Archive for 2015

Fiona Dudley, WINNER, Teacher of the Year in a Primary School

Fiona Dudley of York Steiner School  has been announced as a Silver Teaching Award Winner in the category, The Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School, in the Pearson Teaching Awards 2015!

Fiona, Class 4 teacher at York Steiner School, has been rewarded for her exceptionally creative and empathetic teaching. The efforts she has made in developing individual relationships with the children mark her out as a teacher we would all hope to have, for ourselves as well as our children!

Fiona Dudley Pearson Award

Last year, Fiona asked the pupils and parents to help build a yurt, a project which extended through the entire school year and took in Geography, History, Science, Numeracy & Literacy, Art, Design, Handwork… and ended with the children sleeping in their finished yurt on a class trip! Parents said about the project:    ‘Childhood memories are made of this, and so are adult ones’.       ‘I can’t think about the project without a tingle down my spine.’

Selected from thousands of nominations received by the Pearson Teaching Awards in 2015,  Fiona’s was one of just 60 celebrations which took place in schools and colleges across England, Ireland and Wales on Thank a Teacher Day, 12th June 2015, when prestigious Silver Pearson Teaching Awards were presented to outstanding local heroes of education.

Fiona will now join fellow Silver Award winners at the UK final of the Teaching Awards to be held at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 18th October, where 10 Silver Award winners will receive a Gold Plato Award. The ceremony, titled “Britain’s Classroom Heroes”, will be filmed and broadcast by the BBC as a showcase of excellence in education.

Fiona celebrated the Award with her class!

Class 4 Thank a Teacher

 

Job Opportunities at School

We are currently looking for enthusiastic, committed and talented people to fill part-time positions as Finance Manager, Assistant Class Teacher (Class 6) and Woodwork Teacher.

If you are interested in working with us at York Steiner School, please see here for more information about these positions: https://www.yorksteinerschool.org/the-school/job-opportunities/

Open Classrooms Evening 2015

Last year we held our first Open Classrooms evening for parents.  Building on this foundation we will be holding a second such event on Wednesday 3rd June 2015 between 7 and 9 pm, to which all are cordially invited.
Highlights of the evening will include:
Apple Tree Kindergarten: open, with an opportunity to talk to some of the kindergarten teachers.
Open classrooms 1-7: a chance to look at the children’s work and to talk to the class teachers.
Upper School Development Group: learn about the exciting research into the possibility of extending our educational provision beyond Class 8.
Experience a Lesson/Learn About the Curriculum: sign-up workshops in Eurythmy, a Class 7 mini-Main Lesson, Science, and German for the younger classes.
Refreshments in the café, provided by Class 7 pupils and parents.
This year we extend the invitation beyond our immediate school community and welcome families, friends and others interested in our school and education to come and visit us.  Please do pass this message on!  We hope to see as many of you as possible!
We are offering four workshops this year, some of the ones which proved so popular last time. If you would like to attend a workshop you will need to sign up beforehand.  If you cannot come into school to sign up in person, please contact the school office.
We look forward to seeing you!
School-open-evening-2015-FINAL

Spring Fair!

Our Spring Fair is this Saturday, 16th May!  It seems to have sprung up on us this year, as we have had so many other events to keep us occupied. But the decorations are appearing, and the feeling of anticipation is already building.

The fair begins at 11 am and will see all your favourites – the Grotto, children’s crafts, Maypole Dancing, two cafes and a bewildering assortment of cakes! There will be bargain books, craft stalls, plants for the home and garden, fairground games…

We look forward to welcoming you on Saturday!

Spring-Fair-Poster-2015

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Our approach to the curriculum is based on creative integration of subjects both horizontally, across each school year, and vertically, through the 8 year journey from class 1 (age 6-7) to class 8 (age 13-14).  It is expressed particularly strongly in class 8, where the benefits of a continuously creative and inspirational cross-curricular approach are very clearly manifest. In this year the focus of a class play gives form to creative expression by the children. As with all our class activities, every child understands that they are expected to take part and make a contribution. Nevertheless, it remains an exhilarating process which encourages individuals rise to these challenges while rewarding the class in working hard to support each other.

The children are supported in taking responsibility for designing, building and decorating sets; designing and making costumes; examining the literature and responding through creative writing; placing the play in an historical and cultural context and, of course, rehearsing, directing and performing. The year concludes with public performances of the play.  That our pupils are able to do this is the result of consistent encouragement and example of finding ways to approach academic tasks through creative means.  In 2013/14 these 13 and 14 year old children produced Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’.

This year Class 8 are performing Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.  They have designed and built the set, made their costumes (including a wall for ‘Tom Snout / Wall’) and rehearsed with incredible diligence.

