High School Craft & Textiles

Here is a snippet of what you missed from Open Day.

11 & 12 Textiles Elective;

Class 12 Cosmology Main Lesson

Across the first six weeks of this term, the two Class 12 groups have completed their Cosmology Main Lessons. During these three weeks together, we have explored how humanity views the cosmos, and how these views have evolved over time, alongside the emerging human consciousness. 

Each class engaged in conversations about societies and ideas that helped them explore the evolution of humanity’s perspectives of the cosmos. Focusing on their Creation Stories, connection to spirit and interactions with the environment allowed student to empathise with people with vastly different views to theirs and learn from their ideas. They explored ideas like how the night sky has been used by different cultures, the metaphysical aspects of time and space, and Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. Through studying the lens with which people view the cosmos and exploring their sympathies and antipathies, students were able to get a deeper understanding of why they interact with the people and space around them in the way they do.

Through looking at the elements that shape the cosmology of a society or culture, students can start to acknowledge what has shaped their view of the Universe, and share this openly with their class. In small groups they engaged in an activity of world-building, where they developed their own small societies, based on the environment around them and interactions with their classmates’ societies. As a result of this three-week study, the class was inspired to ask more questions of themselves, their classmates, and the cosmos, in a way that is authentic to their journey as a Waldorf student.

Brett Kranz-Little
High School Physics Teacher

Class 12 Projects

Matilda McCraies

My name is Matilda, and I am currently in the process of my year 12 project.

Early this year I began exploring possible project topics that interested me, I was keen to look at something on the lines of manipulation, authoritarian control, belief systems or social conformity. This felt like a string of ideas I could potentially connect and develop into a project question. However, I also wanted to connect this topic idea to the practical I had already fixed myself on; to turn our old caravan shell into a liveable space. After much thought and the unrealistic stretching and connecting of ideas I decided to move on from the caravan practical and stick to the topics that's interested me most.

For me this was the concept of religion. I'd had a lot of unanswered questions around religion for a long time now. My curiosity in the concept has been drawn from my now atheist family who had each been brought up in religious communities and schools. For years I had been exposed to stories of Catholic boarding schools along with Irish nuns and confessionary boxes. When I moved high schools and entered a Catholic education myself, I finally began to experience some of these stories firsthand. I think this is where my interest really spiked from. Having grown up around the same teachers and friends my whole life to the sudden change of this fresh start, in a new area, surrounded by new people, each with a completely different belief system to my own. Talking to my new friends about our differences was really eye-opening for me. We would bounce questions at each other, trying to understand how the other person could see things so differently and this was something I could never really get my head around. I wanted to fully immerse myself in this religious experience so that I could truly gain an understanding of it. I even tried to break my thinking patterns and transition to a more spiritual mind set. I thought it was a comforting idea to believe that someone was constantly looking out for you, guiding you through your life and would be there when it ended. Despite this, I felt too set in my ways to make this change, however, my curiosity has never faded.

Thinking back on this time led me to question how people managed to let themselves be indoctrinated, especially by beliefs which are so different to their own. This thought was how I first kick-started my project, bringing me to the question:

“What recruitment methods are used by mainstream religions, high-control religions and cults, and what are their psychological impacts on members?”

In my research I came across the story of a man named Steven Hassan. Hassan spoke of how he transitioned from a university student studying poetry, to a cult leader in the span of just a few months. At 19 years of age,  Steven was approached by three flirty women who invited him to join their ‘student movement’.  They assured him this was by no means a movement of religious nature.  What started was a two-and-a-half-year indoctrination into the Unification Church (The Moonies). During this time, Steven was brainwashed into dropping out of school, quitting his job and donating his bank account to the church. He believed that cult founder ‘Moon’ and Satan himself were his parents and he was being asked to pick which country he wanted to lead when they took over the world. Steven was an intelligent young adult, an advanced honours student whose life goal was to be an English teacher. He never imagined he would be susceptible to indoctrination, and he had never pictured himself helping lead an extremist cult like he was. A lot of us believe that “this wouldn't happen to me,” and yet it can happen, and it has happened to people who thought just like you.

Stevens unnerving story inspired my practical too, which is to facilitate a workshop on manipulation. My report focused on the extremist side of three religious strains: mainstream religions such as Christianity, high-control religions including The Jehovah's Witnesses and Cults like The Peoples Temple. This first half of my project has involved looking at a lot of dangerous methods of indoctrination, however for my workshop I will be focusing on the subtleties of manipulation and where else it can be present in our lives.

