Primary School

Whilst the environment in the Kindergarten reflects the young child’s need to learn through imitation, the Primary (1-6) classrooms vibrantly reflect the growing child’s ability to learn through the imagination. Our classrooms are filled with colour and activity as our students learn through a curriculum which balances academic achievement, artistic experience and practical skills- the head, heart and hands.

Our Primary School offers classes from Kindergarten (Early Childhood) to Class 6 and caters for approximately 200 students. We operate a single stream Primary School, with only one class per year level from Class One.

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The Primary School Handbook contains further information about years 1~6, please click above to view the Handbook. More Handbooks relating to Primary School are available from the Forms & Downloads page

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.

Rudolf Steiner

Each class consists of approximately 28 students, with Teaching Assistants and Aides working in the classrooms to support the Class Teachers, dependant on student needs.

At Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School, ideally the class teacher travels with the class from Class 1 to Class 6. The students follow the Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School Curriculum which is adapted from the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework and meeting the requirements of the NSW Educational Standards Authority (formerly BOSTES).

*Note that, whilst our curriculum is based on the information provided below, the teaching program will change from time to time dependent on student needs and teaching requirements.

Morning Circle
In the Primary Schools (1-6), the day usually begins with Morning Circle activities. Through games, movement activities, verses and recitation, the children greet each other and their teacher whilst practising gross and fine motor skills as well as language and literacy skills. The Morning Circle brings the children into the rhythm of the day and a readiness to learn.
Main lesson
Subjects are studied in an integrated approach through “Main Lessons” which take place for one and a half to two hours at the beginning of each day when the ‘academic’ aspect of the subject matter is best absorbed. These subjects continue on for three to four weeks. The rhythm of this approach, the development, and depth of content gives the children a rich learning experience. The Main Lesson incorporates subjects such as English, Mathematics, History, Geography and Science and Technology. Students create their own beautiful Main Lesson books rather than learning from textbooks. Within the rhythm of the Class day, this is considered to be the ‘thinking’ part of the day.
Middle Lesson
During the Middle Lesson (Practise Lesson), students consolidate their Main Lesson learning, practise literacy and numeracy skills and participate in Art, Music, Language and Movement lessons. Within the rhythm of class day, this is considered to be the “feeling” part of the day.
Afternoon Lesson
The afternoon lesson is the ‘willing’ or doing part of the day. Children take part in games and sports as well as participating in a range of Creative and Practical Activities.
Specialist Teaching Periods
Students learn from Specialist Teachers in areas such as Music, Visual Arts, Language and Physical Education. From Class 3, students are introduced to singing in choir and to our Strings program, with every student learning violin or cello. Students in Class 4 and 5 play in their Class String Orchestra, whilst Class 6 students combine strings and other instruments in their Class Ensemble.

We shouldn’t ask “What does a person need to be able to do in order to fit into the existing social order today?” Instead we should ask “what lives in each human being and what can be developed in him or her?”

Rudolf Steiner

CLASS OUTLINES

Class 1

“The children entering Class One have a wish to learn in a more conscious way, to learn from a teacher and be involved in more than play and activity, they want to really learn.” Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

In Class One, informal play-based learning gives way to structured lessons which are teacher directed. The rhythms of Kindergarten now begin to take on the more formal aspects of a timetable with lessons at particular times of the day.

Learning to write, read and spell are outcomes which all children are expected to achieve, our methods are not determined simply by trying to achieve these outcomes in the quickest possible way. Each activity and each Main Lesson is designed in such a way that it will be of value to the children in their development as human beings. Each is a rich experience in which many senses are stimulated and in which the child’s thinking, feeling and willing are engaged in the appropriate way for the age. A multi-sensory approach is used in which all the arts are integrated into the classroom activities. As a result each child develops academically, aesthetically and kinaesthetically. Out of experiences in which the whole being of the child is involved, knowledge and wisdom will develop when the children’s intellectual and reflective capacities unfold later in their schooling.

Form Drawing

The first Main Lesson of the year for Class One is Form Drawing. The children are guided by their teacher to create a number of forms through visualising, moving and drawing the forms. Through these activities the children balance, harmonise, extend and align the lines, ribbon forms, vertical symmetry and geometrical forms. To be able to start and stop a line helps children to sense the boundaries of their own space and form. The forms develop fine motor skills, balance and self movement along with an increased sense of body geography.

