Newsletter Issue 23

Thursday 20th March 2014

20p

March

Thursday 20th: Bothmer Gymnastics talk by Tom Watson in the Gym 7pm-8:30pm.

Saturday 22nd: Vintage Fair.

Monday 31st: Class 8 interviews

AprilTuesday 1st: Class 8 interviews.

Friday 4th: School finishes at 12:30pm.

Saturday 5th: Environmental Team Community Workday. All welcome bring and share lunch 9 am-1pm.

Saturday 5th: Festival of Work - 2:30pm.

Thursday 10th: Kindergarten Festival

RecurringMonday: 8:30am-9:45 Handwork in the garden cafe.Monday: 8:30am—3pm Busy Bee work day, every-one welcome.Monday: 4pm-5pm Gymnastics club, class 6+.Tuesday 4th: 9am-11am - Homeopathic drop in clinic.Friday: 8:45am-9:45am Singing, Eurythmy room.Friday: 3pm Friday teas.Friday: 4pm-5:30pm After school sports club, class 6+.Please send any diary dates to newsletter@michaelhouseschool.com

Is everyone looking for-ward to the Vintage Fair on Saturday? Below is a quick reminder of what’s happening between 11am and 4pm. •Fairground rides for children and traditional games like tin can alley.•Craft, Jewellery and Vintage Stalls- plaques, wooden toys, bunting, ceramic plaques, pocket money stalls, sweets, Vi-nyl records and more!•Vintage Hair Styling.•Henna body decorating.•Vintage Cars•Willow craft- make and decorate your own willow heart or decorate a ready made heart with silky flowers, ribbons and twigs to grace your mother’s home (and your own!)•Make your own wooden knitting needles.

•Plant flowers Vintage style in teacups and bowls for Mother’s Day.•Make Peg dolls and spoon puppets in our make-do-and-mend workshop.•Make your own jewel-lery.•War Café•Be photographed in Vintage Costume by Ewan Mathers and Holly Booth after having your hair styled, of course! Costumes are available, but you’re welcome to bring your own. Photo’s will be printed at the Fair.•Music by the Swingtime Songbirds and the So-phisticats at lunchtime- not to be missed.•Shabby chique heart-making. •Many, many more stalls.

Waldorf CelebritiesCelebrity CulturalI’m not a great follower or fan of the celebrity world, but the follow-ing article recently made for interesting reading, anyone know of UK famous names who use Waldorf?‘Celebrities who send their children to Wal-dorf include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, James Taylor and Carly Simon, George Lucas, Paul Newman, Rosie O’Donnel, Glen Fry from the Eagles, John Paul Jones from Led

Zeppelin, Anna Paquin and Harvey Keitel. Jennifer Anniston and Sandra Bullock are graduates themselves. More interestingly is the fact that 95% of the Management of Silicon Valley Compa-nies such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc. send their children to Waldorf schools for the simple reason that they DON’T WANT their kids to have unlimited access to computers until they’re much older!’Funny ol’ world!Huw MorganClass 7 parent

Please cut out this poster and advertise our Vintage Fair

Thinking, Freedom and Moral Imagina-tion. An introduction to the philosophical work of Rudolf Stein-er, based on his book The Philosophy of Freedom. Given by Richard Bunzl. Richard is a writer keen to ask some of philosophy’s sim-plest, and therefore most difficult ques-tions. He has a PhD in music and philos-ophy. On Friday, 28th

March 7.30pm. At 78, Cherry Tree Rd, Sheffield S11 9ABCosts: Voluntary contributions. For further information, tel 0797 490 6421.

A CancellationDue to unforeseen circumstances, I regret to say that the workshop, Televi-sion, Computers and Us on Saturday 12th April, has had to be cancelled.Robert Chamberlain

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?

