There has been so much wonderful play in the sandpit this week, with children creating an enormous moat, castle and cubby! Working industriously together, they cart water, build bridges and steps, laughing and celebrating their huge creation!
Read moreMany Hands Make for Light Work at Preschool
14 Feb 2024
Each day at Preschool, the children put their little hands to work to joyfully add to the rhythms of the day. After a wholesome morning tea, each child carefully washes their plate. Their hands making bubbles in the water as they take turns to wash up with their educators.
Next, they find their bedding and make their way to their designated rest space. Again, those busy hands delicately fold linen over corners and make parachutes as sheets fall. It is the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, like building the will in children, that is woven into the daily rhythm at Preschool. Children learn developmentally appropriate ways of taking initiative, fine and gross motor skills, a sense of independence and community. It is these values that make a Glenaeon preschool education different and start the foundation for resilient and emotionally active children.
Are you or a friend interested in your child joining our Glenaeon Preschool community? Join us to tour our Willoughby campus on Thursday, 14 March from 10am - 11am. Register here.
Read moreWelcome to Castlcrag!
01 Feb 2024
It has been a wonderful first week here at our Castlecrag Campus! The children arriving with laughter and chatter, exploring the playground and sandpits, meeting and making friends amongst the flowers and blooming gardens and grounds. Our Reception is a lovely place with a welcoming Summer nature table. It is lovely to welcome the parents and carers on campus and Playgroups for our young ones have begun – please come and join in this special group for children 0–5. The Grassroots Eco Store is open for all school, craft, gift and creative resources and it’s so nice to see all the bags hanging on the children's’ hooks! Welcome everyone.
Our Maintenance team have been very busy over the break! The Fort has undergone a wonderful restoration by Sonny, the new Kindy water pump is in and some lovely sandstone rockwork has been completed, amongst many other things that make out campus shine – thank you!
Read moreClass 1 Walk the Rainbow Bridge
18 Jan 2024
Beginning Class 1 is a lovely step for the children, made even more special with the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ event. On Wednesday our Class 1 children met in the Kindergarten playground where excitement and anticipation filled the air. They were supported by their kindergarten teachers Deputy Head of School Dani Finch. They shared their morning song together before walking through the playground up to the Class 1 area, their new haven at school. The Class 2 children formed a beautiful 'Rainbow Bridge' - a tunnel made with long silk and flowers. They sing a lovely song called “Make New Friends”. The Kindergarten teacher shared a farewell for now and gave each child a flower to take with them 'under the rainbow bridge' to the other side, where their new Class teacher, Emily Watts greeted them with a warm smile.
The children then make their way onto the balcony of Class 1 and their first day in the Class Teacher Period begins! This is an important right of passage and a symbolic moment in Steiner education philosophy and ignites the beginning of the Class Teacher journey. Emily will form special bonds with each child and nurture and guide these children through their primary years with the supportive assistance of other specialist teachers. Parents then come together for a shared morning tea, with Senior Teacher Catherine Pilko and Dani Finch welcoming and sharing insights about the first days and weeks of Class 1.
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Glenaeon Garden Culture - Like a Bee Hive
18 Jan 2024
How does the unconscious wisdom contained in the beehive, filled with love, relate to our human experiences?
In his book “Bees”, Rudolf Steiner said “The individual bees renounce love in manifold ways, and thus develop love throughout the whole hive. One only begins to understand the life of the bees when one knows that the bee lives in an atmosphere completely pervaded by love.” *
When we, human beings, gather to work together for a higher cause than our own personal ambition, we are emulating this social model of a bee hive; thus the name ‘working bee’.
The Glenaeon Gardens appreciate this model of working together in devotion and love.
Our annual Harvest Gratitude day, as celebrated last Sunday at Middle Cove, has become a working bee of sorts as the Glenaeon community comes together to learn from each other. We felt the benefits of healthy living soils by plunging our hands in them; we harvested what had grown out of flourishing garden beds; we created a bountiful feast, and together, we planted new gardens for bees, animals and humans too.
Once upon a time the whole school was abuzz with the smell of pizza, handmade flyers with reminders to bring gold coins, and excited students doing pizza runs around the campus. High school students prepared the dough with teacher Anne Rouse while Class 6 made and delivered the pizzas - the campus coming together to make industry, like busy bees in a hive!
We are grateful to teachers Ruth Pervis and Kathy Thangathurai for their vision, and for hosting these joyous events, with the keen support of parent chef Nick Meredith-Jones.
Ten years of garden fundraising has now enabled the renovation of the school's chicken coop, for the benefit of students through our agricultural and wellbeing programs.
As expressed within our chicken care community:
“We can't wait to come and look after the chickens”
“It lifts my heart to see our community (young & older) working together to create something beautiful and valuable!”
Thank you to those past students, teachers and parents for this invaluable legacy! In opening our hearts to devotion, love and sacrifice, we become bearers of love. Just like the bees.
See you in the Garden!
Sandra Frain…..and Parent Volunteers
Gardening Teacher
S.Frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
* “Nine Lectures on Bees” Rudolf Steiner, GA 351
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA351/English/SGP1975/19230203p01.html
Glenaeon Garden Culture - Harvesting in Times of Scarcity
18 Jan 2024
Harvesting in times of scarcity
We are fast approaching our traditional Harvest Festival, and our gardens are not bursting with pumpkins as they have been in the past. Living in a city, we have the easy option of going to the shops and buying whatever we want for our celebrations. But we would like to encourage everyone to stop for a moment and look at the world differently: what do we have in our gardens right now?
We harvest seeds, we harvest stories
Aromatic and medicinal Fennel has taken over some of the garden beds at the Middle Cove garden, creating a canopy bursting with yellow umbrella-like flowers filled with seed and feathery peacock-like leaves. Last week, Class 6 students picked the flowers, harvested the seeds and roasted them during their gardening class. At the end of the lesson, we shared our food and stories, and everyone commented how much they loved the roasted fennel seeds. One student shared a story with the class:
There once was a King who wanted to know which of his children was the faithful one. He gave them roasted fennel seeds to plant, and later on he asked them how they were growing. All of the children commented how strong their plants have been growing, except for one girl who said: “Mine are not growing at all!” - And that’s how the King knew who the faithful child was.
When we think we have nothing, we need to look around, explore, question and learn. We have some Azolla in the pond, which we learned is high in nitrogen and can be used instead of manure when we have no access to cows.
A high school student harvested some chicken bones while digging in the garden, and asked to take them home. Could they be the seeds of an archaeology interest?
The students on all campuses are resourceful in their play and this translates to the same in their alchemical experiments with food substances. Can we as adults be as bold and harvest the Taro root and leaves that are growing in abundance at Glenaeon Preschool? We have made Bay leaf tea, roasted Fennel and Sunflower seeds, fried up Mustard greens, Endive, Amaranth leaves and flowers in frittatas. From the Glenaeon gardens we add lemon, flowers, leaves, seeds in our sourdough bread. We connect with our surroundings to create new things with them.
So why is harvest time so meaningful? In harvesting, we learn to embrace what we have, we become creative and able to make something from nothing. As human beings, we harvest the rewards of moments of gratitude and connection with the Earth. We can’t get this from a shop.
Goethian observation
For Term 1 2024, the Class 6 students have now each represented an impression of Fennel in their assessment task for Gardening lessons:
“I think it looks like lots of little flowers. I think if you hold it up to the light and see the shape it looks like a star constellation.”
“I like the smell. When I suck it, it tastes like licorice. When I eat it, it does not taste good. It feels furry and soft.”
“I like fennel because it feels nice to touch and I like the taste and texture of it. It feels very nice on your skin and it is very soothing. It tastes like licorice when you suck on it and chew them.”
See you in the Garden!
Sandra Frain…..and Parent Volunteers
Gardening Teacher
S.Frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Glenaeon Garden Culture - Worms: The Humble Servants of our Soil
18 Jan 2024
The words Humble and Human have their origins in the Latin word Humus (soil). Dig a little hole in any of our garden beds and you’ll surely find some wriggly and lively worms. Whether in compost heaps or worm farms, finding them gives the students an animal to interact with that’s not always part of their home life. We notice their delight and fascination with this squirming animal: how quickly it moves, the colours, the size. They bring a sense of wonder. There is something familiar in the texture: it is shiny, soft and wriggly like our tongues!
“These worms are wonderful creatures: they leave to the earth precisely as much ethericity as it needs for plant-growth.”
Rudolf Steiner, GA 327: The Agriculture Course — Lecture VII
These subterranean animals leave life in the soil for the plants. They work in cooperation with the soil. The worm is regulating the soil by eating what is meant to be decomposed but not so much as to destroy the life value for the plants.
So how are we bringing this to life in Glenaeon’s gardens?
● We're making healthy soil: This humble servant is a necessity to break down all the discarded food waste that is high in nitrogen. The worms make this beneficial soil for us in cooperation with all the other insects, grubs, earwigs, springtails, nematodes, cockroaches and millions of microorganisms that we can't see, representing a life force that makes the soil lively and healthy for plants to grow and to feed insects once again.
● We're making a learning-scape: A student friendly atmosphere that enables this excitement to embrace and learn of life. What a joy it is when preschool and kindy students say “I want to see the worm farm! I want to see the compost! Let’s feed the worms.”
The students learn to care and take responsibility: the worms need water, they need to be fed with scraps, leaves and grit when we keep them in a domesticated ‘farm situation’.
They get to see the worm eggs and learn that the liquid that comes out of the worm farm is a medicine we call a fertiliser that will enrich the soil that plants are growing in.
