Bulletin

May my soul bloom in love for all existence. – Rudolf Steiner

All the flowers, of all the tomorrows, are in the seeds of today.

At this time of year, as the cold of winter gradually moves away, we feel the warmth of spring bringing a mood of new beginnings. These particular times in the season of new beginnings have not been easy, new beginnings never are. Even so, we are warmed and affirmed by contributing to, sharing and observing how our wonderful school community continues to accomplish amazing things, even though we have not been able to be present altogether on our beautiful school site.  The way in which we come together in both our work, play and interactions day to day, adds to the continuation of supporting and developing a school where what we do today, plants the seeds that come to life in the times that follow.

In feedback from our Teachers, Guardians, Students and Parents in recent weeks, we have heard anecdotes that have warmed our hearts and given us cause to reflect on and feel grateful for what we share together as a school community.

And now, it feels somewhat odd and also exciting that Students and teachers will return back to school on site for the last week of Term 3. We will all have much adjusting to do in moving back into the mode of being together in person in a full class of students again. 

Our grateful, appreciative thanks to our dedicated, necessarily tireless and particularly agile teachers – Kindergarten to Class 12 – who are willing, able and skilled in working in an educational environment of constant change, that is being determined from afar. 

Again, and thankfully, it is time for our whole school community to prepare for the approaching time of well-earned rest…and to collectively breathe out and relax deeply…

May your holidays be happy, safe and filled with lovely, long unscheduled days of rest and rejuvenation, care for others, care for self and enjoyed with family and friends – in person!!!

With Kind thoughts and good wishes

Teera and Paddy

“Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another the most varied opinions can be reconciled – thus one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future is that we should learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of development is empty.” Rudolf Steiner

In our K-12 Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner school, each day, the core work of our Leadership, Support and Teaching Staff is to inspire, create and support a healthy teaching and learning environment, with our students, at the centre.

Picture by Tanja Nelson

In navigating the continuing uncertainty, complexity and destabilising effects of ‘unprecedented’ times, it is affirming and helpful to be reminded of and reflect on our school’s Mission and Vision…

Our Mission –To provide a nurturing, creative and academic education inspired by the indications of Rudolf Steiner for a healthy social life and the developing human being.

Our Vision – To enable each individual to realise their potential to be self aware, resourceful and resilient, with the empathy, skills, and initiative to make a positive contribution to the world.

And so, every day in our K-12 classrooms and beautiful school grounds, teachers and students are striving to live, learn, create, work and play together; (often with joy and importantly, also sometimes with sorrow); to grow skills allowing us to interact, understand, cooperate and respect each other; to be responsible and considerate; to appreciate difference, uniqueness, harmony, disharmony, agreement, disagreement, to be brave and courageous, to try new things; to care, to be sensitive and perceptive and passionate; to be appreciative, to feel grateful, to become self aware, to reflect, to adjust, to be adaptive, to grow resilience… 

To be kind and giving to others; and to recognise that all of our friends have different families and stories and needs and learning styles and gifts and destinies.

As a class, we work with all of this and much more, day in and day out; in and out of seasons; year by year; through thick and through thin… And in this way, the class journey is experienced together as an authentic continuum, a community of learning. Our students learn how to practice and refine these qualities over time as a collective – for each individual, and for the greater good of the group – growing comfort in navigating their world, moving from chaos to order, fine tuning, harmonising, and growing a deep sense of love and respect for each other along the way. 

This is the gift and the gold of our Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner Education… 

Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility — these three forces are the very nerve of education.

Perhaps Hugh Mackay’s call for a ‘Kindness Revolution’ is a worthy contemplation at this time? 

He describes ‘Kindness’ as the purest form of love and sees kindness as a personal and collective value and activity that can sustain us through times of uncertainty, both as individuals and communities. 

“We are a social species, therefore a cooperative species. 

It’s in our deepest nature to be cooperative…

How are any of us changed by disruption and by a heightened sense of life’s uncertainties? Either we become frustrated and let our frustration boil over into anger and recklessness, or else we think more clearly about what matters to us. We consider which values are worth clinging to. We become more caring, since that’s the inevitable consequence, for most of us, of realising just how interdependent and interconnected we really are.

By modifying our behaviour so radically in response to the prolonged threat of COVID-19, we were showing our care and concern for each other; our willingness to make personal sacrifices for the common good. And those are signs of the purest form of human love: the love that has nothing to do with emotion or affection; the love that says we will treat each other kindly and respectfully regardless of how we happen to feel about each other, because we know that’s the only way a human community can thrive.”

The Kindness Revolution – Hugh McKay

With Kind thoughts and good wishes

Teera and Paddy