There have been a lot of different elements involved in the projects this year, and I've found it to be far from a steady process. However, it is interesting switching from the heavily research-based and restrictive period of writing the reports/essays into the creative and liberal space of picking a practical. I'm excited to move onto the presentations and use my speech to finally bring all these pieces together and see it as a whole.

Lloyd Hinsman

Hi, my name is Lloyd, and for my year 12 project I investigated the history and development of theatre staging.

Acting has always been a big part of my life. There has never been a play that I have done that I didn't enjoy, and performing on the stage in the hall has always been impactful and memorable for me. In total, I have done four plays on our school’s stage, and they have all given me experiences which are both amazing and character-building.  These are some of the main reasons why I picked a theatre-related topic for my project.

When I first started developing ideas for my project, I originally wanted to do something music related, but there just wasn't anything which I could personally connect to, and at some point, music in theatre was mentioned. This led me down a rabbit hole of information, and I discovered different stage types, and other aspects of theatre like lighting which I could easily relate to.

This led me to start researching and becoming invested in theatre as a project idea. Once I started researching, I learnt about the development of staging throughout history as well as the many different styles and types of stages used. Believe it or not, some of the stages are actually difficult for actors to perform on and they must develop new skills and techniques with this in mind.

For me, research was both taxing and difficult. I had to learn ways to deal with all this new information, process it and reword it and add it to my report. As I’m not a very academic student, this was difficult, but I did manage to get it done. Journaling was another aspect that presented problems for me. Being able to translate my thoughts onto paper was a lot more difficult for me than I thought it would be. After workshopping and talking about some strategies, it has finally become an aspect which I can be on top of.

The practical part of the Project has presented its own set of challenges. Coming up with a practical idea was the easy bit, and in the end, I decided to create a scale model of the school’s stage, 3D print it and gift it back to the drama department. Through all my positive experiences with the school’s drama department, it felt right to give something back and for that gift to be tied with my project. I’m hoping it can be used to help with set design and using stage spaces in future plays in the school hall.

In order to create this model, I embarked on a steep learning curve in a 3D modeling software called Blender. This was my choice of 3D software as it was accurate, free and I had a friend who could help me learn it. It took me about 2 weeks to get the basics down, but once I did, it all started to make sense and kind of line up. With some help from my friend Eti, and getting the exact measurements of the hall, I was able to create an accurate 3D model of the stage in the hall to scale.  

I also had to think about printing and fortunately, this is something that was not as difficult as I already own a 3D printer. It is also accurate, fun and quite straight forward. My 3D printer is a bit older, so the first step I had to take was to recalibrate and make sure it is capable of high-quality printing. This is an ongoing process, but I believe it will be able to accomplish this with a bit of tweaking.

I am enjoying engaging in this process and have high hopes for the outcome.

Amery Matthys

Hey, my name is Amery. Imagine a schooling system where you as a distracted, hands-on teen must learn in the same way that the attentive, organised, top of the class student learns-sounds like a recipe for frustration, right?

Steiner's theory of education which emphasises the importance of learning through play and hands-on experience has been wonderful and I have enjoyed it a lot more than mainstream public schools. However, with the changes in society and our understanding of the needs of young people today I believe education continues to lack individuality required to meet all the needs of students today. The outdated model of all students being taught in the same way needs to be reformed. This questioning lead to my Project question:

“How can we improve the Western traditional schooling system to meet the diverse needs of current learners: considering levels of flexibility across all aspects of education, individualised learning, and preparing individuals for the real world?“

This question has allowed me to explore these issues, and I found it fascinating to learn about the countless people who have delved into this.

There are four main learning styles: visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic. Now there is not one system that caters to these varying styles, but the traditional system only uses one at a time, thus taking away from the possible knowledge certain students can learn. My learning styles are both visual and auditory, followed closely with kinesthetic. A system where education is tailored to the individual would maximize the productivity and value of their learning experience.

An interesting discovery I made during my research was a study done in Norway, it showed that almost 60% out of 1000 young teenagers showed that they all felt some form of academic boredom. This study is one of the earlier ones and more recent studies show similar findings.  Academic boredom, what is that you may ask. Academic boredom is when students are under or over stimulated regarding the material they are learning, leading to students becoming disinterested and thus viewing school as an overall negative experience. It is a hard task to meet the needs of all and something I will be experiencing firsthand for my Practical.