● We’re working with the senses: The tactile sensation and ‘wriggling’ of worms is confronting to some students. They grow comfortable with the notion of having a worm in their hands when they see other adults or students relaxed with the interaction. This is a simple but profound opportunity for students to develop resilience for challenging sensations.
● We're encouraging social responsibility: Families living in apartments can have a worm farm and create healthy soil. It can then be used in pots, or taken to a favourite tree at the park, or given to friends. The act of creating an environment for the production of soil is empowering. “What can I do to help the climate crisis caused by food waste?” - make more healthy soil!
Want to know how to set up your worm farm at home? “Show more” below!
See you in the Garden!
Sandra Frain…..and Parent Volunteers
Gardening Teacher
S.Frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Kindergarten Advent Festival
30 Nov 2023
Parents, siblings and grandparents eagerly gathered on the last Wednesday of term to witness the beauty and wonder of the Kindergarten Advent Festival. With gesture and song, the children lovingly shared their Advent Circle which tells the the story of the humble birth of the heavenly child who is born on earth and adored by all creation.
Read moreSpring Festival at Preschool
23 Nov 2023
At the end of last term we gathered as a whole preschool community - children, families and teachers - to celebrate Spring together. Our wonderful parents made flower garlands and felt butterflies for the children. The teachers shared a puppet story and songs and we had a picnic at the park together. It was a very Happy Spring celebration.
Read moreWashing Up Fun at Playgroup
22 Nov 2023
Natalie Choo's lovely Monday playgroup at our Willoughby Campus enjoy the preschool playground and a bush kitchen. This is an activity for all ages where little ones imitate the fun and care of washing up together after a nourishing morning tea.
Glenaeon’s family-style Playgroups are joyful and supportive of you and your child’s development. Our highly skilled Steiner Playgroup Educators create imaginative activities to ensure families enjoy an enriching, uplifting time together. We welcome all families with children from birth to five years of age.
You are warmly invited to join our ‘Welcome Home’ Playgroup for Term 1, 2024
For details on registration, please click 'Show more'.
Read moreKindergarten Recreate the 'Dunk Tank'
22 Nov 2023
Last week in outside play, the Kindergarten children had a wonderful time recreating their own very intricate version of the dunk tank they had seen at the Fair. Some elaborate rules that were created amongst the children, determined that each child was required to ‘walk a plank’ balanced on a log in the bottom pond of the Kindy Creek. As they toppled towards the water they each leapt onto dry land to avoid landing in the pond. Mind you, some landed in the pond with a splash, much to the glee of the other children watching.
Read moreKindergarten Games
09 Nov 2023
Kindergarten children enjoy outside games for fun, fitness and to develop coordination. Beanbag games, skipping and the giant swing are great places to play! Kindergarten have learnt to finger knit on all 5 fingers, which makes a beautiful rope – perfect for your homemade skipping ropes!
Read moreCelebrating Japanese Girls' Day at Playgroup
07 Nov 2023
One of the pleasures of our Glenaeon playgroups is the discussions we adults have while the children are playing near by to us.
Last week, some of the conversations in each of our seven playgroups have been about how gender is celebrated in our different cultures and in different eras of our lives. How wonderful it is to learn from each other, to practice expressing ourselves in a safe space with others wishing to hear our words, to hear of our thoughts on particular subjects!
Hinamatsuri is an annual festival in Japan which takes place on March 3rd. It is also known as 'Girls' Day' and holds festivities and well wishes for girls aged 10 and under. This celebration was discussed in Playgroup and a lovely celebration table was created with dolls.
At this halfway point in Term 1 2024 there are limited spaces available, to register your family (ages birth to 5 years), please contact Sandra Frain at playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Read moreKindergarten Spring Festival
11 Oct 2023
Kindergarten children and teachers Melanie, Sarah, Junko and Catherine and assistants Ming-Yu and Elizabeth shared their joyful celebration with parents in a festival on the last day of Term 3. Coming together in a circle in the lower playground, first Little Kindergarten and then Big Kindergarten sang their Spring songs. They had prepared lemonade and fruit sticks and parents brought beautiful food to share as they enjoyed a picnic before heading home for the holidays. The weather was perfect and we all basked in the beautiful sunshine.
Read moreRosh Hashanah in Little Kindy
26 Sep 2023
Glenaeon Garden Culture
13 Sep 2023
Eco Literacy, Friends & Pests In Our Gardens: Part 2
Indigenous heart intelligence and biodynamic regenerative agriculture
From Indigenous culture we learn that when the wattles flower, the mullet fish run. In the Time of Murrai’yunggoray (September - October), as the weather warms and the Miwa Gawaian (Waratah) buds swell, the D’harawal people began their major ceremonies in celebration of the new life promised by this season.
In Glenaeon’s gardens we invite everyone to practise active observation before deciding on our actions of care. We sing to the garden “what story, what story do you tell? What story do you tell?” and then we articulate:
- The bees are saying “thank you for planting the zinnia seeds and caring for them”; the zinnias are saying “thank you to the bees for helping to pollinate us so we can make seeds for new flowers”.
- Our Mother Earth is saying “I am so thirsty without rain - will you please water me today? If my soil gets too dry the insects will be thirsty and eat the plants to find water.”
- The bush turkeys parading and scratching in the garden bed inform us that the lettuces need some protection.
Setting boundaries
While newly planted flowers and seeds are getting established in the soil we protect them with nets or fences built by the students. As plants grow bigger and stronger we uncover the plants so that humans and animals can harvest what they need. This is a principle of both biodynamic and Indigenous agriculture: we must ensure that the birds and animals have enough to eat too.
In Glenaeon's gardens:
● We practise principles that Indigenous and wise farmers share around the world: never pick the first or the last of the crop for the future of life itself. (For example, when we harvest our lettuce or silverbeet we always leave 3 leaves so the plant keeps growing new leaves).
● We have fish in the water garden to help keep mosquitoes away. Some plants are particularly helpful in deterring certain insects, and are carefully planted around gathering and play areas: tansy, with a camphor-like scent that repels ants and flies, while citronella and lemongrass' smells deter mosquitoes.
● We scatter crushed eggshells around particular plants to discourage snails and slugs that might be nibbling too much of our food. When Preschool and Castlecrag students find snails and slugs they carefully move them to non (human) edible bushes (or even build homes for them with leaves and sticks), and when students find inch grubs they feed them to our grateful chickens.
● We use tree paste to cover pruned branches or damaged trees to protect them from ants and other insects while they heal. Biodynamic tree paste is made with 3 equal parts of clay, cow manure and sand, mixed with water to make a spreadable paste.
Indigenous peoples have totems and special animal images to help keep unwanted visitors away. We have scarecrows, representing a human presence in the garden. While the kookaburras may laugh at our scarecrows, we like to think of them as friends: ever so helpful at catching native rodents.
Want to join our holiday chicken care team? Got a question, story or idea to share? The Glenaeon Garden Team would love to hear from you! s.frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Sandra Frain (and Parent Garden Volunteers)
Gardening Teacher
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Little Kindy Wet Felted Coasters for Father's Day
13 Sep 2023
Our Little Kindy children made wet felted coasters for their Father’s Day gifts. We had many helpers in the room for every step. We prepared the fleece, rubbed it with warm soapy water and rolled and rolled it until it was felted well. The children then cut the felt into a coaster shape and felted some more before hanging it out to dry and ironing it. The perfect friend for a hot or cold beverage.
Junko Nicholas
Kindergarten & Japanese Teacher
Father’s Day Food Lovers Unite
13 Sep 2023
Glenaeon’s playgroup to high school sourdough bread enthusiasts shook cream until it became butter, dripped yoghurt until it made cream cheese, and kneaded dough until it was ‘soft as an ear lobe’ on 2023’s sunny Father’s Day.
The kneaded creations were embellished with garden edibles and transformed in the Castlecrag Kitchen ovens for take-homes, along with rye flour sourdough ‘starter’ jars and recipe booklets.
Learning of the alchemy of fermentation to make sourdough bread was exciting for adults and youth alike, as children played outside the Marion Mahony Griffin Hall kitchen on the fresh grass and inviting sandpit.
A ‘morning tea’ of freshly made sourdough bread, cream cheese, butter (and Junko’s miso!) washed down with our Castlecrag garden herbal tea vanished in no time. Thank you to all the participants who came and created a social alchemy on Father’s Day. Love was in the air!
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Glenaeon Garden Culture
13 Sep 2023
Breathing in and breathing out in times of joy and sorrow
With emphasis in 2023 on ‘Well Being’ in our lives, our Glenaeon gardens on all three campuses have been responsive for visitors of all ages to feel nurtured as they contemplate the mysteries of life within. The students find health actively and passively by digging soil, harvesting flowers, planting seeds, caring for plants and animals and in serving each other garden herb tea and fresh wholesome food in a sociable manner.
Angst and sorrow was ours with the loss of the beloved teacher Jonas Stoebe in the last weeks of Term 3. We countered the confusion of grief by celebrating the joy his life gifted us, honouring the elements of earth, water, air and fire within the home base of our gardens.
We dug a pit for making a ton of new soil from compostables,
We made contained fires and burned sticks for ‘doughies’;
We stirred waters of biodynamic preparations for strengthening our atmosphere and soil and We sprayed each other with water hoses;
We harvested flowers and vegetables;
We sang, shared stories, laughed and cried;
We wrote poetry and letters too.
We swung on the hammock and the big swing,
We planted seeds for glorious gardens of the future while remembering Jonas, an inspiration to us all.