Musical Fundraiser SuccessAn Evening of Acous-tic Songs, Music, words and much needed Fundraising. The Michael House Singers, conducted by Jane Tipper, performed three pieces “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes”, the lyrics of which are from Ben Jonsons 1616 poem Song To Celia. “Ma-tona, lovely maiden” by Orlando di Lasso, and Mozarts “Lau-date Dominum”. The singers practice at the weekly singing group at 8.30am every Fri-day, you are all warmly invited to come if you feel so inspired. As members of the Micheal House Singers we paid a participants fee of £4 each for what was the best nights en-tertainment and social get together we have been to in years. The informal relaxed at-mosphere encouraged many people to put aside their uneasiness to perform. The first two acts

alone, a folk and opera singer, were worth our entrance fee and a vast amount more. A guitar solo of original compositions which was riveting to watch as well as hear. And as the evening progressed a family performed the world premier of a piece of music by their son, where else would you get that. This was followed by flautists, solo and duets, who showcased their talents. Then of course there was Adam Saunders, who yet again captivat-ed the audience with two sets of his own in-imitable ivory tickling expertise. There were also many poems, some humor-ous and others that kept us all on the edge of our seats, with a few from our local poet D. H. Lawrence, two in Eastwood dialect that drew a few giggles from the audience, and one by a class 9 pupil

that was a veritable tongue twister! A trio of Class 9 pupils also performed “King of the Swingers” from the Jungle Book and a piece written by one of the members that blew our socks off. A song we have never heard before was performed by a class 10 student that had us both reaching for our tissues. The penultimate act was a rendition from our very own poet laureate Huw Morgan, entitled “The Boys and Girls and the Black Stuff ”, recited by a class 10 pupil just in time to remind everyone the reason for this fund raiser, the school playground resurfacing project. We have £3000 left to go, and have had dona-tion from parents and teachers of £190, plus the concerts takings of £257 leaving us £2653 to raise before the summer. If you wish to con-

tribute please leave any donation at recep-tion for the attention of D.Lynch with any cheques made out to The Michael House Environmental Fund. Every little bit helps. The refreshments for the interval were provided and served by class 8 parents raising another £80 for their trip next year to Ice-land. So all in all a very suc-cessful evening fund raising wise, and the most enjoyable night out in a long time was had by us, and we are sure all who attended. On the QT, there is a rumour that we will have another event that mirrors this one before Christmas, so if you missed this one look out for the chance to attend the next. It’s jolly well worth it. Deb and Mike Lynch (parents, and environ-mental team volun-teers).

Items still needed for Vintage FairIf anyone can pro-vide the following items, please leave in the after school club marked for vintage fair cafe.Vintage crockery:

Tea pots, cups and saucers, plates, cake stands, table cloths.Cakes: large or small, scones, bread and fillings for sandwich-es - cheese, eggs, ham

etc.Also if anyone is able to man the cafe on the day, help would be appreciated. Please email me to let me know if you

would like to help or can provide any items.Many thanksRebecca Osbornrebeccaosborn0@gmail.com

A WEEKLY DROP ON FRIDAY MORNINGS TO MICHAEL HOUSE

READY FOR COLLECTION!

FOR EVERY BOX WE DELIVER WE WILL DONATE £1 TO MICHAEL HOUSE!

www.trinityfarm.co.uk0115 944 2545

New Opening Hours School Shop times are changing. We are finding it hard to cover the shop at the moment so we thought a few adjustment might help everyone.Opening times Monday: 3.00pm-4.00pm Wednesday: 2.15pm-2.45pm Friday: 3.00pm-4.00pm

We hope this will be acceptable to everyone. The half

hour on a Wednes-day when the shop is open, will allow for quiet browsing or shopping for that secret present. The shop may still have to be closed on some Fridays until we have some more help, but then it should not be too long to wait until Monday! If you think you may be interested in helping with the shop please speak to Mrs Mistry. Thanks for your patience. The School Shop team.

Knitting Workshop MovingMrs Black’s Knitting and sewing drop-in is moving to the handwork room from Monday 24th March. The sessions are for

anyone interested in knitting, crochet and sewing and all abilities are welcome. Mondays 8:30am-9:45.

Bothmer Gymnastics by Tom WatsonDont forget to put Tom Watson’s talk on Both-mer Gymnastics in your diary this week. The talk anddemonstration is for parents and friends of Michael House School

on Thursday the 20th of March @ 7pm-8:30 in the school hall. Tom will be talking and answering ques-tions about the games and movement curric-ulum within school.

Open Meeting Mon-day 24th February 2014 at 19.00pm.Apologies; C. Mistry, D. Clark, R. Beeston, E. Phillips, I. Phillips, Mr and Mrs WinsonPresent; N. Gamble, M. Turner, C. Winter

(Chair), I.Black,S. Black, R. Sisson, S. Sarkas-Bosman (Minutes), D.Lynch, A. Martin, N. Nelson, R. Burns, M. Lynch, J. Tipper, S. Larkin, G. Slater, R. Strafford, Z. Burns,K.Burns, H.

