We would like to wish you a wonderful welcome to the new 2019 / 2020

school year.

We are now called Cuan na Gaillimhe Community National School - a Steiner

education. Cuan na Gaillimhe refers to Galway Bay. Gaillimhe refers to Galway

while Cuan means bay/haven and we like to think we will be a safe haven for

Steiner Education here in Galway. CNS stands for Community National School,

as we are now under the patronage of Galway and Roscommon Education and

Training Board (GRETB). The new arrangement will help provide a framework

of support for the school while the Steiner pedagogy in the school will be

maintained. The framework of support will reduce administrative tasks to

allow staff to focus on the teaching and learning in the school. Lifeways Ireland

will continue to advise the school in relation to Steiner pedagogy.

We are delighted to welcome 21 new

Junior Infants as well as the children

who have joined the older classes.

1. Verse

2. Leabharlann

3. Meet our new Staff & Interns

4. Reflection from Intern

5. School Exchange Partnership

6. Upcoming Festivals

7. Lantern walk

8. Open evening

9. Autumn Workshop

10. Frásaí Gaeilge

11. Upcoming Anthroposophy

training

12. Upcoming Events

13. Article: There’s more to reading

than meets the eye

We have a range of books on Steiner Education in our

library which you can find in the oifig (office) by the end of

September. We also hold issues of the Kindling Journal for

Steiner Waldorf early childcare and education. If you wish

to borrow any of these books and magazines, please sign

the take out sheet for the book you are borrowing.

Helena Brosnan

Helena is thrilled and excited to be joining the team of Cuan na Gaillimhe CNS. She holds a Professional Master of Education degree from Mary Immaculate College, along with an Undergraduate degree in Music, Movement, Dance, Drama and Voice. She is a performing member of Siamsa Tire – The National Folk Theatre of Ireland and has

great passion for and experience in all aspects of teaching, learning and Arts Education. Helena is looking forward to meeting all the staff, students and parents of Cuan na Gaillimhe CNS and having a fun filled school year ahead.

Noemi Melchor Velayos Noemi will be joining our school from the end of August for a period of nine months. 22 year old Noemi, from Ávila,

Spain) has just finished her degree in psychology and is very interested in educational psychology. Earlier this year Noemi had an internship in a school as an educational guidance counsellor. Noemi is looking forward to learning as much as she can about Irish culture

and make Galway her second home.

Mireia, Gemma & Laura are students from Rovira and Virgili University (URV) in Tarrragona,

Spain and are coming to complete a three month internship in our school as part of their

college courses, the Double Degree of Childhood (Pre-school Education) and Primary

Education.

Mireia Brugués is 20 years old, from Reus, a city near Tarragona, Catalonia Spain.

Mireia’s hobbies include dance, when she has been practicing for many years (15 years of

classical dance and five of contemporary).

Gemma Virgili Vidal is a 20 year old student who enjoys travelling, reading, cycling and

taking part in theatre. She enjoys taking part in an Esplai, which is a non-profit voluntary

association that works in the field of educating children during their free time.

Gemma is learning to play the guitar and the gralla (a traditional Catalan double reed

instrument in the oboe family).

Laura Caballero Pacheco is 20 years old and from Cambrils, a coastal town in Spain. As well

as Spanish and Catalan, Laura has been learning English as her first foreign language since

she was five years old.

Laura has been playing volleyball competition for a team near where she lives since she was

15 years old. Laura also enjoys doing crafts and is very into lettering, along with reading and

listening to music.

Pia and Carolyn are joining us for three months from the University of Munster. Both will

work in the infant rooms for a period of three months from the end of August.

Pia Appel is 21 and lives in the city Münster, Germany as she is studying at the Westphalian

Wilhelm’s University Munster. Pia likes to dance in her spare time and is taking Zumba

classes in Münster. Pia is an active person and likes to spend a lot of time outdoors and

likes to cook and bake. Pia works as a tutor and three day of her week is spent tutoring a

boy and a girl.

