Throughout the year the four seasons, Easter, Christmas and other festivals are celebrated with the children to focus on the rhythms within nature, within us and in the outer world. The celebration and reverence for the festivals weaves through the children’s work. Parents, grandparents and friends are often invited to share in these celebrations.
Spring Fair
Each year the school opens its grounds to children, parents, teachers, friends, locals and visitors alike and invites them to join together to celebrate the return of Spring with a day of music, fun, food and festivities.
The Spring Fair is also well known for the Song Writers’ Competition. The competition has already identified young talent and helped them gain experience, exposure and advice from leaders in the music industry. The Song Writers’ Competition attracts interest each year from the region’s aspiring young song writers. Be sure to come and support local young talent on the day
The Spring Fair also offers the much loved craft stalls and activities, famously wholesome food, a huge silent auction, and a range of live music performances, from Rock to orchestral, from our school and the wider region.
An exhibition of our student’s work is set up at the Spring Fair. The school and wider community are invited to see the students’ work displayed in all its beauty and academic brilliance. It is also an exhibition in which the wider community can witness our curriculum outcomes. Through visual displays of student’s work and musical performances, everyone can follow the journey of growth and development of a child (and a class) from Kindergarten to Year 12. Teachers may need help from parents to set up the display. The school newsletter will inform you of open day dates and details of how you can help.
Throughout the year we fulfil the common tasks and duties of daily life and at the times of a festival we turn our attention to the links which bind us with eternity. And although daily life is fraught with many a struggle, at these times a feeling awakens within us that above all the strife and turmoil there is peace and harmony.
Rudolf Steiner
Christmas Market News
/in Community News, Festivals and Events /by YvetteThere are just 2 weeks until this wonderful celebration on the afternoon of Friday 7 December. If books are on your gift giving list this festive season please purchase them from Byron Bay’s The Book Room stall at the market, where 35% of what you spend will buy more beautiful books for our school library. You may pre-order books NOW by emailing sarah@sarah-armstrong.com and collect them on market day!
Class 1 will be serving us delicious wood-fired pizza, lovingly created from scratch by that class’s parents, which include an expert baker. With gluten-free and vegan options there is something for everyone. We’ll also have a sausage sizzle, with preservative-free sausages, sauerkraut and home-made tomato sauce (gluten-free bread option). There will also be fruit, fresh coconuts, delicious tarts and cakes, a chai tent and more. Be sure to bring a picnic blanket for an easy festive dinner on the Green.
Don’t forget the Student Concert begins at 1.30pm in the amphitheatre. When the concert finishes (at 2.15pm), parents will have half an hour of child-free shopping, before our children join us at 2.45pm. Please also consider bringing a gift for our Giving Tree; this year the gifts will go to children living in local refuges. Please attach a note of what the gift is so it can be matched with the very right child, and if you buy a gift for the Giving Tree at the Market, we will wrap it for you.
You’ll have the chance to tick off your Christmas shopping list, print and/or purchase your own wrapping paper and make decorations. Expect some bubble magic from school parent Shep Huntley AKA Dr Hubble, and a relaxed coming together of our school community. It’s time to celebrate Summer, Christmas, Hanukkah and another wonderful school year.
Student concert 1.30 – 2.15
Child-free shopping at market 2.15 – 2.45
Market goes until 6 pm.
Class 2 parents are creating beautiful wrapping paper to purchase at the market, or you can make your own.
Celebrating Advent
/in Articles of Interest, Festivals and Events /by YvetteAdvent starts this year on Sunday 2nd December and is celebrated for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas until Sunday 23rd December. Advent is frequently celebrated by people of every religious background, every faith, every spiritual path as part of the festivals of the cycle of the year.
In the Southern hemisphere, Christmas falls near the Summer Solstice when the light is at its strongest and we celebrate the triumph of light at its greatest point in the yearly cycle. As the year draws to an end we increasingly spend time outside enjoying “the sun in the heavens”. With the long warm days, intense light and balmy nights we are drawn out into the elements rather than into “the sun in our hearts”.
It can be challenging to develop a sense of inwardness, patience and contemplation when the Spirit of the Earth is on its outward breath. To balance this we can consciously choose to “receive the light” and celebrate what is both universally human and universally spiritual. Celebrating Advent can provide an opportunity for some quiet ‘breathing in’ during this outwardly busy time of year and help your children to practice preparation, reverence and patience through the ritual of counting the weeks and days to the special celebratory event. The lighting of candles each week also reflects our own ‘Divine Light’ and helps to bring us a little inward contemplation.
Traditionally Steiner schools and families celebrate Advent by looking each week at the natural kingdoms on Earth: minerals the first week, plants the second week, animals the third week and humans the fourth week (see verses below).
Here are some ideas that you might like to include in your own advent celebrations:
An Advent verse
‘The gift of the light we thankfully take, But not shall it be alone for our sake, The more we give light, the one to the other, It shines and it spreads, growing still further; Until every spark by friends set aflame, Until every heart, the joy to proclaim; In the depths of our souls, A shining sun glows.’
Advent Wreath – on a special table made with greenery and seasonal flowers, four advent candles to light each consecutive Sunday of Advent.
Advent Garden – assembled and added to each Sunday of Advent with the four kingdoms celebrated each week try adding tiny crushed shells (collected from the beach) in a spiral pattern for the spiral on which Mary and Joseph figures walk.
Advent Crib – a nativity scene of the four kingdoms, adding a different one each of the Sundays- Crystal Kingdom, plant kingdom, animal and human kingdoms.
Advent calendars are available from Rudolf Steiner Bookstore by following this link
Verses for the 4 weeks of Advent
Week 1: Crystal Kingdom
The crystal kingdom comes first and is honoured by decorating the wreath or garden with crystals, seashells, stones or little bones you may find.
Week 2: Plant Kingdom
In the second week the plant kingdom is honoured by adding little dried flowers, seeds and pine cones and greenery.
Week 3: Animal Kingdom
The animal kingdom, in the third week, is honoured by adding little wooden animals or beeswax creatures the children make.
Week 4: Humankind
The fourth week sees us honouring humankind by adding a little felted or beeswax child and figures.
Additional Reading:
Our library also has some handouts on making an advent wreath, nature table etc.
Possible stories include The Star Money from the Brothers Grimm, (and if you have the book “Rose Windows”, there is a lovely idea for a window transparency in there); craft ideas in The Children’s Year and Families, Festivals and Food. Other stories include the ones from “The Light In the Lantern: Stories for Advent” from Wynstones Press; Advent Sunday Stories, Collette Leenman; Mary’s Little Donkey, Gunhild Sehlin; Advent and Christmas Stories, Estelle Bryer and Janni Nicol.