From the Principal – Week 4, Term 2
This week, I’m delighted to announce Orana’s Wellbeing Dog Project. Our Inclusive Education team has been successful in receiving two grants from the AIS ACT Choice and Affordability Scheme.
They are:
1. Strengthening Outcomes for schools – $20,000.00
2. Students Wellbeing and Support – $15,000.00
The team involved in delivering this action-research associated with this funding is required to design a data collection and program implementation process that targets school-identified needs. We have received Ziggy, an Australian Cobber dog from the reputable Dogs Connect Organisation.
This is a whole community, broad scale wellness program that aims to create a permanent connection between a community and their wellbeing dog, which leads to positive emotional and social impacts. We look forward to having Ziggy at Orana in the coming weeks. You will receive further communication in a separate email on this program this afternoon.
Staffing
Schools throughout the ACT are continuing to be met with the challenge of staff absences due to illness, particularly at this time of the year. We have been fortunate to have a range of relief staff and the goodwill of current staff stepping up to ensure the continuity of learning.
A very big thank you to everyone who has been involved in supporting the students’ education and keeping it real during a difficult time. When we are surrounded by a community of goodwillers and caretakers it just makes life more manageable. Thank you to parents for your understanding and support. Hopefully you can make some time to breathe out and restore what is depleted.
Main Lesson
The Main Lesson (sometimes referred to as the Morning Lesson) is a special feature of Steiner Schools all over the world. It means a theme or subject is taught each morning for about 2 hours for three to four weeks. There is an intensity and deepness that is absorbed and left to dwell in the children’s sleep and memories. During Main Lesson, children are given content, imaginations, stories and activities which can be practical, and many other forms of delivery that imbue the kernel of the lesson which we hope will help them on their life journey.
Whether it be a gentle introduction to numbers, the history and practice of farming techniques, Roman history, acids, bases in salt chemistry, astronomy, art history or Indigenous tales, the aim is to engage the children in their will, their feeling life and their thinking. The focus area will be dependent on the child’s stage of development and age. It is a delight for teachers to cover Main Lesson because it allows for all of these forces to be unleashed in an intense way that a weekly lesson is unable to deliver.
This week, children across the school from Class 1 to 12 have begun new Main Lessons. I encourage you to make time to connect with your children and discover what they are learning and discovering in this new Main Lesson.
Kelly Armstrong — Acting Principal