Carolyn Ebden is also living in Münster, Germany where she is studying Biology and

Geography to become a teacher. Carolyn’s experience of being a scout as well as a scout

leader has contributed hugely to her love of nature

For the last two years Carolyn has worked as a sailing instructor with children aged between

five and thirteen years of age. In her free time she lies to be outside in nature, cycling or

swimming and also like reading and meeting friends.

We look forward to welcoming all our new interns to our school community.

A wonderful experience in a wonderful town

My year in Galway Steiner National School has been fantastic!

I met great staff always ready to help each other and the children with a beautiful smile

every day. As a teacher, I now know more about the Waldorf approach. I could participate in

the daily rhythm and in the activities with the infants group and I could share some of my

own ideas with them. I have learnt some Irish traditions and I have participated in the

school festivals during the year with families, teachers and children. Everything is in an

amazing environment.

Galway is a cultural and active town full of nice activities! During my 10 months I discovered

something new every day in and out of the school.

Since my experience in the school, I have recently participated in two international Steiner

Waldorf camps in Lithuania and China to continue to discover more about the Waldorf

approach.

‘I feel really grateful for a beautiful year’

Noemi and her class group in Summer Waldrof Camp, Shenzeng, China.

We are happy to continue year two of the two year Erasmus+ School

Exchange Partnership Programme ‘Let's do it together - you and me in

Europe’.

This two year project involves our school and four schools in Spain, Bulgaria,

Estonia and Finland. The other partners are all mainstream national schools.

Some are small and others big, some placed in the countryside and others in

urban areas - but just like us they are interested in exploring and learning

from their European neighbours and in this case; focusing on the transition

and collaboration between kindergarten and school - sharing good everyday

practices.

Later this term three teachers from the three Community National Schools

delivering a Steiner Education will visit Estonia, as part of the partnership.

As most European countries have a school starting age of six, Ireland stands

out having a much earlier school start. However, as we in our Steiner

National Schools begin the formal education in 1st class, the focus is relevant.

According to educational studies, schools and kindergartens differ both in

practice as well as social and physical environments which can bring out

challenges for children. With this Erasmus project we allow ourselves to take

a look at how we already support and might improve this early transition,

making children and adults in our educational communities aware of the

possibilities that a strong co-operation gives.

Thursday, 21st November, 5.30pm to 7.00pm

We are inviting all prospective parents interested in sending

their children to our the school to attend our

Open Evening on Thursday, 21st of November from 5:30pm to

7.00pm. Come along and to find out more about our growing

school and visit our new location. Children welcome.

Michaelmas is a celebration of the harvest and the abundance of

nature in its exhaling phase. Celebrated few days after the

autumn equinox, it marks the time when the days are getting

shorter than the nights. It is a time of preparation for winter, not

only by harvesting, baking and preserving food but also by

consciously taking in the warmth and light of the summer and

retaining it in our hearts.

At the equinox, where light meets darkness, the Archangel

Michael symbolises the victory of Good over Evil. This conflict is

the theme of the stories told to the children instilling in them the certainty that the Good

always wins and prevails.

Michael is the avatar of courage. He does not yield and carries out his task to defeat the

dragon with the strength of his soul. Depicted with a lance, a sword and a weighing scale, he

stands for aiming and considering as well as for taking initiative. He is a role model for

managing our own tasks and conflicts.

Brave and True

(this is a nice verse the children will learn to recite while marching out the rhythm.)

Brave and true I will be. Each good deed sets me free. Each kind word makes me strong. I will fight for the right, I will conquer the wrong.

is the holiday that occurs

between Michaelmas and Christmas.

Lantern Walk

The traditional symbol for the Martinmas festival is

the lantern. The lantern is the symbol of our own

light which we can shine on a dark world, and in our school we celebrate the festival with

a lantern walk through Barna woods. This will take place on Friday, the 8th of November

and will be open to the public. We will set off from Cappagh Park at 5pm. More details

will be posted on our website and facebook page in early November.

This is a truly beautiful sight as the young children meander through the dark woods

carrying homemade lanterns. The little flames symbolise the power of light as the

darkness of winter encroaches. Inspired by the story of Martin, all funds raised at this

event are donated to the Galway Simon Community.