Our Middle Cove garden hosted many classes of students and groups of teachers day after day of this time. Science students tagged birds, English students wrote prose, art students sketched, Math students measured time, Earth stewardship students rejuvenated their camp experience. Every break time the stumps in the garden and surrounding rocks were covered with students convening. As we shared this communal season of grief, the garden responded by making a ‘welcome home’ for us. Together, we accepted, we grew, and we healed: wiser and stronger in our openness and resilience to the mysteries of life.
How grateful we are that Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School honours the importance of cultivated gardens as a place to be, and as a place to be motivated to help. How fortunate we are to have a place to embrace the elements all and to be nourished by their powerful ways too. Like all living organisms, the gardens flourish with human activity and interest. Please contact S.Frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au if you would like to visit the gardens or volunteer with the Glenaeon gardens and animal care teams.
Celtic Blessing honouring the elements as sung by Year 8 ‘in the garden’.
Deep Peace
Deep peace of the running waves to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
https://youtu.be/oEmvQqg_EpQ?si=E7dFQRZLIyWiMiST
Sandra Frain (and Parent Garden Volunteers)
Gardening Teacher
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Glenaeon Garden Culture
13 Sep 2023
Chickens, the cycle of life and volunteers
Our business as agriculturalists is to work with transformation and metamorphosis or energies and matter. Life and death. This week we had a profound example of accepting the conditions that come with taking responsibility to care for animals for the sake of learning and the sake of soul warmth.
Even though we have a devoted community of families and staff who care for the chickens, we could not escape nature's way. After almost a year of absence a fox made its way into our coop, and now six of our seven Glenaeon chickens have become a part of our nourishing garden soil.
Like every farming community, the Glenaeon community has responded with the sorrow that comes with the loss of animals that so many of us have become attached to. With our loss our hearts have opened.
The garden space is so quiet without the chickens clucking and scratching and the sounds of the students' joy as they visit the chickens before school, in the classes and in the breaks. The Garden team has invited Glenaeon students to tie a chicken feather to a card with some words or pictures they may make and place it in the chicken coop. Many families are also making tributes to the chickens in different ways.
Adults are connecting via group chat and in person, the Garden team is welcoming families to visit and meet in the garden. Already this is resulting in tangible ideas ensuring the pedagogical health of our Glenaeon community. For parents and carers who are looking for a way to join and be a part of this community, a rare opportunity in Middle Cove, please feel free to email Sandra: s.frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au Let’s garden and make social change together: all ages welcome.
Sandra Frain (and Parent Garden Volunteers)
Read moreGlenaeon Garden Culture - From You I Receive, To You I Give
13 Sep 2023
“An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude that their elders feel as they receive what is freely given by their fellow human beings, and in how they express their gratitude. The cultivation of this universal gratitude toward the world is of paramount importance.” - Rudolf Steiner*
As a Glenaeon Garden culture, we practise this form of grace in many ways including active observation and appropriate response. We give thanks for the animals, the flowers, the produce, the minerals, the space where we meet and of course for each other!
On the last weekend of November, the Glenaeon Middle Cove Garden was a hive of activity thanks to industrious families meeting to deconstruct the chicken coop and then to celebrate our annual gifting of loving labour to the garden program.
On the rainy Saturday, 25th November we hosted a working bee to dismantle the chicken coop which completed the recent work begun by the students of garden Class 3 to 6. We enjoyed de-constructing by cutting sharp wires and then driving wheelbarrows (up through the bush) full of awkward loads of sharp metals and plastics to the awaiting truck. The clean concrete slab now gives us the start we need to re-construct a more secure home for the chickens.
On the next day, November 26th, (the 4th anniversary of an Angophera tree crashing on the previous garden shed), we gave an honouring “Thank You” to all the families that support Glenaeon’s gardening classes and the essential weekend/holiday chicken care. On this sparkling sunny Sunday, our work was socialising. “What’s your Glenaeon garden story?” created the alchemy of interest in each other.
We celebrated the presence of our elder Ruth Pervis, the former Glenaeon Class Teacher, who retired to start the Glenaeon gardens in 2010. How exciting it was to hear her stories of transforming a previously desolate part of the Middle Cove campus for dedicated garden classes.
The mood was festive as we dined on popcorn, breads, pestos, garden produce and cakes, and guzzled fresh garden herbal tea! Children joyously scampered around the garden beds under refreshing sprinklers; lounged in the hammock under the green-grape laden pergola and discovered many skittish fish in the oasis’ garden pond. This is our garden!
For anyone interested in participating, learning, helping and supporting the building of a new chicken coop, please email Sandra: s.frain@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
* Rudolf Steiner “THE CHILD'S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS AND WALDORF EDUCATION”. GA 306. Lecture VI
Sandra Frain (and Parent Garden Volunteers),
Gardening Teacher
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Tanabata Festival - Wishes to the Sky
30 Aug 2023
The children in Playgroups and Classes 1 & 2 have all participated in writing wishes and hanging them on Bamboo trees for the Japanese Tanabata Festival. On Mondays, our Japanese Immersion Playgroup has Naoko Murphy as their Playgroup leader, and Junko Nicholas and Naoko have taken Classes 1 & 2 for Japanese language lessons. It is tradition that these wishes must be burnt in order to send them to the heavens, and this was performed with Naoko in the playground around the fire. They sang and spoke the Japanese blessings as the ashes flew to the sky, taking their wishes with them. Thank you Naoko for leading this most exquisite ceremony.
Read moreWorking Together in Kindergarten
16 Aug 2023
Each Wednesday morning in the Kindergarten we come together for a working bee in the garden. We sweep, we rake, we scrub and we clean. We tidy the rocks, sticks and cubby building material. We harvest herbs to make herb tea and we cut fruit to share at our picnic morning tea. We care for each other, we care for our garden and we engage in purposeful healthy human activity together. It is always heart warming to see the children's enthusiasm and joy as they work together to complete their tasks.
Catherine Pilko
Senior Teacher Castlecrag Campus and Kindergarten Teacher
Preschool Gets a New Mudbrick Hut
14 Aug 2023
The children have been fascinated with observing the real-world work deconstruction of our old mudbrick hut and the beautiful building and creative craftmanship of our new mud-brick hut. Our deep gratitude goes to Kenney and his partner from MUDTEC.
Read moreEco Literacy Starts With Babies!
14 Aug 2023
In our Glenaeon playgroups we practice ongoing eco-literacy. We observe the trees and plants and rocks, explore by stroking trees, patting, and tickling flowers and multi-shaped leaves too.
We carry the rocks, roll them and grind them to make potent rock dust for the Glenaeon garden soil health. 'Iron' and 'basalt' are the words we learn to identify the colours of red and blue-black stone. We sing to the plants and give thanks for their magnificence as we play beneath and around them.
Nature is welcomed into the playgroup rooms to form the basis of our stories and enhance our baking table too. (Elizabeth Cooper our Glenaeon Little Kindy Assistant picks up wind scattered flowers, leaves, branches and banksia cones on her long walk to school.)
One Nona gave thanks to the pumpkin in the story our playgroup leader Natalie Choo told, her twin grandsons are now asking to eat pumpkin which they had rejected before, ‘making friends with pumpkin’!
Our Playgroup families (and educators) are most grateful for the beautiful campuses that Glenaeon Playgroup is held on, Preschool and Castlecrag with their abundance of flowers, shrubs and trees that make a child friendly haven for nature exploration and learning.
For playgroup enquiries, please contact Sandra Frain at playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Read moreA Visit from Noel at Our Willoughby Campus
01 Jun 2023
The Preschool children love when Noel from the Maintenance Team comes to visit, they watch with fascination as he fixes things around the Preschool. We are so grateful to Noel for making these giant boxes for us. They have been the inspiration for much creative and imaginative play.
Little Kindy Create Heart Shaped Mobiles for Mother's Day
24 May 2023
Happy Mother’s Day from Little Kindy.
This year for Mother's Day, the Little Kindy children made a beautiful heart shaped mobile with raffia and wooden beads. Many mornings and afternoons were spent completing this project and we were fortunate to have a number of dads coming to help too. It has been wonderful to see children work with love and care with their hands. As they worked, they could often be heard chatting happily about their mums and how much they love them.
Celebrating Birthdays at Preschool
10 May 2023
Birthdays are very special celebrations at Preschool as the parents come and sit in the circle of children with a rainbow bridge leading toward them. The birthday child, and their guide, dressed in capes and gold crowns come down from the starry heavens towards the parents while the birthday story is told. A handmade card and gift for each child is given by the teacher. How special the arrival of a child is and how joyful the celebration of what they bring as gifts to earth. Parents stay for morning tea and cake with the class and memories to last a lifetime have been created.
Read moreExploring the Change of Season at Preschool
29 Mar 2023
We are fortunate that Glenaeon Preschool backs onto Bales Park where our children and educators play multiple times each week.
The children love running, jumping, climbing, rolling and balancing on tree roots.
Outdoor play in new environments allows children the freedom to connect with the changing seasons and the opportunity for trees, grass, earth, leaves, flowers, acorns to become resources for play.
This week, the leaves are being used as puppy dog tails. What a joy to be in nature and allow the imagination to fly.
Preschool has a tour coming up on Saturday 6th May at 9:30am, run by the Educators. To register go to: https://enquiry.glenaeon.nsw.edu.au/events
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Open Day 2023 Wrap Up
23 Mar 2023
Last Friday, Glenaeon welcomed over 300 visitors to our 2023 Open Day. It was a sparkling morning to showcase our spectacular Middle Cove campus, and we greeted our guests with a warm hello. A very special thank you to our wonderful Year 11 student ambassadors who conducted tours and made our prospective families feel welcome. Guests were treated to displays that highlighted the many ways Glenaeon provides a unique and nurturing environment for learning and thriving.