Machin, D.Robinson, D.Robinson, D.Bol-sher, C.Bosman, S. Parrish, D. Goodall, A. Taylor, A. Clark, T. Watson, K. Nilsson, M. Eyre, A. Feather-stone, C. Whiteman, C. Powell, S. Powell,

D. Bryant, C. Hat-tersley, J. Green, D. Fletcher, A. Saun-ders, C. Bosman, N. Mackie, D. Smiles, I. Beeston, J. Wyer, I. Stephenson, S. Ste-phenson, J. Tipper, D. Bolsher

Items MinutesWelcome and verse. C. Winter welcomes everyone and clarifies that this is not an AGM or EGM and therefore we do not look at the minutes from the last AGM. C.Winter emphasized that the meaning of this meeting is to find a positive way forward.

Future Development; S. Black; For the school to truly thrive; we need plenty of children, parents are important as are the teachers. We support each other, we communicate, there is a complete flow between us and this radiates to the wider community. This will bring new children and parents to the school, this will happen through all of us.This requires support and teams, I know that lots of people are in teams already and they are much appreciated. If you can volunteer, please fill in these questionnaires which I will collate into a database. We will contact everyone who offers their help.Ethos and Mission Statement of M.H.S; T.Watson, I. Stephenson, D.Bryant T.Watson; It is important to understand anthroposophy, the three fold human being. Steiner explained the human being as three-fold; thinking, feeling and willing. This shapes our teaching, thinking and ethos.

I. Stephenson; The current staff have formulated our ethos statement which is on our website. By 2023 MHS will be a popular, thriving Steiner school educating the child’s body, soul and spirit. We want to balance the educational needs of each child, engage in local community, participate in the movement to further human evolution and we want this to be inclusive to all. We will thrive towards abundance and meet the educational needs of the modern child.

D.Bryant; The ethos relates to all of us as the school community; as teachers we need to break new grounds within the anthroposophical setting. The children are learning all the time, the parents have not been afraid to access new education in the form of our school. As teachers we are inspired by Steiner’s philosophy; as teachers we address children’s thinking, doing, and feeling. We want our students to become happy, capable, responsible adults.

Finance report; Funds that sustain M.H.S rather than crisis management;

N. Gamble; Finance notes and PowerPoint presentation to be attached.Fundraising, T. Watson Alongside me, J. Wyer and K. Hind are also members. We are not

short of ideas; we are short of people to help us in fund raising. We need people to fundraise in the wider community; it does not need to be major event, it can be a small event since all is appreciated. I know that all of you work very hard, but please volunteer if you can help in any way.We fundraise through events, internet shopping, the giving machine, 200club, shop vouchers etc. Break Support Teams We have lots of support teams; we have chosen a few to talk about their role tonight.

Environmental Team Review (D. Lynch’s notes)Members – Deb Lynch, Mike Lynch, Richards Beeston.Aims- to maintain protect and improve the school buildings and grounds.Meetings- every Monday 9-3 A report that included all activity and achievements of the team and an up to date financial statement is in the newsletter every two months for association members to see, which is also on the website under newsletter and in archive if you miss the current addition. It is also up loaded to basecamp for all team leaders and team members, plus the SMT, collegiate and trustees to see.The last update was in the newsletter dated 23rd January.However, evidence of our teams work can be seen around the school and in the loft.On behalf of the environmental team I would like to thank everyone who has attended our workday in the past twelve months and invite everyone to join us on the 5 April (the morn-ing of the festival of works) starting at 9am till one with a bring and share lunch in the after school club/sunflower room.

Business Plan Team ReviewMembers- Deb Lynch.Aim- to produce, maintain, and update a business plan to enable grant application, and communicate MHS goals, procedures, and policies to everyone involved in all aspects of the smooth running of the school.Meeting- as and when information is required and when I can pin people down.Is progressing slowly but surely, I’m working on two version at the moment One - a surface over view for grant applications, which will be amended depending on which and what grants we are going for.Second- that the school can use as a working document, this is proving challenging due to the evolving nature of the schools procedural processes.However, I am a third of the way through it and any spare time I have is dedicated to achiev-ing its completion. The target is now to be ready when the next financial statement is avail-able during March.Community Links Team ReviewMembers - Deb Lynch and Lindsay Martin Aims: To create and maintain links with school/ facilities’ that provides support for children and parents in the area, whilst promoting support and communication between MHS and the local area/community. Meetings- Monthly, 1st meeting yet to be decided In the embryonic stages of development, would love to have more members.