For my practical I will be conducting a test to see whether theoretical rote learning, or a more ‘hands on’ approach is better. I will be teaching two classes, the first one will be with a PowerPoint and note taking, followed by a questionnaire about the subject which is on terrariums. The following class will then be building terrariums, and there will be little to no information given and it will be mostly ideas from the students after I do a demonstration. The following week I will come back to these classes and test them briefly on the knowledge that they retained, seeing whether having a hands-on approach is more beneficial, or if purely theoretical is still the best.

The written component of the year 12 project was a very daunting task for me as I am not known for writing essays. Seeing all my brothers write theirs and even the thought of having to research and write that much was extremely scary and made me hold back for a long time.

Ever since I was young, I loved the challenge of discovering how things worked and then sharing that knowledge with other people. This is where the Project clicked with me, being able to do my own research into a subject I chose and then displaying it in a piece of writing that I could share was fulfilling. My research also uncovered this aspect.  In some papers, evidence showed that when students feel content is not relevant to them, they tend to not try their best. In contrast to this, the level of freedom and independence of the Project, actually meant I found myself engaged and eager to learn more about my topic because I was interested in the content.

I'm April, and my goal for this project was to find a topic that would remain relevant throughout my life. I wanted to invest a year's worth of research and thinking into something that would help me develop a sharper mind than most 18-year-olds as well as connecting all aspects of my life: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. After wrestling with many ideas centered around mindset, I realized that mindset itself was too broad. So, I narrowed it down to a specific question:

“How does embracing an optimistic attitude lead to an improvement in our quality of life?”

I define optimism as the tendency to hold positive expectations for the future. Optimism is not just about seeing the glass as half full; it’s about believing that our actions can lead to positive outcomes. This mindset encourages individuals to pursue goals and persist through challenges, fostering personal growth and resilience. The importance of studying optimism lies in understanding how mental mindsets shape our lives. By advocating for better education around self-improvement, we can equip people with the tools to cultivate optimism and harness its benefits. Teaching optimism can empower individuals to approach life with essentials skills and offer more opportunities.

Quality of life refers to the degree to which an individual is healthy, comfortable, and able to participate in or enjoy life events. It encompasses both physical well-being and mental satisfaction. Optimism plays a crucial role in enhancing quality of life by promoting healthier lifestyle choices, reducing stress, and improving emotional well-being

In essence, optimism and quality of life are deeply interconnected. By fostering a positive mindset, we can improve not only our outlook on the future but also our overall well-being. Embracing optimism can lead to a richer, more vibrant life where individuals feel empowered to achieve their goals and contribute meaningfully to the world around them.

So where does this positive thinking occur? Our thoughts cause emotions, which cause actions and actions cause behavior. This seems logical but how?

Our brain is the most powerful engine, and the best part is we control it.

Some interesting research I wish to share looks neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to change and adapt throughout your life. In essence this means that the brain is not fixed, it can rewire, repair, and transform hundreds of times. Examples of neuroplasticity that you would be familiar with range from learning a new language to recovery in response to a sensory impairment or injury. Habits can be formed this way too and my research taught me the ‘wiring’ that our brains are capable of when we learn new things and change our habits.   It can be truly transformative in changing our outlook and behaviour to be more positive or optimistic.  Negative thinking patterns can be ‘rewired’ to form new, positive ones that will spur on better possibilities via this awareness.

Our thoughts ignite our emotions, and this causes our actions, which can be both positive and negative, depending on our mindset. It all sounds quite simple until you realise that many of us struggle with being intentional and reframing our negative thoughts. I’ve learned that it can be easier for many of us to stay trapped in negative thinking because of this. This is why I believe optimism can be OUR first step to become capable individuals in controlling our life's direction, using our thoughts!

For my practical I have made a video of interviewing strangers of Perth and asking what optimism means to the. I have also made an educational animation video where I continue to expand on some of the themes I discussed here and I would like to share it with our community. Please go to the link and watch my video and leave some feedback to support my project this year.

The Science of Optimism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfESOVmJn3M&t=1s 

Optimism on the Go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfCQxE2mgvg&t=1s 

Thanks for taking the time to read ?