Our visitors were invited to view classes like blacksmithing, PDHPE, food chemistry, Japanese, philosophy and art. Our Year 10 cohort rehearsed their musical performances for the crowds, herb tea and bread were served in our biodynamic garden and guests explored our outdoor education program equipment and heard stories of journeys to places with scenery to take your breath away. Our Head of School, Diana Drummond addressed families in the amphitheatre, and coffee and muffins were a hit from the Gentle Cafe. Guests purchased gifts from the Grassroots Ecostore pop up shop and viewed displays from our playgroups and primary school.
When one primary school student visiting with her dad was asked how she liked the school, she said, "it is so lovely to look outside the classroom and see green trees instead of traffic!" Another visiting student said, "I am a big fan of chemistry, I loved watching that class".
A huge thank you to the many staff and students that made the day possible. You are the reason why people had such wide grins on their faces when they left the front gates.
Enjoy a photographic snapshot of the morning below or visit our Instagram for the highlight 'Open Day 2023'.
Read morePreschool & Playgroups Apple Picking
15 Mar 2023
Around 40 families and the teachers from Glenaeon Preschool and Playgroups enjoyed the beautiful weather in Bilpin last Sunday morning. After singing their Autumn Circle together they went off with baskets to gather apples and pears and return for a picnic with shared food from our many cultural heritages.
What a wonderful opportunity for our community to gather and share time together in nature. Back at Preschool, the children and teachers were able to use their harvest to make apple crumble for morning tea. A delicious way to enjoy the handpicked apples.
Playgroups Diversity
23 Feb 2023
A beautiful aspect of Glenaeon's playgroups is the sense of belonging as soon as the child, carer, and educator gather in the space together. For many, parenthood can be isolating and we love that the natural rhythm of coming to playgroup each week makes you, and your child, feel connected and supported.
Our seven weekly playgroups located at both our Willoughby and Castlecrag Campuses take great pride in celebrating diversity and the relationships built between educators and families. Parents and grandparents, nannies and friends are invited to share in the rich learning environment for both children and adults.
Thank you to Naoko Murphy, our Japanese Immersion Playgroup Educator for translating this story.
一体感、共に過ごす喜び。それを来てすぐに感じられるのが、グレネオンのプレイグループです。子どもたちと保護者、そしてエジュケーターが集う、皆にとっての豊かな学びの場です。孤立を感じることもある子育てではあります。でもこうして毎週プレイグループに通うという心地よいリズムを作ることで、保護者も子どもたちも、つながりとサポートを感じることでしょう。
グレネオンには、WilloughbyとCastlecragの2つのキャンパスに、週に合わせて7つのプレイグループがあります。多様性を尊重し喜び合い、エジュケーターと家族の皆さんの関係づくりを深めることを大切にしています。ご家族の皆さん、ナニーやご友人の皆さんもぜひご一緒に、私たちみんなの学びの場へいらっしゃってください。
For more information and to register for Playgroup please contact Playgroup Manager and Educator Sandra Frain at playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
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Muddy Puddles
23 Feb 2023
The summer rain brings the opportunity to explore nature's childhood gift of the famous muddy puddle.
Our Glenaeon Preschool children enjoyed adventuring to the nearby park adorned in raincoats and gumboots, essential items for rainy play.
Jumping, twirling, skipping and stomping, nothing beats this freeing sensory experience and outdoor play in any weather.
Their educator, Carly Solomon captured the pure joy had by all.
Summer play at Preschool
15 Feb 2023
It's been a wonderful start to the new preschool year, with children, parents and teachers making the most of summer and engaging in supportive and adventurous activities.
The warm weather has encouraged garden and water play - digging trenches, sifting sand, and catching water from the pipe.
On a cooler day, the children took to the park in search of cicada shells, a much loved summer tradition and a beautiful lesson in life cycles.
Some very cute and fury members visited preschool, and the children enjoyed cuddles and care with some leaf munching Guinea pigs.
For some indoor fun, the children explored wet on wet watercolour painting. The painting process is taught with a told story about a little brush who went to visit the coloured house and the teacher demonstrates for learning through imitation. At the beginning of the year we work with one colour at a time for the child to really experience each colour. Yellow last week, blue this week and then yellow and blue combined to experience making green.
We thank our parents for joining us for morning tea preparation - a lovely activity to support the transition and arrival at Preschool. Helping, imitation and creating meaningful work.
If you know a family with children aged 3-5 years who are interested in Preschool, please share our upcoming tours on March 4 & 21.
Visit Preschool Tours
Read moreWelcome Soiree wrap up
03 Feb 2023
Last Friday evening, we were delighted to formally welcome our community to the 2023 school year.
We celebrated with a soiree hosted by Head of School, Diana Drummond at our Middle Cove campus.
Thank you to Peter Candotti, Chair of the Board for your address and introducing our Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School Board members who were present.
Thank you also to Warwick Brown and Sabine Simmons, Co-Chairs of the GPA for your words on the night.
It was a lovely chance for new and existing members of our community to make meaningful connections over drinks, canapes, and entertainment - thank you, Joe Littlefield for providing the tunes.
We were thrilled to say it was our best turnout to date and we thank our parents, carers, teachers and staff for joining us for a wonderful night.
Read moreJapanese Immersion playgroup
27 Jan 2023
We are delighted to officially launch our Japanese Immersion Playgroup on Monday 9:30-11:30am at our Castlecrag Campus.
This playgroup will follow the 'family style' model of Glenaeon's other Playgroups: Birth to 5 years with song, story, baking and shared morning tea picnic with adult discussion.
This Japanese-English bilingual playgroup will be led by educator Naoko Murphy, who will deliver a unique playgroup experience that embraces Japanese culture and language. Siblings of children who attend Glenaeon School or families from our wider community are all welcome.
We have spaces available in all playgroup sessions across Castlecrag and Willoughby campuses. To view our flyer click here.
To book or enquire, please email playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au or phone: 02 9932 2340. We look forward to welcoming you.
Read moreApply now for Preschool 2023 - limited places!
10 Dec 2022
Preschool has limited places available for 2023. Applications are now open. Interested families should call Preschool to speak with Preschool staff or arrange a private tour now to avoid missing out. Call 02 9412 5547
Read moreGlenaeon launches a Japanese Immersion Playgroup for 2023
10 Dec 2022
Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School is delighted to announce the launching of a Japanese Immersion Playgroup Mondays at Castlecrag Campus 9:30-11:30: led by Playgroup Educator Naoko Murphy.
This playgroup will follow the ‘family style’ model of Glenaeon’s other Playgroups: Birth to 5 years with song, story, baking and shared morning tea picnic with adult discussion. All families are welcome with preference to families with a sibling who currently attends Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School.
グレネオンでは、新しく日英バイリンガルのプレイグループがスタートすることになりました。2023年2月6日から4月3日の9週間、9:30−11:30、Castlecragキャンパスにて行われます。担当は、なおこ先生です。
グレネオンのプレイグループとして、この日英バイリンガルのプレイグループは「ファミリースタイル」モデルで行われます。0歳の赤ちゃんから5歳の子供たちと、その家族が対象です。歌、お話しの時間、パン作りに、みんなで囲むおやつの時間。晴れた日にはキャンパス内でピクニック、そして大人同士のディスカッションの時間もあります。グレネオンシュタイナースクールに通っているお子さまの兄弟も、他の家族の皆さまも、ぜひ一緒に時間を過ごしましょう!
To book, enquire or add your child’s name to the waitlist, please email playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au or phone: 02 9932 2340
Read moreAhoy there Preschool!
17 Nov 2022
At Preschool, our new boat arrived on Friday and on Saturday Tim (Owen’s dad), Ben (Yolandi’s dad) and Mike (Axel’s dad) came and helped screw it together and glue it. How lucky we are to have such help? Tim and Ben can be seen below finishing up around 7pm! Noel will varnish it and make a base. Our thanks to these very kind parents.
Read moreApply now for Preschool 2023
17 Nov 2022
Preschool has announced a final tour for prospective 2023 families taking place on Thursday 1 December at 11am. To make a booking click HERE.
Read moreWelcome Back Soraya!
31 Aug 2022
We are so very happy and excited to have our dear colleague and educator Soraya returning to us from extended maternity leave in Spain. Soraya is full of love, warmth and creativity. She is an incredible cook, gardener and illustrator. Our Preschool children’s older siblings fondly remember her teaching them songs in Spanish.
Since she was very young, Soraya has been committed to living a life of self-exploration that involved working in a profession that embraced integrity and the sacred. In this path, she came across Steiner Education and found her purpose in life.
Soraya started her journey as an Educator at Glenaeon Preschool in 2018. She left the Preschool in 2022 to welcome her second child, daughter Lua. Her son Rio, now 6, also attended the preschool. Her partner Borja works at Warrah Farm where we get our delicious Biodynamic vegetables from.
Soraya has a Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care and Steiner Early Childhood Teacher Training. She is currently deepening her knowledge in Education through a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood and Primary Education.
Read moreSandra’s weekly visit to the Kindergarten
18 Aug 2022
Each morning in Little Kindy when we start the day we sing:
"Rinka, rinka rosie ray, what day is it today?"
On Tuesday the children recall it is Porridge Day, Painting Day and yes of course it’s SANDRA DAY. Yes, this is the day that Sandra comes to visit Little Kindy on her way to the garden. We must remember to save a bowl of porridge for her. We all look forward to Sandra joining us at our table. After we finish our porridge the children are keen to join Sandra and her helper Gucchi in the garden where they work each week with the children of all three Kindergartens.