The Alphabet & Letters

During the first Introduction to Letters Main Lesson, the children learn in developmental sequence from the inner experience of concrete images to the external formation of abstract symbols, from pictures to print. The imagination provides a bridge for the transition to external print: a story is made of images, of concrete incidents and figures that live in the child’s imagination. The story is made outward in illustration and/or dramatic presentation ie a scene/ image is drawn or and/or acted out. From this concrete image of something which the child visualises in his/her imagination, the abstract shape of a consonant is derived eg the tree in Cinderella becomes a T; the kangaroo in an indigenous story becomes a K. Vowels are more subtle expressing inward emotions, and are derived not from concrete images but from moods and gestures.

The introduction of the letters of the alphabet unfolds through a series of stories of the folk tale/ fairy story genre. The sequence of learning is:

Teacher telling of a story narrative
Illustrating a central image from the story
Deriving a letter from the image.

Phonemic awareness is strengthened through alliterative verses derived from the story material which rhythmically repeat the sound of the letter. The oral delivery of the story (teachers tell, not read, the story) and the poetry of Morning Circle build a language rich classroom.

Mathematics & Numbers

Through number qualities the children experience how the created world is formed out of number principles and patterns, both within the human being and in the natural world and its mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. This leads to a possibility for connection of the child to the environment, for appreciation of beauty and sense of meaning. In the first number Main Lesson, the children learn about the quality of number through games, stories and activity which bring them into direct relationship with each number.

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

Class 2

The joy of learning is built on a strong love of rhythm, recitation and movement as well as colourful stories and beautiful geometric patterns. The environment of the school provides an experience of the beauty of nature.

In Class Two, the children are less dreamy. They can concentrate for longer periods. While still in transition developmentally, the beginnings of concrete operational thought are clearly evident. Individual differences in capacities and skills for learning also become more apparent in the class activities.

Language and literacy development is enhanced when explored through the creative arts and movement: drawing, dramatisation, music and movement all extend the learning repertoire of the child of this age.

English

Narrative is still the most significant manner in which pictorial imagery can be presented to and received by the child at this stage. Narrative provides images of the both the natural and the human environment which are then the basis for developing language, literature and literacy skills.

A joy in language as the expression and communication of a rich variety of human experience and feeling should now be manifest. A rich language environment is developed in the classroom, where stories, verses, rhymes, songs, poetry, tongue twisters and riddles nourish the growing love of expressive language and literature.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, rhythm and recitation in wonderful interweaving number patterns and times tables is practiced each day as well as drawn and coloured. The children are captivated by the magical quality of numbers and the lively movement of the narrative renditions of the four processes in which they play out. The children are able to identify, sequence and engage in the number processes and see relationships between sequences. They also see the relationship between addition and subtraction and begin to look at practical strategies.

Science & Geography

Through play, bushwalks and stories the beauty of nature is made more visible to the child and its secrets are slowly revealed. The mysteries of the surrounding lands are pictured through the journeys of the four directions, the stories of the elements and the close connection with the animal world.

The human element of interaction with nature is highlighted through biographical pictures of those whose reverence for and connection with nature was outstanding e.g St Francis

Knowledge, understanding and skills are more deeply integrated into the body when they are done in many different modalities.

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

Class 3

A sense of separation from the world and people around them brings doubt and confusion. Individuality emerges out of this sense of alienation, and a sense of self comes as a response to questions such as Who am I? Where am I? How do I live?

Around the age of 9, an existential experience of separation of Self and World can be experienced and the growing child now looks at the world as a more self conscious individual. This moment provides an opportunity to consider the great themes of humanity: Creation, Tradition, Authority and how they impact on the burgeoning individuality. In the history of humanity these themes have been expressed in some of the great narratives of ancient human cultures, and stories from these cultures are valuable narratives for the child to experience and to explore at this particular age. These narratives are treated as oral and written literature, great stories, as myths from classical traditions that speak to the growing child’s imagination: they are not treated as statements of presumed fact or faith.

English

From the younger state of living within language the child now can confront language as an external symbolic system: reading, comprehension and literature study are established. With Self and World now separating questions of origins emerge: great literary traditions provide imaginative expressions of ancient conceptions of beginnings which are valuable learning experiences for this age. The study of creation stories speaks deeply to the Class Three child.

In the earlier years the child experienced language from within, in expressing and communicating meaning and emotion. Now as the child looks on at the world as a separate entity, so too does language itself become a separate entity. Its formal structures now appear as separate objects of study. Prior to this point the child is embedded in language, it is lived in, experienced and used as a concrete thing: now it is a separate and abstract system of rules and laws. From language as an unconscious action in the earlier years, the skills of literacy emerge as a conscious understanding. Grammar now unfolds as a conscious understanding of the laws and rules of language: the child can observe abstractly what previously had been done/spoken unconsciously.

