This term, the College of Teachers has continued our weekly study group with a core group of teachers from across the school to support the health and vitality of the different faculties, work together collegially to discuss current educational issues through a Steiner pedagogical lens and study foundational Steiner education texts.
Following a successful Term 1 study schedule, the College has moved on to discussing the series of lectures from Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s The Kingdom of Childhood (1924). College discussions have centred around the need for a new art of education, developmental stages of the child and the inner preparation work of the teacher. Orana has also been fortunate to continue our all-staff professional learning workshops this term with Lisa Devine, a renowned Steiner educator and eurythmist. The College of Teachers is also proud to be working collaboratively with the P&F to support the Orana Parent Education Group (OPEG) in bringing renowned parent education experts Kim John Payne and Lou Harvey Zahra to Orana for upcoming parent education and staff professional development workshops in Terms 2 and 3.
In Week 1, members of the Senior Leadership Team and the College of Teachers attended the Steiner Education Australia GLAM (Governance, Leadership, Administration and Management) conference, which was hosted by Orana. Having the opportunity to host GLAM at Orana was a great privilege and it was wonderful to show off our beautiful school to our many guests. The conference was held over three days and had a healthy attendance with school leaders, executives and business managers from many other Steiner schools from around Australia. Some key takeaways from the conference were keynote presentations from the head of Independent Schools of Australia about the funding landscape for independent schools around Australia, why schools should develop a Reconciliation Action Plan, discussions on the impact of AI in Steiner schools and how schools can work collaboratively with their parent body to support student engagement and build healthy school communities.
Warm regards,
Sharaine Talip – College of Teachers Chair
*The image you can see above is of a spectacular chalk artwork that Sharaine brought to life as Michael JG shared an overview of a student’s journey through Primary School at our recent Information evening. See if you can discover which elements of the artwork connect with each year level.