Last week Sandra brought a special healing mixture to paste on the trees and plants that had been pruned or had broken branches. This wonderfully tactile, cooling slurry (Sandra is the keeper of this special recipe) was lovingly and carefully spread over the cuts and wounds of our beloved trees as the children earnestly sang the tree pasting song:
Healing healing medicine for our beautiful trees
Healing healing has begun
Soon our trees will be big and strong
Even the most rumbunctious and active kindergarten players were drawn into the calming qualities of the song as they participated in the healing and cooling magic of the tree pasting ritual. Sandra’s tree paste is not only transforming our trees but also our children!
Read moreCome and join Glenaeon Playgroups!
18 Aug 2022
Glenaeon Playgroups are back and we are enjoying coming together to sing, play, bake, explore and listen to wonderful stories together! Please come and join our lovely Playgroups - they run 6 times per week - Monday - Friday across our Castlecrag and Willoughby (Preschool) Campus.
The Playgroup time begins with a story journey around the garden - we explore the wonders of nature in a playful adventure. Returning to the Playgroup room, we sit on pillows to listen and watch a beautiful story told by puppets and our felt animals and dolls. We sing together, learning songs with actions and finger rhymes. Then we knead, roll and bake delicious bread together. As the smell of baking bread fills the room, we play with the wooden, felt and natural toys - rocking horses, animals, blocks, scarves, vehicles and much more. Parents enjoy each others' company and the sense of community that grows together.
If the weather is fine, we take our fruit, some bread, butter and toppings to the garden and share a healthy and delicious morning tea together. The children play in the sandpit and gardens, climbing, digging, pumping water, exploring and building creations. Songs bring us all together again and we return to the Playgroup space for a closing circle. We pack up our freshly-baked bread buns to take home. It's another lovely day at Playgroup so come along and join us!
Regular playgroups run every week day and there are currently paces in our Monday and Tuesday sessions. Please see our Playgroups Flyer HERE.
Try one of our Playgroup sessions: In response to the frequent request for a 'trial session' at our Glenaeon Playgroups, we are delighted to invite you and your families for a single Playgroup session at both our Willoughby and Castlecrag campuses: Monday Willoughby 22nd August 9:00am-11:00am and Tuesday Castlecrag 23rd August 9:30am-11:30am
Contact : Glenaeon Playgroups: playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au. Phone: 99322340
Preschool Winter nature tables
23 Jun 2022
In the Indigenous Dharawal seasons it is now the time of the Burrugin, the Echidna. At Preschool we therefore have a nature table depicting a "train" of Echidnas creatively made from casuarina seed pods and beeswax warmed by the children's hands.
This is the time of year when male Burrugin (echidnas) form lines of up to ten as they follow the female through the woodlands. It is also the time when the Burringoa (Eucalyptus tereticornis) starts to produce flowers, indicating that it is time to collect the nectar of certain plants for the ceremonies which will begin to take place during the next season. For more about the Indigenous Dharawal seasons see: http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/dharawal.shtml
Read morePreschool Apple Picking and Harmony Day Cultural Feast
06 Apr 2022
Around 50 Preschool families went to Bilpin Springs Orchard on Sunday 27 March and after gathering apples, had a Harmony Day sharing of finger foods from their many cultures. What tables full of culinary delights! The rain could not dampen the spirits of all and the tractor rides were a much loved final addition to the experience before families reconvened at Hillbilly Cider undercover lunch tables for further conversation and playtime for the children.
Read moreCelebrating birthdays in the Little Kindy
03 Mar 2022
In Little Kindy we have been celebrating some of the first birthdays for the year. As each child in the Little Kindy turns five their birthday is acknowledged with a special ritual and celebration. As part of the preparation for this celebration the children help make a birthday book and bake a cake. On the day of the birthday a seasonal birthday table is prepared, flowers are picked, songs are sung and a birthday story is told. The birthday story tells of a little star child who looks down on earth and longs to be born. When the time is right for each child to be born on earth they receive their heavenly gifts from the stars, sun and moon and then travel across the rainbow bridge to earth where they are welcomed by their chosen family. The children all look forward to each birthday being celebrated. The mood that is created is reverent and honours the unique individuality of each child.
Read morePreschool Storytelling
03 Mar 2022
At Preschool, the children have been told a story titled, “A little boy went sailing”. In the following days, the children played alongside and together, and imaginative scenes from the story emerged.
Read morePlaygroups coming back!
03 Mar 2022
Playgroups will be returning soon. Please contact Sandra Frain for information and booking requests or to waitlist.
Read more
Bursts of Colour at Castlecrag
17 Feb 2022
Castlecrag has blossomed in the warm, wet weather, and so have the chalkboards in Classes 1 & 2! The chalkboards are alive with stories that accompany the lesson in literacy, letters and learning, and in the Craft room lives the dolphin that dives in and out of the waves, helping the children to learn the path of the needle during embroidery. Here's our glorious sunflowers and blackboards to enjoy.
Read more
Introducing our new Preschool Teaching Assistant Sweta
03 Feb 2022
A very warm welcome to our new Preschool Teaching Assistant who will work in Room 1 with Carly Solomon on Mondays and Tuesdays. Sweta has very kindly shared this introduction:
My name is Mahasweta (Sweta as you will come to know me). I grew up in a place called Dibrugarh in Assam - a state in north-eastern India, located south of the eastern Himalayas. Assam is known for its tea, orchids, one-horned rhino and silk. I love where I grew up and I have fond memories of my hometown. I speak some of the Indian languages like Assamese, Hindi and Bengali. Travelling, learning about new cultures, learning a new language, cooking, gardening, yoga and nature walks make me happy.
I started my career as a Life Skills Trainer for school children in 2009 in Bangalore, India after completing my post-graduation in Psychology. I then worked as an Early Childhood Educator in Bengaluru, Dubai and then finally moved to Australia in 2014 from Dubai with my husband. I completed my Certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education and Care from TAFE NSW in 2017 and worked in two preschools in the North Shore since then. We have a 19-month-old daughter, and I am truly enjoying my new role as a mother. My focus as an educator is on facilitating life skills and making learning fun, challenging and organic.
As a psychology graduate, I have deep interest in the realm of Developmental Psychology and Positive Psychology. I have always gravitated towards Steiner’s philosophy in early childhood education. His holistic view on child development has helped me immensely in observing, understanding and facilitating children’s growth physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally and spiritually.
We have a small number of vacancies at our Preschool for 2022. If you would like to learn more, please watch our Preschool online videos and register for our Preschool Online Tour on Tuesday 8th February 11:15am with Preschool Director Peggy Day: https://enquiry.glenaeon.nsw.edu.au/events
Read moreLove, Gratitude, Reverence and Wonder at Preschool
03 Feb 2022
At Glenaeon Preschool, love and emotional warmth create the basis for a child’s healthy development. These qualities are expressed in what lives between the adult caregiver and the child, in the children’s behaviour toward one another, and among the early childhood educators, parents and the surrounding community. Love and warmth are considered essentials of our Preschool’s educational philosophy.
Young children absorb and imitate the mood of the teachers and the program. Teachers strive to be worthy of imitation and filled with gratitude, love and warmth.
We thank our Preschool teachers for their important work, and welcome parents considering Glenaeon Preschool for their child in 2023.
To apply visit our website: https://www.glenaeonpreschool.nsw.edu.au/about/enrolment/
Limited spots available. Come and tour beautiful Preschool at any of the following tour dates:
Read moreGrassroots Eco Store – Earth-Friendly Gift Giving
03 Feb 2022
If you need inspiration for end-of-year Thank You/Christmas Gifts for teachers, friends, and family, we're here to help. We can work with you to create beautiful gift packs of any size, filled with meaningful, earth-friendly products that are sure to be cherished. Reach out to Taryn or drop by the shop to discuss your gifting needs.
Discover more in our thoughtfully curated online Christmas Collection, or immerse yourself in festive magic by exploring the treasures in-store.
Term 4, 2023 – Opening Hours:
Tuesday: 8:30am—12pm & 2pm—3:45pm
Wednesday: 8:30am—12:30pm
Thursday: 8:30am—12pm & 2pm—3:45pm
Friday: 8:30am—12pm & 2pm—3:45pm
Shop online anytime: grassrootsecostore.com.au
Thank you for shopping locally. A portion of every sale goes to support Glenaeon.
Grassroots Eco Store is located on the Glenaeon Castlecrag Campus, next to the Marion Mahony Griffin Hall. 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag.
Preschool gets muddy!
18 Nov 2021
Mud, mud glorious mud! Here are some wonderful moments capturing our Preschooler’s mud play at the park this week.
We have one final Preschool Tour/webinar this year on Tuesday 30 November, at 11:15am hosted by Peggy Day. We have some 2 or 5-day per week spaces available for 2022. To register for this Preschool Tour click here.
#glenaeon #preschool #willoughby #nature #outdoor #outdoorlearning #earlychildhood #childcare #steiner #steinereducation #steinerschool
Read morePreschoolers return to the park
04 Nov 2021
Some wonderful news for our Preschool families: all groups are going back to their park trips now. Our Preschoolers are once again enjoying tree climbing and running through the wide open spaces. Much excitement prevailed!
We have one final Preschool Tour/webinar this year on Tuesday 30 November, at 11:15am hosted by Peggy Day. We have some 2 or 5-day per week spaces available for 2022. To register for this Preschool Tour click here.
