May goodness fall like winter snow
Around you everywhere you go
May the wintry moon above pour light
And peace on those we love
May gladness from each fireside
Shed warmth on all, both near and wide
May we, this cold, dark wintry night
Know we rest in Earth’s pure light
As we walk the spiral, figuratively and/or literally, and enter the shortest day and the longest night, it signifies a turning point each year. It is a time to be introspective, to enter the darkness… and emerge, renewed, slowly… into longer, warmer days. I have found it helpful to acknowledge that, although we live in globally chaotic times, there is a large, long cosmic rhythm that does repeat each year. We do feel the seasonal effects of winter at this time. Our body is reminding us that we need to rest and recover from tiredness and ailments and slow down along with other animals and plants. It can be a challenging time; a time to support each other and steel ourselves for the rest of winter. Our winter festivities, celebrated over the weeks around the solstice, mark these seasonal, external influences and the effect on our inner life. There is also the experience of hope and planting the seed of new ideas as we emerge from the spiral. In these final weeks of term, let us savour these moments such as spiral walks, lantern walks, singing, fire twirling and gathering together as a community.
Term Two Reflections:
On a personal note, it has been wonderful to be more involved with teaching students this term. This has included Bothmer gymnastics with Years 3 to 6 and fire stick practice and performance with Years 6 and 7. What I have observed in taking students through new, challenging activities, where they take physical and social risks, is that, on the whole, students are prepared to give things a go and have a great sense of achievement in mastering new skills. There is sometimes initial resistance to these new challenges. But, with help from their peers, persistence and a high level of expectation from teachers, as well as support from parents to push through, students are able to go to that next level. In a time when educators are seeing a lower level of resilience in children than in the past, it has been heartening to see these breakthroughs in Orana students. Thank you parents for your support for us to continue to challenge students and our expectation for them all to participate.
As well as all the many wonderful learning moments for students, there have been significant governance moments such as our school association’s AGM and the drafting stage of a new constitution. We also said goodbye to our wonderful Board Chair, Tracey Taylor, who has served as chair for the last 12 months. It has been a pleasure working with Tracey who brought a high level of expertise, good will and stability to this role. We wish Tracey well in her new role and Association of Independent Schools ACT Executive Director where she will continue to work, but in a different capacity, with Orana along with other independent schools in the ACT. A new Board Chair will be elected by the Board in the coming weeks.
I know that for many staff, parents and students, it has been a challenging term with much illness and tiredness covering and caring for those who are unwell. School staff have been working behind the scenes on assessments and reports, providing the rich day-to-day learning program as well as preparing for larger events. Thanks to all the work from staff and parents in making Orana a wonder-filled learning environment this term. Let us bring a mood of kindness, calm, reverence and hope to our final weeks of term and I hope that in the upcoming term break, we will all have an opportunity to rest, relax and rejuvenate.
I will leave you with the verse I spoke at the start of the firestick performance at the Winter Festival where the Year 6 and 7 students represented stars. They were reflecting on the ground what was happening in the night sky. You may have noticed the arrangement of five five-pointed stars (25 in total, representing the year 2025) and movement through the formations like constellations in a galaxy of stars.
James Goodlet – Principal
The stars once spoke to the human being.
It is world destiny that they are silent now.
To be aware of this silence can become pain for the earthly human being.
But in the deepening silence, there grows and ripens what the human being speaks to the stars.
To be aware of that speaking can become strength for the human spirit.
R. Steiner