We will be holding an Autumn Workshop, which will be open to the general

public, on Thursday 24th October at 7.00pm.

Please keep an eye on our facebook page where more details will be available

closer to the time.

Dia Duit ar maidin! Good morning!

Cuir ort do chóta / geansai / bhutaisí Put on your coata / jumper / boots

Bain díot do hata / scairf / lamhainní Take of your hat / scarf / gloves

Más é do thoil é! Please!

Phrase Irish

jacket seaicéad

coat cóta

boots buataisí

scarf scairf

hat hata

gloves lámhainní

put on your jacket cuir ar do seaicéad

take off your coat bain díot do chóta

This course aims to provide a foundational, but immersive introduction, to

many aspects of Anthroposophy, the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, on which

Waldorf / Steiner education, Biodynamic agriculture, Anthroposophical

Medicine and Eurythmy are based.

This course is offered as a broad introduction to Anthroposophy for anyone

who is interested, and is a foundation year for anyone planning to do further

anthroposophical studies, e.g. Steiner/Waldorf kindergarten teacher training,

teacher training etc. It is very suitable for existing teachers, parents, assistants

or administrators in a Steiner Waldorf setting, who are interested in deepening

their understanding of the background of the work. It also presents an

opportunity for anyone to refresh their knowledge.

A similar course was run for a number of years under the aegis of ISKA (now

Bláthú), the Association for Steiner Early Childhood Education in Ireland, by the

present course leaders.

The course will comprise of 9 monthly weekend sessions, running from Friday

evening to Sunday lunchtime. It is intended to alternate between venues in

Kildare and Kilkenny to facilitate travel.

Further information on the curriculum, cost and dates can be found on their

website.

Be one of the first families to take part in the new “Earth Quest” trail around

Brigit’s Garden. Working as a team, you will navigate the Garden and solve

science-based challenges on your quest. There are several new installations

around the Garden including a water engineering play area, a pedal-power

generator, a geodesic camera obscura and a weather station to reveal a few.

Families must discover, observe and identify things as they explore Brigit’s

Garden, recording their findings on our special “Earth Quest” guide.

More information and ticket information can be found online.

Details of all upcoming events being held in Brigit’s Garden are detailed on

their website.

If you are interetsed in courses on: Woodcarving, Súgán Chair, Adventure

Bushcraft, Leatherwork, Sheepskin Tanning, Spinning, weaving & Dyeing,

Mosaic, Herblore, Meet the Bees and more.

Click Weekend in the Hills for

more details on one or two day

courses at Slieve Aughty Centre,

Kylebrack West, Loughrea, Co.

Galway.

Rates:

One day courses: €72.50/adult

Two day courses: €145/adult course, €85/child

NEW family rate: €410 for two adults and two children

Wrap up in culture, as venues and

public spaces across the island of

Ireland as they open their doors to

host a programme of free late-night

entertainment, as part of an all-island celebration of arts, heritage and culture.

Returning for its fourteenth year, Culture Night 2019 will take place on Friday,

September 20th.

The list of events taking place in Galway can be found online.

As part of Culture Night ‘The Green Man Herbal Workshop’ takes place in

Brigit’s Garden. Join Alexandre Vanfracken of “The Green Man Herbal” for

gentle walk around Brigit’s Garden as they examine the local herbs and plants

often used for health benefits.

There will be refreshments made from some herbs which will be seen on the

path.

Article By: Gerda Salis Gross, August 2018

For a long time, free play has been neglected for the sake of early literacy and

numeracy. The appreciation of free play has only been revived in the last few

years. But is it really seen and understood for what it means to the child? How

do we, as parents and educators, approach free play? What does it mean to

us?

Sometimes I chuckle when I watch children absorbed in play. A lot is similar or

the same as it was when I was a child. There are the same twists, gestures,

processes, interactions, dialogues. Even when I listen to the elderly talking

about how they used to play, I realise how much we have in common.

In children’s free play everywhere, in other countries and societies, we see

similar basic elements and structures. Cultures come and go but the

archetypal, primal form and quality of free play seems timeless. It is universal.