Mathematics

This is a time when mathematics can be applied to the outside world which the child perceives objectively. Thus measurement of length, weight, capacity, time and money provide a way of meeting the world and engaging in practical work such as building.

The feeling life is balanced by the growing connection to the world and the possibility of practical work; measuring, building and farming. Connection to time can now be made conscious and the need for barter and money is understood.

History

In local history, the child now has the possibility of looking objectively at the environment to reflect on geographic and climatic reasons for development of farming and where building of communities occurs. With Self and World now separating questions of origins emerge: great cultural literary traditions provide imaginative expressions of ancient conceptions of creation which are valuable learning experiences for this age. There follows the stories of the historical development of Traditions in society and historical stages of Authority and Rulership that preceded the emergence of individual consciousness and individual rights. Some of the stories of the Old Testament are a particularly rich narrative resource in this regard.

At a time when the children are beginning to feel separated from the world they need to experience the deep interconnections between all realms of life.

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

Class 4

A new confidence in their ability to meet the world characterises this age. Children have boundless energy and an eagerness to look at the world and learn. They are more interested in external perception.

Around the age of 10 a confidence can be observed in the child’s relationship with the world: after the existential sense of separation around 9 has passed, the child confronts the world as a more confident self, confident in a newly established relationship with the surrounding world. Physical development brings a new strength and agility. The myths of the Norsemen provide a literature that meets this new found confidence: the robust resilience of these sea-faring peoples in their journeys was fired by the imagery of their mythological world. The child of this age is equally inspired by the range of emotion, by the sophistication of the narratives, the alliterative verse and by the strength of purpose of the characters.

English

This new confidence is met with a year-long theme of the myths of Northern Europe: the stories told by the Vikings and other northern peoples express a robust and resilient confidence in the face of overwhelming challenges. Poems and verses of local geography and history as well as the animal kingdom are important.

This connection to place can be expressed in learning the literature of early times in the local surroundings, in pioneer literature and in the indigenous stories of Australia. In written expression at the level of the sentence in grammatical work there is work with prepositions and prepositional phrases (indicating directionality) used in descriptions.

Mathematics

The children’s previous skills with measurement are now fully applied to a larger area. The ability to take a bird’s eye view emerges and they have a sense of scale, direction and features by grid reference.

Physical experience through the senses deepens the work with fractions and mapping of the local environment. The children still use artistic and concrete representation of new concepts and processes as well as movement and recitation to experience and imprint mathematical understanding. Exploration and representation of the wider physical environment is made possible by the physical skill to explore greater distances. Rhythmic number movement is supported by the physical harmony of the body.

Science & Geography

Children are able to map the local area and its landscape, flora and fauna, starting from their immediate surroundings. This connection to place is reflected in grammatical work with prepositions and prepositional phrases used in descriptions. Their previous skills with measurement are now fully applied to a larger space.

Narrative has a strong descriptive element which creates pictures of the landscape and culture, and these are integrated with practical experience. The rhythm concludes with a more conscious representation in writing, which integrates concepts, eg relationships between historical development and the availability of resources, such as the need for water supply.

A new strength emerges that expresses a sense of confidence in the physical body’s ability to meet the challenges of life.

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

Class 5

Now the conscious engagement with history deepens and the students come to a picture and experience of the ancient worlds and their culture

In Class Five, the narrative element is joined by more observation, excursions, camps and teacher-guided reading as learning experiences. Recall is not just story based but focuses space and time in maps, diaries and observations. The child’s own work may begin to include change of perspective and extension of scope eg a diary entry from the point of view of a settler or convict.

During this age, moving forward with the confidence to meet the world out of their individuality, the children can now freely choose to connect to the other through empathy. A depth of feeling can be noticed and a sense of personal responsibility, of moral compass.

English

The connectedness is developed further in the overview of the world literature of Ancient Times. Although the broad sweep of time is studied the children are in essence at the height of Ancient Greece in their emergent thinking, sense of beauty and their physical balance.

The children are given symptomatic examples of major changes in human consciousness. The mythologies and outer events give pictures of inner processes beneath the surface. The children recapitulate the stages of consciousness in a direct arts-integrated experience through story, verse, dance, art and drama.

Mathematics

In Class Five, the children become increasingly competent in mathematical skills and independent of pictorial representation. They solve problems, choose strategies and work with decimals. They are interested in discovering the properties of numbers which can still fill them with wonder.

In Geometry they are able to complete complex constructions and begin to work with instruments.The beauty of form of the geometry speaks to the children. The more accurate their constructions the greater their aesthetic quality. Colour highlights the creative form.