#glenaeon #preschool #willoughby #nature #outdoor #outdoorlearning #earlychildhood #childcare #steiner #steinereducation #steinerschool
Read moreDiwali Festival
04 Nov 2021
Happy Diwali! There was so much beauty and magic in our Preschool day today as we celebrated Diwali the Hindu Festival of Lights. Our teacher Pooja made a delicious rice porridge for morning tea. After our park play, we came together and Pooja captivated the children with a Diwali story she had written and a joyful, exuberant song and dance. A mandala of flowers from the children’s gardens was created by all and left as a beautiful natural Diwali gift for the park community. The children were delighted at the return of a lunch favourite of Idlis before resting with the magic of their clay diya candles shining light into the darkness. Avi then surprised his friends with a gift of bracelets to celebrate Diwali through dressing up beautifully. Thank you so much to Pooja and Avi and his family for sharing this special day with us.
#preschool #willoughby #Diwali #Hindu #Festival
Read morePlaygroups in Term 4
21 Oct 2021
Due to the current COVID situation and the Level 3+ restrictions on schools, Glenaeon Playgroups sessions with Sandra and Nancy are not able to be held at our Castlecrag or Willoughby campuses in Term 4.
Instead, Glenaeon Playgroups are offering families the chance to connect each Tuesday between 9:30am and 10:30am over Zoom. All Playgroup families are welcome to ‘drop in’ for a song, game, story, show & tell, and guided adult discussion hosted by Sandra.
If you would like the Zoom link for the Playgroups Zoom session, (there is no charge for these opportunities for gathering) or any other queries regarding Glenaeon Playgroups, please contact Sandra Frain via email: playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Read moreSilkworms at Preschool
21 Oct 2021
Each day our Preschoolers picked some leaves and watched the silkworms grow larger until we saw the first cocoons being spun. The children look at the silkworms which have just been given the freshly picked leaves from our mulberry tree and one child is delighted to carefully hold one in a leaf.
#glenaeon #preschool #willoughby #nature #outdooreducation #outdoorlearning #earlychildhood #childcare #steiner #steinereducation #steinerschool
Read morePlaygroups in Term 4
07 Oct 2021
Due to the current COVID situation, Glenaeon Playgroups sessions with Sandra and Nancy are not able to be held at our Castlecrag or Willoughby campuses.
Instead, Glenaeon Playgroups are offering families the chance to connect each Tuesday between 9:30am and 10:30am, starting on October 12 over Zoom. All Playgroup families are welcome to ‘drop in’ for a song, game, story, show & tell, and guided adult discussion hosted by Sandra.
Also, on offer is a Playgroup Parent Educational Evening on Tuesday 12 October between 7pm-8pm hosted by Sandra and Nancy.
The Zoom link will be sent out on Sunday October 10th. (There is no charge for these opportunities for gathering.)
If you have any further questions about Glenaeon Playgroups, please contact Sandra via email: playgroups@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Read morePreschool Introductory webinar 19 OCT 11:15am
07 Oct 2021
Preschool Director Peggy Day will host an introductory webinar for Parents considering enrolling their child in Preschool in 2022.
This webinar will take parents through the Preschool philosophy and program, with time for Q&A. To book click here.
Download our Preschool poster and share with your friends and family.
Read moreSpring Nature Tables at school and home
16 Sep 2021
Here are some lovely Spring Nature Tables from Castlecrag - enjoy as we wish you all a lovely spring holiday!
Read morePlaygroups fun
05 Aug 2021
Lockdown has meant that our Playgroups team has had to pivot its delivery model and is now provided via Zoom, email and phone calls with our wonderful Playgroup families. Songs, stories and craft ideas are sent through to families to enjoy. We have also delivered parent-only sessions with Child Development Experts Peggy Day (Director Glenaeon Preschool) and Mary Heard (Simplicity Parenting Coach) to give Parents extra support at this difficult time.
Playgroup leaders Sandra and Nancy are very much looking forward to the time when Playgroup families can once again have fun at our Willoughby and Castlecrag campuses.
Here are some Playgroup photos taken during Term 2.
Read moreGlenaeon launches “Clubs” program for Students from Class 1 through to Year 10
05 Aug 2021
We are very excited to announce the launch of a brand new initiative for students in Class 1 to Year 10 during the remote learning period in 2021. Glenaeon Clubs run from 2:30pm each weekday afternoon and the first sessions ran on Monday with good attendance across the board.
There are a wonderful variety of activities on offer for students of all ages – from sport to art, book clubs, dance and origami. Each club’s session length can vary. For example, Art Club runs from 2:30pm-4pm and Sport club runs for 1 hour. Attendance is voluntary and you can join multiple clubs if you wish (one per day), and all sessions are delivered live.
To find out more about each activity, view the Glenaeon Clubs timetable, and to access the zoom links, please follow the instructions in the guide or click here: https://glo.glenaeon.nsw.edu.au/homepage/3656/
Read moreWhen schooling at home, rhythm is your best friend by Mary Heard
22 Jul 2021
Rhythm is the key to discipline, the secret Steiner schools have always understood. It is also the secret to making children feel secure, it is a message to their nervous system that some things are still the same in the world and that the life they know really matters.
As parents many of us have a tenuous hold on the sort of rhythm and discipline children experience at school but this is a wonderful opportunity for us to reclaim our dominion as we bring school into our home. Home Schooling last time may have been a bit chaotic or formless but we can start this term mapping out with our child/ren what home schooling is going to look like from now on.
As our children have the school rhythm already built into their body clock it is best to stick with that as much as possible. Insist that our children are dressed and ready to start learning at the usual school time - making sure we are free ourselves at this time to get everyone set up. Younger children can also go to their play area at this time as though they are doing their ‘work’ too.
Keep to the morning tea and lunch times of school, we can try to get all the inside activities completed in the morning and then go outside in the afternoon. Outside of school times we need to engage our children in as much of the home life as possible to keep them occupied and to make our own lives easier. Children should be given as many tasks as they can manage like preparing food, cleaning up their rooms daily, packing away the dishes, looking after the garden etc. I would also suggest a long family walk every day for at least an hour. This way we can wear our children out a bit, get some good exercise ourselves and get some outside time.
In order to establish our authority we need to give directions to our children that they can understand and follow. We must be careful not to disguise our directions as questions or requests. I always think the teacher’s ‘now it’s time to…..’ works very well. Once we have established these actions over a few days they will become habits. Also we should try to talk to our children as little as possible, we will see as we try to do this how many unnecessary things we say during the day.
If we only speak when necessary, we will notice how much more our children will listen.
We can say to our children ‘you need to play by yourself now until I finish my work’ (this time will depend on the child’s age) making it clear that they cannot disturb us for that time as we need to get our work done. So long as children have good solid blocks of our undivided attention they should also be able to cope with blocks of time while we do our work. When we do spend time with them we can spend that time doing household chores like hanging out washing or putting it away so that we have the chance to get things done while also being with them. If we spend our time doing chores with our children they will be even happier to have some ‘downtime’ to just play while we leave them alone.
We should try to resist the temptation to put our children in front of screens as this will just make their behaviour worse the rest of the time, reduce their capacity for deep play and encourage them to whinge and whine hoping for more screen time. if we allow our screen time to increase during lockdown we are bound to regret it when lockdown is over. If we need our child to be occupied in the afternoon for a while without us, audiobooks are a good compromise – we can use the opportunity to expose our children to some of the classics we may not have had time to read like ‘Swallows and Amazons’ or the Narnia series.
This is not an easy time for parents who are going through their own anxieties, trying to work from home, managing different age children, sickness and trying to keep family life manageable. Of course it will be 3 steps forward and 2 steps back a lot of the time however if we put the effort in for the first few days and establish and an element of predictability there will be a lot more room for love, compassion, kindness and fun in the home.
Mary Heard is a Simplicity Parenting Coach. Visit https://www.maryheardsimplicityparenting.com/ for more information.
Read more
Preschool remains open for essential workers
21 Jul 2021
The Preschool remains open for children of essential workers during the current COVID lockdown. Our beautiful Preschool also has a new A4 poster. If anyone in our community is able to print and display or share with their contacts we'd be very grateful.
Read morePreschool remains open for essential workers
21 Jul 2021
Our Preschool Director Peggy Day is now interviewing for 2022 Preschool placements. If you, or someone you know, is considering Preschool for their child, now is the time to get your application in. Application forms are on the website: www.glenaeonpreschool.nsw.edu.au There are also limited places available for the remainder of this year. Childcare is an essential service for all families and our Preschool remains open for children of essential workers during the current COVID lockdown. Our beautiful Preschool also has a new A4 poster. If anyone in our community is able to print and display or share with their contacts we'd be very grateful. Link to download below.
Read moreParent Craft and Kindy Craft is warming up
03 Jun 2021
Parent Craft on Wednesday mornings and Kindergarten Craft on Tuesdays are warming up as the weather gets cooler. The mornings are full of creativity and enjoyment and everyone is welcome on Wednesday mornings.
Kindergarten Parents meet once a week also, and have recently made beautiful felt flowers, starting with coloured roving (soft, fleeced wool), massaging and felting the colours together. Both groups have been making crowns - birthday crowns, as well as a play set for the Kindergarten classrooms.
Come and join these groups when you can - no experience is necessary and you will learn with the helpful hands of others. Younger siblings and babies are welcome and there is an indoor play area and an enclosed garden. These lovely social mornings are growing and becoming part of the fabric of our community once again. No bookings are required and attendance can be for as long or as little as you like. Attendees must follow the school's COVID safety plan and sign in, use hand sanitiser on arrival and please refrain from coming along if you feel unwell.
In coming weeks we will be having little workshops on dyeing our own felt, wet felting and continuing a variety of sewing projects. Email castlecrag@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au or contact Melony at Reception, Castlecrag Campus on 9958 0774 for any further information.