Additional notes (S. Sarkas-Bosman)Environmental Team, D.Lynch; Since we joined the school, we wanted to see how we can help. We have cleaned, attended work days and generally completed a lot of jobs around the school. We are a team of three; me, my husband Mike and Richard Beeston. We meet every Monday and we have a long list of maintenance and other tasks. We have painted the warehouse, put in the loft insulation, curtains up, gardening, tidying up etc. We are always busy; therefore we are called busy bees.

We produce a bi-monthly report which outlines all the activities and current finances. We received a kind donation from a parent of £12000 for the resurfacing of the playground. The donor stated for the donation to be specifically ring fenced for this purpose; we also applied for a gift aid and received further £3250. Therefore we have now £15250. We are launching an appeal in order to raise further funding for the resurfacing of the playground.

Please sign up for the newsletter in order to find out about news, events and other MHS is-sues. Our first workday is on the 5th of April; we will be tidying, weeding etc. from 9.00-13.00 and please bring a shared lunch.

Publicity team, I. Beeston (parent, art teacher, ex pupil), Z.Burns (class teacher), C.Bosman (Kindergarten teacher). We have only three core members but we also receive help from A. and D. Clarke. Lindsay Martin. However, more members are required.

We want to achieve an increase in pupil numbers and therefore we have a long list of tasks. We have advertised in Lots of Tots, Erewash Sound and Classical Fm. We are also responsible for the pro-active promotion on the website; we have posted videos of Steiner education and we want to make our own publicity film. Social Media (by C.Bosman) such as Face book and Twitter are currently used to advertise and inform.

L. Martin has a lot of experience with local newspapers and she is working with them in order to publicise the school.We need to advertise to new parents; therefore we are planning to have stalls in various events such as Heanor fayre, Independent School Fayres, sponsorship from local companies etc.

We need your help and support to achieve our aims; we need 10 people minimum for poster drops, 2 artists to provide posters, people for the stands to promote the school.If people do not volunteer, it will take much longer to achieve our goals. If people just volun-teer for a small job, such as printing the poster and dropping it off, this will make a difference. There will be publicity meeting 3rd March in the community kitchen.

Alumni, H. Machin; There are still quite a few ex students and parents still involved with the school. Rosemary Townsend (ex-parent) has offered gathering the Alumni together. We are also asking for gift aid donations, planning meals etc with the view of having a fantastic 80th celebration.

Upper school, H. Machin; as the upper school teacher I am telling you about the upper school

development. We spent lot of time thinking about the need of a modern child and how we can empower the experience of the students at the upper school. We have been adjusting the balance; we want to bring back the hands-on experience. We re-organised the timetable and the class 9 and 10 now participate in bothmer, singing, drama, speech exercises and this works really well.

Class 9 will be three weeks at the Trinity Farm, camping and doing their farming and other lessons. Class 10 were working with felt and fabrics, quilting and they were very relieved to do something with their hands after all the mock exams.

K. Nilsson (woodwork teacher); class 9 are making benches which will go to the woods for the nursery and kindergarten, Class 10 will build a shelter over these benches. There is also carving and sculpturing included, this will happen during the summer term.

H.Machin; We are looking involving our students into leadership roles; Internet day, guided tours, presentations. European Portfolio Certificates enable students to set their own assess-ment criteria; this is another way of learning. We also took classes 9 and 10 Christmas Carol singing at the Shipley Care Home and Ilkeston Hospital. We also participated in the Waldorf Education for the Adolescence weekend at Steiner House; T. Watson took 20 students to per-form gymnastics. We also participated much ado about nothing’ at the Shakespeare festival at Lakeside Theatre.

A.O.B Question; ‘Will the school community seriously consider selling the school on the current site for housing and developing a new school elsewhere. Preferably an eco-build which would attract more people and attention and be more sustainable than the current building and site which takes up far too much of all resources just to keep in a fairly poor state of repair. Possibly on ex- American Adventure site?’ This question is for all of us, as the school community, to think about.Close C. Winter thanked everyone for attending. Meeting ended 21.03