Articles

Music By Youth Project at Bellingen Fine Music Festival

String workshops for local primary school students are a regular feature of the Bellingen Fine Music Festival “Music By Youth” Project.  The strings workshop last year with the Acacia Quartet was hugely successful. We are delighted that Acacia is offering the same opportunity for primary school students this year.  The workshop will be on Thursday 21 Sep at Bellingen Public School. Students from our school will be attending along with students from Bellingen Public School and Casuarina Steiner School in Coffs Harbour. Classical Busking is also a part of the “Music By Youth” Project.  Listen to our students and students…

Raising Stress-Proof Kids: Parenting Today’s Children for Tomorrow’s World

Chrysalis School is excited to offer you the opportunity to purchase Dr. Shelley Davidow's book Raising Stress Proof Kids at a reduced price of $20, with proceeds assisting the school library. Please purchase from the school office by cash or credit card. A compelling and informative guide for every parent, 'Raising Stress - Proof Kids' offers an eye - opening view on how the unhealthy and unnecessary stresses of our educational systems as well as outdated perspectives on parenting affect our children. Drawing on cutting - edge research from the Institute of HeartMarth, California, as well as the author's own…

Natural Fibers Basket Weaving Workshop

When: Saturday the 12th of August Where: Kitchen Level, Chrysalis School Times: 8:30 to 4pm The workshop will be held by Ingrid Ridley cost: $100 (includes all materials) Please bring a plate to share for lunch.  If you would like to participate please contact Johanna at aelfleda3@gmail.com or 0423911611 A $50 deposit is required to reserve your place. Further Info: BARE Weaving Workshops birthed from Ingrid & Kate’s passion to share traditional basket weaving skills with local women in the North Coast of NSW. We focus on weaving with local native plant fibres and only dye with natural materials. Joining us for a workshop…

‘Spending, Saving, Earning’… and Fundraising!

Cake stall this Friday 9th June... Class 6 teacher - Liz Sheppard This semester my class went deeply into 'Spending, Saving and Earning' in Mathematics. To deepen this experience for the students and to empower them to see the place money has in their lives and the lives of others, I invited a class parent to come and speak to my students about the fundraising work she was involved in with those living in poverty in Swaziland. Mandy captured the students hearts with such a beautiful picture of how they could make a difference to the people of Swaziland. My…

The Gift of Play

Reflections of a Waldorf Nursery Teacher by Kam Anderson, Beach Rose Nursery Teacher I continue to be amazed by young children, their wonder and joy for life is infectious. However, they are still just landing and growing so rapidly. Four years of life go quickly for us as adults and yet for many of our children they were just a parent’s dream. I have been thinking about this quality of play and imagination that live so deeply in young children. It is a precious gift and one that is not offered at any other time in a human being’s life.…

Technology and the 3 R’s

To take a historical overview, which would be familiar to many Steiner students from the writing main lesson in Class 4, the Chinese invented the first printing process for text in Ad 600, using wooden blocks and ink. But it didn’t catch on. The fact that 10,000 plus characters were needed, each individually carved, didn’t help. It wasn’t until nearly 1000 years later that the invention of Guttenberg’s printing press brought the potential of mass literacy to fruition. It was the original convergence device. It brought Chinese printing know-how, Korean metal type technology and recent advances in ink and paper…

In an age of robots, most schools are teaching our children to be redundant

By George Monbiot... Illustration by Andrzej Krauze A regime of cramming and testing is crushing young people’s instinct to learn and destroying their future In the future, if you want a job, you must be as unlike a machine as possible: creative, critical and socially skilled. So why are children being taught to behave like machines? Children learn best when teaching aligns with their natural exuberance, energy and curiosity. So why are they dragooned into rows and made to sit still while they are stuffed with facts? We succeed in adulthood through collaboration. So why is collaboration in tests and…

Finding a Pathway through Parenting

This year at Chrysalis we have created a series of talks and activities to look at the different aspects of the first seven years. Our Term 1 Program begins with: The developmental picture of the young child… The insights gained through deepening our understanding of the different age groups can help free us from us from our reactions, allay our fears and help initiate new ways of being. A talk by Melanie Deefholts The 0-4yr old child… Saturday 25th February Beginning at 9am the making of a simple doll 10-11.30am talk followed by questions   The 4-6yr old child… Thursday…

I am not anti-technology, I am pro-conversation

Sherry Turkle: ‘I am not anti-technology, I am pro-conversation’ Sherry Turkle interviewed by Tim Adams Sherry Turkle at home in Boston, near MIT. Photograph: Blake Fitch For nearly 30 years now, Sherry Turkle, professor of social psychology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been exploring the effects of digital worlds on human behaviour. Her books, Life on the Screen, The Second Self and Alone Together, have charted the seductions of “intimate machines”, the advance of social media and virtual realities and the all-pervasive internet, and the effect these things have had on our culture and our lives. Her latest…