Read morePreschoolers enjoy Ripe Golden Mandarins
03 Jun 2021
Our mandarin tree has many ripe golden mandarins this year and each Preschool class has been able to pick some for their nature table and morning or lunch.
They have all heard the story of the little boy who planted the mandarin seed and watched the tree grow. The children gathered the seeds from their mandarin segments with great care.
Our Preschool has some limited vacancies, so please contact Preschool on 9412 4457 to book a private tour or enquire. Or book in to an upcoming group tour online: https://www.glenaeonpreschool.nsw.edu.au/
#glenaeon #preschool #willoughby #steiner #steinereducation #earlylearning #longdaycare #daycare #childcare #steinerschool #sydney #naturetable #stories #mandarin #fruit #trees #nature
Read more
Parent Library at Castlecrag bursting with books
03 Jun 2021
The Parent Library is now open on:
TUESDAYS 8:30am - 9:10am and
THURSDAYS 2:30 - 3:10pm
Come and browse a wide selection of titles across areas of parenting, craft, gardening, food, anthroposophy, Steiner education, children's stories and festivals.
We have Grimms' Fairy Tales, Susan Perrow's "Therapeutic Storytelling", Michaela Glockler's "A Guide to Child Health", Jude Blereau's "Wholefood for Children" and many more wonderful books for infants, preschoolers, young children and parents. See photos below for just some of the lovely books we hold in the library.
If you haven't been to our Glenaeon Castlecrag Campus before, the Parent Library is located in the room to the left of Reception at 121 Edinburgh Rd, Castlecrag.
We look forward to seeing you soon and chatting about our wonderful books!
Amity - Parent Library Coordinator (Volunteer)
Read morePreschool goes Apple Picking
20 May 2021
What beautiful memories we all have from apple picking. The crisp air in the morning, finding apples and pomegranates on the trees, our picnic lunch together and the children on the tractor ride. The whole community was vibrant and smiling. We all feel fortunate to have such lovely families together in our Preschool.
Read morePlaygroups at Glenaeon
11 Mar 2021
Our families with little ones are enjoying Steiner Playgroups and the welcoming space with stories, games, bread-baking and songs. With Playgroup leaders Nancy Amini and Sandra Frain, the children enjoy the creativity, playgrounds and friendships that grow during their regular weekly times together.
Read moreAutumn has arrived at Grassroots Eco Store!
10 Mar 2021
The shop is full of beautiful materials to inspire your Autumn craft projects whether it be making apple pompoms with wool, sewing felt leaf shapes to hang or modelling with beeswax or clay, Autumn provides a wonderful abundance of inspiration for craft activities and the perfect opportunity for children to practice all those amazing craft skills they are learning in class.
Pop in store to view Yuki’s Autumn felt creations, you’ll find a delightful collection of hand-dyed felt gnomes, little mushroom people and toadstools which are perfect for your Autumn nature table displays or play shelves.
The bookshelves have recently been re-stocked with quality children’s books with stories to enrich the experience of the changing seasons and spark the imagination in both young and older readers!
If you can’t make it to the shop, many of our products are now available online: grassrootsecostore.com.au with more products added each week!
Opening Hours for Term 1
Monday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Tuesday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Wednesday: 8.30am–12.30pm
Thursday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Friday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Thank you for shopping locally. A portion of every sale goes to support Glenaeon.
Read moreMeet Pooja, Preschool's New Teaching Assistant (Monday-Wednesday group)
25 Feb 2021
My name is Pooja Munjal. I am originally from India, and I moved to Australia about seven years ago. It's been five years since I was introduced to Steiner education and my journey has just been awesome from there on. Both my daughters age 9 and 12 go to Lorien Novalis Steiner school in Dural and my husband works as a Business Analyst.
It's not just the education, it's the lifestyle that we adapt. It guides you to take up each task through the heart and bring joy into that.
I have taken up Early Childhood teaching to bring a love of learning to children. I have completed a Diploma in Early Childhood Education (EYLF) and the Foundations Course in Steiner Early Childhood. For the past few years, I've worked as a casual staff member in Lorien Novalis Steiner Preschool and also have two years of experience in Montessori teaching.
I love yoga and nature walks. I am also fond of cooking and reading books on spirituality, health and wellness.
Read moreWelcome Baby Lua
11 Feb 2021
Congratulations to our dear Preschool Teacher Soraya on the birth of baby Lua. What a beautiful blessing!
Read moreGrassroots Eco Store is open with new products in-store and online!
10 Feb 2021
We are well stocked with the beautiful range of Anthroposophical creams and lotions from Southern Swan. If your children need a bit of extra care and comfort being back at school, applying the Sphagni Rose Lotion “can feel like being surrounded by a mother's cuddle, which they can take with them as they go about their day.” While the Lavender Bath Milk added to the bath can be just the thing to transition from a busy day into slumber.
New in the shop this week are these super versatile, breathable cotton Dish Covers in a range of sizes and native flower designs, not only do they look fantastic on your table, storing or transporting your dishes of food, they are also made by and support women working in home industries in South Africa.
We’ve also been lucky to receive a small delivery of the highly sought after Grimm’s Wooden puzzles and rainbow stacking toys. Grimm’s is well known for their natural, high quality wooden toys that are perfect for hours of open-ended play.
If you are in need of new books and stories to spark your child’s imagination and love of reading, come in and browse our bookshelves filled with a curated collection of books sure to delight both young and older readers.
If you can’t make it to the shop, visit us online: grassrootsecostore.com.au more products are added each week!
Opening Hours for Term 1
Monday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Tuesday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Wednesday: 8.30am–12.30pm
Thursday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Friday: 8.30am–11.30am & 2pm–3.45pm
Thank you for shopping locally. A portion of every sale goes to support Glenaeon.
Read moreHappy sunflowers bring joy to our Preschoolers
28 Jan 2021
At Preschool, the garden is flourishing. Take a look at these beautiful sunflowers. Last year we enjoyed a story and song about sunflowers with our children, and then planted the seeds. They all flowered just in time for our return to preschool this year. The song we sang was called Sunflowers Growing Tall by Katrina Ross.
Read morePoppies at Castlecrag
12 Nov 2020
Class 1 and 2 planted poppies, snapdragons and natives in their new garden, and just in time for Remembrance Day, the most beautiful red poppies burst into bloom. There were many busy bees visiting and the garden also attracted the butterflies!
Read moreSending Love to Sandra
12 Nov 2020
When Sandra slipped and broke her collarbone, the children gathered to water the gardens, dig out the compost and care for the gardens at Castlecrag. They also made a plethora of gifts and cards which were delivered by Melony to her door. It is the measure of a great teacher, that the children can continue in their absence, with the same rhythm and enthusiasm. We all wish Sandra a speedy recovery and return! Look at all the composts, watering, flowers, bees, the playground and cups of tea in these cards! Playgroup has continued beautifully thanks to lovely Carly from Preschool, who has enjoyed visiting Castlecrag and meeting all of Sandra's playgroup children. Said Sandra from home: “I am so pleased that they know what to do, even though I am not there! They have learned how to garden, compost and fertilise from Playgroup through Preschool, Kindergarten and it continues through the Primary school. When one person in the team steps out, everyone else knows how to keep all the cycles going. I am enormously grateful to the children and their teachers for coming forward to continue caring for the plants and the animals in all the school gardens until I return.”
Read morePlaygroup is happily back
15 Oct 2020
Playgroup has returned in small COVID-19 managed groups, and what a delight it is! Stories, bread baking, playing in the sandpit and the children being able to explore and share valuable time together.
Read moreOur Preschoolers enjoy Spring!
17 Sep 2020
Here we are at Preschool wondering in the joy of Spring. It is a full sense experience with the warm bright weather, the smell of Jasmine in the air and the incredible growth in the plant world. Tiny mulberries and mulberry leaves are beginning to emerge on our white Mulberry Tree and one of our families has gifted us baby silkworms to nurture through their life cycle.
Silkworm on a mulberry leaf goes wriggle, wriggle, wriggle
Silkworm on a mulberry leaf goes munch, munch, munch
Silkworm on a mulberry leaf goes to sleep
And when he sleeps he has a dream of places he has never seen
He opens his eyes, is wide awake, spreads his wings, he's a moth-afly, flutterby moth-afly, fly fly
(adapted from Caterpillar on a soft green leaf by Ebba Bodame)
Snow peas and sugar snap peas are growing from their flowers and the children are very excited to spot them and check their growth.
Read moreOur Preschoolers thrive with Creative Play
20 Aug 2020
At Glenaeon Preschool every day is one full of creative play, park trips and joyful sharing with friends. You can see the children playing together walking on their stepping stones with delight and making a volcano in the sandpit.
Read moreCrafty parents knit winter warmers for students
06 Aug 2020
These colourful woollen fingerless gloves were knitted by Parent Crafters to help keep our students hands warm this winter. We have a limited number available for sale. Please contact Melony via email to organise purchase for your child, or as a gift. We are able to send them home with your child.
Read morePlaygroup Begins for Term 3
06 Aug 2020
Playgroup has begun in its modified form at both the Preschool and Castlecrag Campuses. Thank you to our patient families who are now able to participate in our lovely '4-family' groups. It's so lovely to be back and to see the children and families connecting again. Playgroup at Castlecrag runs from the Hall Kitchen on Tuesdays, Thursdays and in the Playgroup room on Saturday mornings. Please contact Playgroup Co-ordinator Sandra Frain to join the waitlist for this lovely experience.
