By the middle of September we had grown to a sudden 16 children, which then stopped until the end of the year when another child joined us. This meant quite an adjustment for all present, most of all the teachers involved. At the same time we were blessed with new talents and gifts these children brought along and a whole new experienced dawned. We put together and performed our play to the public (see previous post) and ended the year with a lovely Christmas festival, enjoying carols by candlelight.
We would start every schoolday with a half hour of music. We said our morning verses together, sang and did speech exercises, as well as play the recorder.
The six younger children were now grouped in one class with a span of class 1,2 and 3 taught by Gabbeh. They covered San creation stories and learnt to count to ten in Hai !um, then enjoyed much form drawing, maths main lesson, stories of various saints and lastly the journey to Bethlehem, during which much foundation work continued on writing, reading and basic number work. Movement, painting, drama, poetry, stories, creative writing and much laughter decorated our daily life. Benches could be ordered that form the basis of the moving classroom according to the Bochumer Modell in Germany, where the younger children sit on firm cushions on the floor for writing on the benches, or sit on top of the benches for recorder, sharing or crafts, or turn the bench upside down to balance on the beam with beanbags on the head.
Sue guided the older group with children in class 4 and 5. They covered African geography, Norse mythology in 2 parts, botany covering mono and dicotyledons, maths and much English. The children created their own main lesson books which were astoundingly beautiful, crafty and neat. Sue, you are a star!
A timetable could be adhered to where the children would have weekly religion lesson, German, Afrikaans, handwork, clay modelling, tennis/dodge ball, gardening. We celebrated Diwali and learnt more about ourselves and how to overcome our weaknesses, we learnt the basic pinch pot technique leading us to impressive sculptures of animals, tiles and pottery. We can greet in German and sing traditional Afrikaans songs, we know about being good sportsmen. We created a most wonderful vegetable garden in the threatening drought our region is suffering. In the new year we would like to study water as a result of this and see what new thoughts we can arrive at.
Parents helped and put in many hours and much energy. Thank you to Tamsyn and Maria for their endless motivation and commitment.
We saw our first family leave the School for a post in New Zealand... and 4 children from Kwanokuthula are waiting to join our class 1 in 2010. A move to bigger premises is pending. The School is growing, the light is burning brightly due to the lovely children at our School and the excellent team work between Gabbeh and Sue. Our aim is to keep up our high working standard and good humour. Gabbeh brings a soulful healing quality, endless ideas and Sue the professionalism and experience, diligence in registers, assessments and all that comes with teaching.
The kindergarten will be starting as an informal playgroup so that we can gather enough children to validate the salary of a trained Waldorf teacher. We hope to have this in place by the Easter holidays in 2010.
Management has been in hands of Sue and Gabbeh, Rose and Maria, towards the end of the year Rain and Claire, and Stephen on permanent stand-by. Thank you for your commitment, may we continue to strive to hold the pillar of truth in our midst.
Money has been terribly low and continues to be so. No funding has yet come in. Thank you to all parents for paying their fees on time. The Receiver of Revenue has lost our application to be registered as a Non Profit Organisation with a legal fund-raising number. The new application is currently being lodged.
The wider anthroposophical movement is supporting our initiative and we have been blessed with yet another meaningful visit by Briar and Michael Grimley of the Anthroposophical Society of the Western Cape (ASWC). It was on their last visit in September 2008 that the Raphaeli Founding Meeting took place. After this year's visit a local ASWC group formed with 5 members at present, meeting on a monthly basis. Helen from the Federation of Waldorf Schools visited us and we are awaiting a report from them. We are still very much looking for Waldorf teachers to replace Gabbeh's teaching post, that would make her available for more administration and fund-raising.
The Department of Education can register us as an Independent School with 20 "warm bodies" present daily at our School. We expect to have this in place by January 2010.
