Glenaeon receives NSW Outdoor Education Program Award: Congratulations Scott Williams
Last weekend was the annual conference of Outdoors NSW, the peak body of all Outdoor Education professionals including coordinators for schools, adventure operators and guides. Our own Coordinator Scott Williams along with teacher Kristen Gardner was there representing Glenaeon.
Each year this peak professional body makes an award for the most outstanding Outdoor Education program conducted in a NSW school in 2019. Scott had submitted a very fine application outlining Glenaeon’s unique and extensive program running from Class 4 to Year 12, and it was a great moment to learn that Glenaeon received this award. Within our community we all appreciate how outstanding the Glenaeon program is in practice, but to have this publicly acknowledged by the peak body of Outdoor Education professionals in NSW is a great honour.
Scott Williams has built this program over the past 8 years and the award is testament to his professional skill, vision and personal commitment to the students of Glenaeon in outdoor environments. I congratulate Scott for this great honour and thank him for the work and passion he has brought to the school. The award is a huge credit to him.
The winners of each state category in one year go into a national award for most outstanding Australian program the next year, so we wait to see how Glenaeon’s program fares in the national awards in 2020. Next week Active Wilderness program is Class 5 heading up to Blackheath for three days in the Grose Valley, their first taste as a class of the Bluey’s, as the Blue Mountains are affectionately known in the outdoors industry. There will be many more and we wish them happy camping!
Centenary Day and Soiree
It is sobering to think that exactly 100 years ago, Dr Rudolf Steiner was speaking to a small group of teachers who were about to start a new school in Stuttgart, Germany.
So many of the ideas and methods he was indicating to these pioneer teachers were ideas waiting to happen, and happen they have over the past century albeit under contemporary names and understandings. The way of schooling he talked about then has nourished and sustained generations of children and parents ever since and around the world, and deserves acknowledging and celebrating.
One of our Glenaeon celebrations of the centenary will be focused on the young child and at Castlecrag on Saturday September 14th. The morning will celebrate some insights and healthy practices for children including story-telling, bread-making and crafts, including a talk for parents and supervised play for children leading to a shared lunch in the afternoon. In the evening there will be a Centenary Soiree in the Marion Mahony Griffin Hall with story-telling, music and poetry. Details are on the flyers later in the Newsletter. Please share this event with family and friends who may be interested in a glimpse into the wonderful world of childhood that Steiner education promotes and delivers. We welcome all parents and friends of the Steiner education impulse, a healing and enlivening impulse in the world.
Survey
Next week we will be sending out our annual Parent Survey conducted by MYP Corporation who have conducted our surveys for some years. To avoid end of year rush we are surveying parents in Term 3 this year, and we ask that all parents take the short amount of time needed to complete the survey. As they say in the classics, your feedback is important to us, and helps us shape the future of Glenaeon.
Andrew Hill