Nevertheless, a lot seems to change. For example, the material and amount of

toys change alongside societal changes. However, I can see that the basic

topics recur in variations, again and again: Playing family, digging and building,

going to work, caring for something, going out into the world such as setting

off on a trip etc.

The fact that it is always the same – and with that we have defined the one

crucial element of free play – is a unique possibility for the child to express

herself, to take action in the world, to understand, to create, to deal with

issues, to discover, to imitate, to try again and thus to develop. It is a chance to

be in touch with oneself and with the world.

Personally, I find it very important to differentiate what the basic, primal

quality of free play is (1). Primal in the sense that everychild, everywhere,

always plays firstin this way.

For a child to play at all, her basic human needs have to be met. She has to feel

safe, she has to be part of a community where she is seen. Free play is an

expression of autonomy and creativity and must be allowed to happen without

having to meet any expectations whatsoever. Only then can the child be free in

play.

For the child, playing is a form of expression, the first “language” she knew

before she acquired her oral mother tongue. It is, so to speak, the language of

the primordial ancestor.

Therefore, the primal quality of free play is the soil on which play grows and

evolves, according to the surrounding culture. When I speak about play, I

mean thisquality of play and not culturally defined forms of play and games,

such as football, chess, digital games or any other games with given rules,

defined by adults.

Every child plays what he sees and experiences in his environment. The cultural

imprint of each form of play changes according to times and society and is

therefore secondary in connection with the quality of play. Children may play

farm, war, doggy family, Minecraft in the “real world” etc. This cultural aspect

is like a particular shade which makes the game, and the world, more colourful.

If we focus too much on these outer aspects of any form of play, we easily

forget the essential. To perceive the essential, we have to look beyond the

cultural imprint, including “Waldorf culture”. Even if a playroom has been ever

so carefully planned and set up, it will not be enough to see and experience the

essential element of play.

We need to look deeper if we want to perceive the child in his “ancient” quality

of playing and if we want to see it anew. What does the child show me? What

does he tell me through his game today? Do I understand his language? What

is he moved by?

Increasingly, I see children in my educational practice who can no longer

remain absorbed in play; or – to be precise - whose connection to the primal

quality of play has been covered up. Their play sequences are short and hectic,

they do not find any continuity or “story”. They pick up something, drop it

again and take up the next thing; they are not able to linger in play.

Their play is “counting” rather than “recounting”, it is a sequence of affect and

effect, as Byung-Chul Han describes a current phenomena of our “capitalism of

emotions”. This can go as far as children restlessly annoying and destroying. (2)

How do I approach children? Do I hold in myself the peace, the muse needed

to become absorbed in play? Am I, myself, connected to the play so that I

radiate an inviting quality? Do I care for this quality within myself? Am I in the

play?

Here, I don’t mean that I should play like a child – I could, but this is not the

crucial point. I also should not play for them or entertain them. The essential

point is to be familiar with the above mentioned quality, that I feel with it,

inwardly move with it. Thus, the child can lean on it, can calm down, can

rediscover the contact with herself and find her way back into playing.

Thisis today’s necessity for free play: That the adults fully acknowledge its

value; that they support the notion that play is the very best possibility for the

child to experience the world, to participate, to co-create, to deal with life; and

that the adults themselves become part of the process.

I am invited – perhaps even impelled – to recognize this quality of play and

foster it within myself. “...unless you become like children...”

Only in a protected environment can children become absorbed in the primal

quality of play. This kind of protection is easily marred and drowned out by all

sorts of culturally influenced, modern and fascinating games.

The carer can herself be this protection if she cultivates this quality of play

within herself. It is not enough to observe and value it from the outside

without cultivating it within.

The English word “play” derives from the Anglo-Saxon “plegan” which is found

today in the German “pflegen” (English: “to care for”, “to cultivate”.

Translator’s note). What do I cultivate when I play? How can I care for play?

We can easily be influenced by the paradigms of today’s meritocracy and

education system and thus loose sight of this quality of play. Even in the

Waldorf world we are not immune to to this kind of loss.

If I want to be a goodor realWaldorf teacher, I have already lost contact with

the kind of protection mentioned above because then a secondary value

judgement is becoming more important. This kind of ego-focus makes me loose

the primal contact.