History

Children listen to myths of Brahma and the Indian Creation story, excerpts from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They retell stories focusing on key images and moments of potency. The children recite passages from the texts in chorus and alone. They illustrate stories in Indian style. They make costumes and act out excerpts of stories. Indian music and dance may be done in morning circle work and in movement lessons. They map and model India as an ancient land, identifying rivers and mountains, scenes of stories and surrounding seas.

They experience the cultural and social life of this civilisation and the implicit spirit. In addition to the stories of Ancient India, students may also learn through stories of Ancient Persia, Babylon, Egypt and Greece.

Having lived in the world of the fairy-tale, legend and myth in the first four years the children now are ready for the borderland between mythology and history proper.

A. Jacobson

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

Class 6

After the empathy and compassion of Class 5 the opportunity now is for the birth of conscience.

In Class Six, the children reach 12 years of age, beginning the last phase of childhood. They are beginning to feel the double constraint: the weight and inertia of their body, and the time/space limitations of the world outside of their inner experience. They must learn how to live in their bodies in a new way. Whereas earlier the body is carried by the life of the muscles, the movement of the 12 year old is more under the influence of the weight of the skeletal system. It begins to lose the natural rhythm and grace of the younger child; the point of balance, attained over the preceding year, appears to be lost and they can become awkward and clumsy.

English

Up to Class Six, the object has been to remain firmly within the sense for the ‘whole’. We strive to direct the children to a heightened ‘common feeling’ in the class which is explored, for example, through the ideal of democracy and the exploration of rules, a balance between the individual and the state. The ability to analyse sentence structures and to identify clauses is developed.

The children recognise in the conditional and concessional that the deeds of others are dependent on the conditions of their life. They are free to ponder “Had I been in his shoes–what might I have done?” The quality of mercy is born in this context.

Mathematics

There is a need for the presentation of clear concepts, and the child displays a growing ability to understand the causality and implications of Mathematical rules. Given the emotional and subjective nature of the childrens’ experience, it is important that this causal aspect be clothed in imaginative and pictorial language. Work with practical problems brings richness and diversity to the lessons, energises the thinking, and brings the children in contact with meaningful, real situations in the world.

Science

Up to Class Six, the object has been to remain firmly within the sense for the ‘whole’. We strive to direct the children to a heightened ‘common feeling’ in the class. In a Class Six science experiment, we would consider not just the effects, but would construct a feeling for the whole system which produces the effects. We strive to have them marvel at the whole surrounding, to appreciate it aesthetically without emphasis on causes. It could be considered as a process which strengthens the capacity for wonder. Experiences provided for the students are rich in scope– colourful, emotionally engaging and cognitively surprising. The role of the teacher in helping form the understanding is important.

The experiences of the children are nurtured and valued. These are worked through into orderly arrangements of the perceptions in their context in the world. This arrangement of their experiences into a larger meaningful whole can enable the child to experience the world as a place full of meaning. The children turning twelve have arrived at the age of ‘consequences’. For the first time we can reason with them: “If you do this, then that will happen.” At this stage they can begin practising self-control and begin to imagine into the outcomes of any deeds or behaviour.

Students at twelve years of age begin to understand the concept of causality in connection with their behaviour. They can increasingly take responsibility for their actions by considering the implications and consequences of rules in the home, classroom and society. Increased student interest in the world is extended to include ecological awareness and respect for different cultures.

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

Music

Violin and Cello The aim of the music program at the Cape Byron Steiner School is to give all children the opportunity to explore their musical potential and to enjoy making music. The string program, which begins in Class Three, is a vital part of this vision.

All children in Class Three, Four and Five learn a string instrument. They choose either violin or cello.

String instruments such as the violin allow the child to acutely develop their sense of pitch because they are not ‘fixed pitch’ instruments. The child will experience minute differences in pitch by slightly different finger positions and learn to hear when the note is perfectly in tune. String instruments are very closely related to the voice in this way and can be seen as natural progression from singing.

The wonderful experience of playing together in a class orchestra is a unique part of this program. Because all of the children play instruments from the same family, the sound that is made when they play together is beautiful and unifying.

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Morning Circle

Main lesson

Middle Lesson

Afternoon Lesson

Specialist Teaching Periods

CLASS OUTLINES

Form Drawing

The Alphabet & Letters

Mathematics & Numbers

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

English

Mathematics

Science & Geography

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

English

Mathematics

History

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

English

Mathematics

Science & Geography

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

English

Mathematics

History

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

English

Mathematics

Science

Sourced from Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework

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