With gratitude

Bruce Lee
School Administrator

Class 7 English Graphic Novel Writing

Last week, as part of English Practice, Class 7 explored the genre of the Graphic Novel.  A hybrid between a regular novel and comic, graphic novels can make stories of old, with their archaic vocabulary, more accessible.  Young people of this age are often such passionate artists, and many students in the class draw for many hours as a treasured hobby.  Graphic novels, for such students, provide inspiration for their art, and the ways that visual clues like facial expression, the direction of the character’s gaze, colour and symbols from our culture can hint at the likely trajectory of the story, or generate suspense.  Due to their mostly visual storytelling medium, graphic novels can support and encourage struggling readers, allowing them to access for longer, and without stigma, inferring deeper meaning from the pictorial information. 

Last week, Class 7 enjoyed creating their own graphic novel pages, even asking to return to them at any spare moment.  There were seasons changing, from panel to panel, seen in the foliage of a tree; there was a worm marrying a bird, complete with tuxedo and dress; and various other, usually humorous, vignettes.

Katie Southall

Class 7 Teacher

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Class 8 Art History

Class 8 has just finished its first foray into the fascinating and wonderful world of art history. The Art History Main Lesson allows students to delve into and appreciate examples of fine art, which show the development of human consciousness. By looking at representative works of art from early to modern civilisation in a chronological sequence, students will appreciate the pendulous swing of the canons of beauty over the centuries.

Our journey taking us from Palaeolithic times into Ancient Egypt with students beginning the Main Lesson by creating clay fertility goddesses similar to those found in many matriarchal Indigenous cultures and prehistoric times. The class delved into prehistoric caves from around the world where we examined the wonderful cave paintings, mostly of magnificent animals such as bison, deer and felines, which were left behind by our ancient ancestors. From the Palaeolithic world we jumped through time to Ancient Egypt where we examined some of the superb paintings, sculpture and carvings created by the Ancient Egyptians. Our Main Lesson surreptitiously aligned with the WA Museum’s Ancient Egypt exhibition and the Main Lesson culminated with a visit to the museum which the students enjoyed immensely.

Students demonstrated their artistic abilities by creating some wonderful and original pieces of art showcasing their own creativity as well as recreating some of the works of art from both the prehistoric world and Ancient Egypt. Students were challenged to create a title page that merged aspect of the prehistoric world with Ancient Egypt.

The study of art, which students will return to over the coming years, cultivates a refined sensibility and appreciation of beauty, the aesthetics of which is dependent upon a rich vocabulary of art language.

Ethna Brave

English and Humanities Teacher

Class 9 Ecology Class

The class 9 ecology students have been busy in the garden.

Class 11/12 Elective Play

Perth Waldorf School Class 11 and 12 Drama Elective proudly presents: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig.

The world’s most famous luxury train, the Orient Express, is surprisingly full as it makes its way from Istanbul to Calais in the winter of 1934. In the middle of the night, the train hits a snow drift, and its exotic collection of passengers are stranded. The next morning, a terrible crime is discovered but everyone on the train has the perfect alibi. It’s up to world famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot to investigate and solve the murder on the Orient Express before the killer strikes again!

Fascinating characters, an ingenious mystery and spectacular set and costumes make this classic whodunnit an unmissable event.

Tickets are $8 full and $2 concession.

Cast 1: 

Thursday 10 August - 6.30pm

Friday 11 August - 6.30pm

Cast 2:

Friday 11 August 11.30am

Saturday 12 August 6.30pm

Performances take place in Williams Hall.

Austin Castiglione
Drama Teacher

"...the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscape….

…..the world offers itself to your imagination”

Mary Oliver

Early Days

Jenny Hill

The school name was registered on the 20th of May 1982 at a cost of $20

Not far from a lake stood a huge convent. A corner of the grounds was filled with singing and running and jumping and laughter, squeezing oranges, kneading dough, tahini and honey sandwiches…..and dreams.

To raise money for the dreams David Helfgott played magnificent music in Judy Read’s lounge, David Gulpilil danced for us in a warehouse in Fremantle, and we made cakes! Margaret Meyerkort, the grand dame of Steiner Kindergartens, brought her wisdom to this distant place but her english sensibilities cried “Too much light!”. Susan Haris let her hungarian hair fly in the wind in a sports car on the way to a workshop in Balingup.

After a few years the children had to move away from the lake, a long way away, taking their colour and stories and songs to cold vast dormitories beside a huge river where they gathered beside small heaters as the rain beat on the tin roof. The deep flowing Canning slid through the grounds reflecting the changing seasons, offering up sand and mud from its banks for moulding. We sewed 20 foot pink curtains to make it more cosy!

Then on a warm day in November in 1986 with a deposit of $10,000 wrapped in a plastic bag 3 of us set out nervously to bid for land; bushland beside a lake and dreams begin to find their way to earth. Not quite the block we wanted but still successful.

1987. Back beside the great river our first Class One had it’s very first main lesson with Dorothy Prince. Thank you Ted McGowan for painting the roof the day before! And so work and birthday celebrations, festivals, study groups and kitchen meetings were in swing.

Dorothy Prince and some of the Pioneer Class visiting the new land.

Shovels and picks, digging, chopping, raking. With precious banksias saved for future kindy blocks, a clearing emerged and a huge pit for a foundation, an irresistible playground for children, as we lit the fire and cooked kebabs. What a piece of bush. Cockatoos, bandicoots, snakes and a boobook owl watched.

School Newsletter March 1987

1988. We gather beside Bibra Lake. Carrying a shell filled with its nourishing water a dusty procession, led by the little ones, walks up the hill and through the bush to the solid earth walls of our school.

There are so many wonderful characters from those early days!!!

The imagination, study and hard work brought the dreams to earth. Over the years we have come to know the lake more and are still learning about its history, its plants, birds and animals, honouring and caring for the land of this school.

1982     Registration of ‘The Waldorf School for Rudolf Steiner Education’ 
             May 20th. Incorporated in December

1983     Playgroup begins at The Home of the Good Shepherd. Leederville
             The first Kindergarten in September.

1986     Moved to Castledare beside the Canning River.
             Purchased the land at auction. November.

1987     First Class One. Cleared and built the first classrooms a Bibra      
             Lake.

1988     The school opens on site. Our first Kindies and Classes One and 
              Two.

Payments of School Fees in 2023 

Data Collection