This is my personal task, every day anew, at everymoment because it is the

quality of the Now, just like the child’s free play.

The education scene likes to clothes itself in new concepts. At the moment the

term “competency” is very fashionable. In the Waldorf world we also like to

flirt with it, especially if the authorities want us to justify the current value of

Waldorf education.

The Latin for “compentency” is competentiaand means aptitude. The

corresponding verb competere means to come together, to be sufficient, to be

capable. Commeans with and peteremeans to strive for, to reach for.

Now, we can pick out one interpretation, for example to come togetherund

consider it suitable for our work as Waldorf teachers. To be precise, this

expression describes meeting a given target and not the encounter of people.

However, the other elements of interpretation are always present in the

background and so the children are still in a kind of test or competition.

Rudolf Steiner warns of the use of such terminology: “This is why those who

wish to describe something from spiritual science should strongly avoid the

usual abstract concepts, because this moves away from what really wants to be

said. And it is especially true that those who try to understand things in a usual

way will tend toward generalities, not sharp definitions.” (3)

Further caution is needed with another central element of contemporary

education: “Observation”. Observation is often dissected into every detail. As

soon as I observe from the outside, I step out of the primal quality, over the

threshold, and then I am in duality, in the distance but no longer in the play.

In the play I am rather in the process of beholding, similar to goethean

observation. The key issue is the contact with the child and with myself, so that

I am able to perceive the child in her playful activity.

Do I understand where the child moves, what he moves? Do I understand his

play language? This deep interest in the child’s play does not have anything to

do with any knowledge aboutthe child. It rather has to do with being in play,

with the awareness of the play.

It can be an “experience of presence” as Kuhlewind (4) calls it, concentrated

and absent-minded. The latter means that my consciousness is not driven by

concepts, previous experience or targets but that it is empty and open for what

shows in play.

This is how I can be the witness of the child’s play, witnessing what she tells me

in her play language, but a witness also in the sense of Kühlewind:

“To join the human community and meet the world, a child becomes vertical

(upright) in a human environment. Were we to live horizontally, we would be

part of the world without witnessing it.” (5)

This means that I am aware of my personal uprightness, as a witness of myself

in the world, in play.

Every form of play invites us to preserve our inner malleability by experiencing

presence, awareness of play.., “every game or play in which a person has to

change, in which they play a “role”, has a healing quality for the soul. It breaks

the soul’s routine and strengthens its inner freedom and malleability.” (6)

Do I dare to care for the homo ludens, the playful person, within myself? He or

she invites me again and again to remain young and therefore to stay close to

the child’s play. The world of play is allowed to have nooks and crannies, it is

allowed to be square, round and colourful, every day anew, for the child and

for myself as a witness of play.

Rudolf Steiner encourages us: „This kind of free play is what we need to study!”

(7)

English translation Karin Smith

Gerda Salis Gross is an expert for play and communication, as well as a lecturer

and a mentor for personal development issues. She holds an MA in Special

Needs Education which she gained through a four year, in-service, research

project on play and communication. Gerda is currently a member of the

executive board at the Institute for Early Childhood Education Switzerland. She

has been a teacher for forty years, mainly at Waldorf Schools for Special Needs

Education in Switzerland and Sweden. She is also a mother of five and a

grandmother.

Literatur

(1) Salis Gross, Gerda (2013): Primäres Spiel als Sprache des Kindes,AVM,

München

(2) Byung-Chul Han (2017): Psychopolitics, Verso, London.

(3) Steiner, Rudolf (1971): Human Values in Education, GA310, Rudolf Steiner

Press

(4) Kühlewind, Georg (2011): The Gentle Will,Lindisfarne Books, Great

Barrington

(5) Kuhlewind, Georg (2008): The Light of the “I”, Lindisfarne Books, Great

Barrington

(6) Kühlewind, Georg (1988): From Normal to Healthy, Lindisfarne Books, Great

Barrington

(7) Steiner, Rudolf (1986): Soul Economy and Waldorf Education, GA 303,

Anthroposophic Press