What they need now is an audience! Please support Class 8 and treat yourself to a great night out by coming to one of the performances, each evening from Wednesday 6th May to Saturday 9th May at 7 pm. Entrance is free, though donations are welcome. The play is open to all, so please do tell your friends.  We look forward to welcoming you to the dream!

Class-8-Play-Poster-2Class-8-Play-Poster-1

 

York Steiner School Shortlisted for TWO Major Awards

Fiona-and-Class-4

Class 4 celebrate in their costumes for their performance of the Norse myth of Sigurd

 

We are proud and excited to confirm that York Steiner School has been shortlisted for two major education awards.

TES Creative School of the Year 2015Our school is one of 8 finalists in the highly prestigious TES School Awards category for ‘Creative School of the Year’.  This honour is based on a celebration of how we hold creativity at the centre of our pedagogy, from Early Years right through to Class 8.  Not only this, but the judges look for a school which inspires creativity in the children and in the school community.

We are luck to have an incredibly supportive community which embraces and joins with our creative approach, and it is fantastic that this has been recognised at a national level.

Teaching Awards_LOGO visuals-STAGE 3As if this were not amazing enough, our Class 4 teacher, Fiona Dudley, has been recognised as one of the best teachers in the country.  Fiona is one of 5 shortlisted for ‘Teacher of the Year in a Primary School’ in the highly respected and very high profile Pearson Teaching Awards.

Pearson say: “Finalists were selected from thousands of nominations from across the UK and Fiona joins a list of 67 exceptional teachers [in 13 categories] who are the Teaching Awards “stars” of the education profession for 2015. Finalists will find out if they have received a Pearson Teaching Awards on Thank a Teacher Day, 12 June 2015. Winners will then be invited to the star-studded UK final to be held at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in October 2015 which is filmed and broadcast by the BBC. The Pearson Teaching Awards were established by David (Lord) Puttnam in 1999, to celebrate and recognize outstanding educational professionals.”

For further information please contact the school.

Fiona-portrait

MA Education: Steiner Waldorf Pathway

Please find below details of the new MA Education; Steiner Waldorf Pathway.  The course runs at Canterbury Christ Church University, in Kent.

http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/courses/postgraduate/education.aspx

The information about the Steiner Waldorf pathway is available as a pdf to download here: MA Education: Steiner Waldorf Pathway

The Solar Eclipse Experience

On Friday 20th March we were lucky to experience the almost-total solar eclipse from our school playgrounds. Every child in school was involved, from the kindergartens (ages 3 to 6) up to class 8 (age 13-14).  It was an ideal day for Class 7, who are studying astronomy as part of their main lesson and science curriculum!

We set up binocular and pinhole projectors, the children used colanders and other pinholes as well as reflcetors to project their own images of the eclipse, and there was plenty of direct viewing through safety foil.

Here are some of the images from the day…

Class 1 children and teacher setting up pinhole viewers

Class 1 children and teacher setting up pinhole viewers

Classes 1-8 come out to see the eclipse

Classes 1-8 come out to see the eclipse

Colander projection on somebody's back!

Colander projection on somebody’s back!

 

 

DSC00564

Binocular projection onto paper

 

Image through safety foil

Image through safety foil

 

Upper School Talks

As part of our ongoing investigation of extending our provision to age 16 – 18, the Upper School Development Group is hosting a series of talks to present various models of Steiner Upper Schools, and to invite discussion around these models.

The first talk is on Monday 16th March at 7 pm in school, and will be by Tony Andrews from Ringwood School. Tony will present the Steiner School Certificate which is relatively new, and now in place in 5 UK Steiner Schools, including Ringwood.

http://ringwoodwaldorfschool.org.uk/what-are-steiner-school-certificates/

http://www.stmichaelsteiner.hounslow.sch.uk/steiner-education/high-school.html

http://norwichsteinerschool.co.uk/upper-school/the-international-steiner-school-certificate/
We hope to see you there!

Upper-School-Talks-March-2015

Red Nose Day!

This Friday (13th March) is Comic Relief Red Nose Day, and the government has agreed to match all the money raised by schools.

Our children will be coming to school in fancy dress, with each class deciding on their own theme.  The easiest way to donate to our Red Nose Day fundraising is by going to our official Red Nose Day Giving Page.  We have an overall target of £500 and it would be great if we can achieve it!

There will also be a Red Nose bake sale on Friday, so all cake bakers and cake eaters are warmly invited to join in!

Thank you for all your support!

Pupil Places now available

Our next Open Day is on Sat April 27: 9.15-12pm

We are often oversubscribed so please contact us to book a place or to arrange a personal visit.

Contact us