Read moreRainbow Magic in Reception
06 Aug 2020
A trip to Melony in Reception at Castlecrag its often coupled with an important message or job for the children. Each day though, as the children come in, there are colourful rainbows that visit and shine all over the room - floor, ceilings, walls and most importantly - the children! They catch them on each other and wonder WHO could be sending SO MANY rainbows to Castlecrag? Is it the Winter Angel, who hangs above the desk? Is it Mother Earth or King Winter and their gnomes... or is it a Rainbow Fairy that comes and sprinkles the children with her light and delight?! Either way, we love the rainbows and so do the children!
Read moreSpring is Coming to Castlecrag
06 Aug 2020
After the very cold mornings we are having at Castlecrag, comes a period of warmth and sunshine in the middle of the day - a time to treasure and bask in it, just a little, to warm up. In this time between MidWinter and Early Spring, both bulbs and spring blossoms flower. Amongst the daffodils and jonquils, there may not be much jasmine blossoming yet, but the sweet scent is already in the air! As we cannot have parents on campus so much at the moment - we thought it would be nice to bring a little of the campus to you! It is beautiful and blooming!
Read moreWelcome back to our ‘Welcome Home’ Glenaeon Playgroups in Term 3
23 Jul 2020
We are happy to announce that our Welcome Home Playgroups are recommencing after the COVID-19 shutdown.
As we reopen, we have strict social distancing and hygiene guidelines in place as well as an alternate COVID-safe timetable, with a maximum of only four (4) families per group.
Our spots are already fully-booked for Term 3, but families are invited to add their name to the waitlist for Term 4 or for any additional sessions that may be added to the Term 3 timetable, which would occur with any further relaxation of health department and education department COVID-19 guidelines.
Playgroups are joyful and nurturing of the young child’s developmental stages. Our activities and interactions are presented in a carefully structured, educational morning that allows parents and children to enjoy the time together.
All will benefit from the wisdom and experience of the educated playgroup teachers who capably address the challenges of parenting within a supportive community-oriented environment.
To add your name to the Playgroups waitlist, please contact Sandra Frain by email sandraf@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
Read more
Hello Dolly
23 Jul 2020
Our Preschool teachers have been busy making lovely little dolls and bees for the children's much loved story time and for our youngest learners to play with. If you've ever wondered why Steiner dolls have minimal or no faces, it is because they are intentionally left blank to allow the child to further develop their imagination and engage creatively in play. For more about Preschool, download our flyer, or head to www.glenaeonpreschool.nsw.edu.au
Read moreOur Kindergarten Spaces
23 Jul 2020
Kindergarten is a special place and much care, thought and meaning is given to the surroundings, equipment and spaces in which the children play. The environment is beautiful, warm and welcoming, inviting open-ended creative play, whilst also nourishing aspects of play such as sorting, counting, building and much social engagement. The Kindy day starts with Outside Play, before moving inside into Morning Circle and then Inside Play. These beautiful play spaces come alive as toys, objects and furniture become trains, planes, houses, gardens and play spaces; endless sessions of creative and imaginative play. They also grind grains for cooking, bake and prepare food each day. A strong rhythm is held by the teachers, which also includes the children tidying up and putting everything away again, ready for tomorrow.
Read moreKindergarten and Little Kindy students return to campus
15 May 2020
With COVID restrictions now being gradually eased, the Kindergarten teachers and children were delighted to be back in Kindergarten for two days this week. Despite our rather different start to the day, which involved a very quick goodbye to Mums and Dads at the gate or at the bottom of the Kindy stairs, we all quickly found our way back into the healing rhythmic flow of daily life in the Kindergarten. We were full of joy and enthusiasm as we heartily ate our Kindy morning tea, shared our stories and songs and happily worked and played in the golden light of the Kindy garden. By the end of two days we were once again full with all the magic and wholesome engagement that ‘real-life’ Kindy brings each day. Our time away from Kindergarten has affirmed above all, that the Kindergarten lives in the healing environment and rhythms that we create here each day in our beautiful campus at Castlecrag.
Catherine Pilko
Read morePlaygroup room is ready and waiting
14 May 2020
Sandra continued her Playgroup Zoom chat this week and it was another warm, enjoyable session with parents and children able to connect from the playgroup room at Castlecrag. Some of the childrens' little friends help Sandra sing hello to them all. It is such a lovely space, and the toys here are ready and waiting for when playgroup can return! Here are some of your favourite friends, just waiting to be discovered when playgroup resumes. Next week Nancy Amini will also be connecting with her playgroup families using Zoom, and there is also a special Zoom session for new families and those on our waiting lists who would like to say hello and stay in touch this way as well. For all Playgroup Zoom enquiries please contact: Sandra Frain
Read morePlaygroup families connect on ZOOM
08 May 2020
Some of Sandra’s regular Tuesday and Wednesday Playgroup Families connected over ZOOM yesterday. It was the first time parents and carers were able to connect since the COVID19 restrictions were put in place over a month ago. During the joyous session (with song and movement) Sandra led an adult discussion on ‘golden moments’ and other child development themes, and the group discussed how COVID19 had impacted them and their children. There were many moments of recognition over the struggles that COVID 19 has created for families and the happy memories that past Glenaeon Playgroups have brought too.
Whilst, nothing quite compares to an actual physical and traditional Rudolf Steiner influenced Playgroup, the families told Sandra that they were very happy to have had the opportunity for social connection, the chance to learn more about Steiner Education’s approach to early childhood development, and the ability to pick up new and different ideas for enjoying this time at home with our children.
The Zoom calls for Playgroup Families will continue with demand and a new Zoom session may be opened up to new families and families in regional areas who might wish to learn more about the attributes of traditional Steiner Playgroups.
Playgroup Zoom enquiries: Sandra Frain
Read moreA celebration of colour at Castlecrag
05 May 2020
Castlecrag has exploded with colour. The flowers are glorious. It is a rainbow of colours as you look around the grounds from deep red flowers, huge orange wild cosmos plants (taller than your teachers!), yellow lantern bush, lush greens and deep purple. I wonder if we can plant some blue flowers for Spring?
Read moreKindergarten at home and lost teeth
13 Apr 2020
Kindergarten children have been enjoying their home activities - baking, story play, songs and craft, with the help of beautiful resources and stories prepared by their Kindy teachers on GLO. Several have also experienced their first tooth falling out - a familiar Kindy 'right of passage'.
Read moreCaring for our Castlecrag campus
13 Apr 2020
Whilst it's quieter at Castlecrag, we have been busy cleaning, washing and gardening, preparing all of our beautiful classrooms and grounds for the time when we can all return. The colours of our washing, some pretty plants and the blooms are a reminder of how special this place is to us all. Whilst the children are at home, we will care for Castlecrag until you all return. Notice how the 'Lantern Bush' is beginning to grow its proud lanterns for the coming of Winter, and how the Cosmos flowers are simply bursting with colour! We also have five of the Middle Cove hens here on holiday and thanks to our local families for looking after them so lovingly for us!
Read moreThe Power of Play in Nature - last chance for tickets
28 Feb 2020
Glenaeon is proud to present The Power of Play in Nature, a free public seminar featuring two of Australia's leading education experts: Professor Pasi Sahlberg, Professor of Educational Policy, Deputy Director, Gonski Institute for Education, UNSW and Professor Tonia Gray, Senior Researcher, Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University. After the keynote, there will be a panel discussion, facilitated by MC Lucy Clark, Associate Editor of The Guardian and Author of Beautiful Failures. The forum is on Thursday 5 March 4pm-6:30pm at the Concourse Theatre, Chatswood.
This is a ticketed event. Please register via www.glenaeon.nsw.edu.au/play
Read morePlaygroups 2020
31 Jan 2020
Glenaeon offers a range of Steiner-inspired Playgroups that are joyful, nurturing and supportive of the young child’s developmental stages. Playgroups are suitable for children from birth to 4 years of age.
Join us with your children for a joy-filled, wholesome and nourishing play oriented morning. This is a structured, ‘family style’, relaxed time to connect with your child/ren and each other and with nature, in a beautiful expansive setting both outdoors and indoors. There are a few limited places left for Term 1 Playgroups at our Willoughby and Castlecrag campuses, but places are filling fast, so get in quick. Please contact Sandra Frain to register your interest. Email: sandraf@glenaeon.nsw.edu.au
2020 Welcome Celebration
31 Jan 2020
Welcome to 2020 is an invitation to all Parents & Carers to come together at Glenaeon, but a special chance for our Kindergarten and Year 7 parents to meet and mingle with our community. It's a wonderul moment to meet other Parents in the school, teachers and some members of the GPA. A selection of beer and wine is on offer and canapes will be served. Please note this is an adults only function. We kindly ask you to RSVP for catering purposes.
- Friday 7 February 6.30pm-8.30pm
- Castlecrag campus, 121 Edinburgh Road Castlecrag
- RSVP link https://www.trybooking.com/BHUVB
Preschool has a beautiful outdoor weaving loom
30 Aug 2019
The weaving loom at the Preschool is a beautiful outdoor feature, where children can be creative with natural fibres as well as grasses and treasures that they find. What a wonderful idea!
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Little Kindy work and play
05 Jul 2019
This week Little Kindy have been busy making hand squeezed orange juice to help keep winter colds at bay. Every Wednesday is bread baking day in Little Kindy! The children also enjoyed a plant study in the garden, finding that gold and yellow flower petals and bright green leaves are still found in our garden this winter.
Class 1 form drawing, bushwalking and birthdays
30 May 2019
Class 1 draw 'form' drawings' each week
Read moreEaster is coming... children were busy...
17 Apr 2019
Castlecrag was abuzz with Easter craft and cooking this week
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