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College News is written this term by Alistair Pugh - Co-Chair of College. It is emailed out to all parents of enrolled children, as well as linked to here each week.
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Appointments can be booked during the above times through the School Office. Please give the Office Staff your details and when and how you would prefer to be contacted.
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I have been here at the Mt Kenya Waldorf School for 3 months now and have had a wonderful welcome by the amazingly friendly teachers and staff. I have been offering mentoring, as well as teaching several classes in the Lower School.
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Currently the school has 34 children, with 2 kindergartens, Class 1, and Class 3. They hope to add more years and build the kindergarten in the future. It is really hard to find trained Waldorf teachers, however, so I think it has been helpful to have me here to help with the curriculum and the arts.
They are a new Waldorf School working hard to bring Waldorf Education to a more rural part of Kenya. Although there are Waldorf Schools in Nairobi, there are only 2 or 3 other Waldorf schools in the rest of Kenya. The school is struggling to survive, since it is a new school. It was hit hard financially by Covid, and because there are not a lot of parents who can afford private education.
The pupils are a mix of Black Kenyans, White Kenyans, and some Europeans and Americans who are living here temporarily. The school would love to open up to less advantaged children, but it is hard when finances are so tough. However, they have managed to enrol some pupils who would otherwise not be able to afford it by offering some places when parents volunteer or offer whatever services they can. In the future they hope to be in a position to have bursaries and scholarships for more children.
The supplies you have sent will help so much to provide materials for the children who need more support and to help the school be able to afford the materials for making the arts and crafts of a Waldorf School.
The school buildings are beautiful -- made with red mud and straw (cobb) in round buildings, with porches for eating and sitting outside. Everything is simple and constructed by staff, friends, and family members, but it is so beautiful in its simplicity and the way that it fits into the landscape.
The school is on land near Nanyuki, in an area that is often very dry, but full of nature, especially at the nearby river where you can sometimes see monkeys and baboons. There are leopards prowling around by the river at night, but only the night guards have seen them, fortunately! Not far away in all directions are game parks and preserves with all of the wildlife you can picture for Africa.
On behalf of the school I offer heartfelt thanks for your support. They were so delighted when they heard of your generous gifts!
Barbara Scott
The package arrived on Wednesday and in the hands of the children the next day.
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Diwali Performance, shared with C5 parents' permission.
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I Go With My Little Lantern, My Lantern Is Going With Me
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Classes 1 - 3 returned to campus at dusk on Thursday to celebrate Martinmas Lantern Walk, whilst our kindergarteners carried their traditional tin vessels of light through nearby Harrison Park, followed by homemade filled croissants, with warm spiced compote from foraged apples, shared by parents Symon and Marlena Cierpial.
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"Living seasonally and eating food together. I really believe that this is the way to care for future generations," says Szymon.
Photographs of the Kindergarten procession were taken and shared here by Marlena.
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Short Lantern Walk film by John Main, captured last year.
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No School For Pupils Next Thursday & Friday
The 25th - 26th November are school holidays for pupils, whilst teachers prepare for the special period ahead in the school calendar. (You can follow the link to learn more about ESS Advent Preparation).
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Seeking Donations Of Greenery
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Each year, teachers reuse the Christmas Market greenery to make a wreath for each Class, create the Kindergarten Advent Spiral, decorate the common areas
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of the school campus and create the
With the Christmas Market called off because of covid regulations the School would welcome holly and evergreen branches that would otherwise be going to the compost.
This can be brought in by pupils on or before Wednesday 24th November, and placed under the yew tree by the stone wall at the Friday Market area.
Many thanks in advance.
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Spring Fair Raffle Prizes
Thank you to KnotStressed and East Coast Organics for your early generosity.
If you would like to support Steiner Waldorf education in Edinburgh and be showcased as part of this consciously collated list of raffle prizes hosted on the School's website, please get in touch. The draw will be at the Spring Fair on Saturday 21st May.
Prizes will be added as they come in; and shared in the Tuesday Notices leading up to the event. Thank you in advance.
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Seeking Wooden Recorders & Pentatonic Flutes
Abiding Heart Education, Kindergarten and Teachers Training in Kathmandu, Nepal is looking for wooden recorders for the local teachers to use.
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This education imbues Steiner and Buddhist pedagogy within its transformative learning. If anybody has an unwanted or unused pentatonic or diatonic recorder please consider to donate it and support the music teaching in Nepal. Contact Marianna , Mobile no: 07522670325. Thank you.
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Campaign For Road Safety At School Gate
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Edinburgh Steiner School's Crossing Patrol Officer, is currently absent. The School has requested a replacement from City of Edinburgh Council, her employer. The representative in charge of School Crossing Patrols informed the School they are severely understaffed, (18 officers absent with illness on the day of the phone call alone), and have no-one to send.
Road safety: parents' responsibility
The School has been advised the road safety of the pupils is the responsibility of the parents; and that neither teachers nor adults in the Steiner community working on a rota system would be permitted to take on the role of lollipop person.
Degree of conflict between the traffic and pedestrians
The process to put traffic controlling measures in place is apparently a long one, involving a nationwide mathematical formula (PV²) assessment of Spylaw Road. ESS carried out an illustrative PV² assessment on Friday It counted:
- 503 ESS pedestrians, based on school roll (285), number of ESS staff (71), and allocating one parent to each pupil under 12-years-old (147). It is acknowledged there will be overlap where a parent is dropping off two more more children. Siblings under 2 and second parents also on the school run not included; nor other pedestrians from local school, nursery and care homes, nor commuters. 238 pupils aged under 16 are weighted in the calculation by 1.25.
- the flow of vehicles in both directions in the peak hour of 8am - 9am (V). 328 cars photographed passing the school gates. Others parked and turned either side of the school gates.
It shows a PV² figure of 0.61 x 10⁸, considered a conservative value by ESS (see Petition).
In response to a letter written by parent Sigrid in October, following the School's notification of the Council's position, Sigrid shared the positive news that Tracey Bach, Transport Technician (Road Safety), added Spylaw Road in front of the Edinburgh Steiner School to the list of roads to be assessed; and will share the results as soon as they are available (Letter, dated 5th Nov). The assessment through cameras at several locations was completed on Saturday 13th November.
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A weighted Site
"A location with an adjusted PV² value of 1 or higher would be considered for a puffin crossing, locations with a value of 0.3 or higher would be considered for a suite of measures that includes a zebra crossing, refuge island or pavement build-outs," Bach confirmed.
Owing to the Council receiving a far greater number of requests for pedestrian crossings than can be provided, a priority system was developed to evaluate locations and crossing type most suitable for each location, which was approved by the Council’s Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee on 28 July 2009.
- Two trip-ends within 50m (school + church) are weighted by 1.25.
- Road width above 7.3m weighted at 1.2
- 85% of traffic driving at 30-35mph is weighted at 1.1
- children, elderly & disabled > 15% (% + 100)/115
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Road closure
Parent Florian also met with Scottish Greens Councillor, Melanie Main, on Monday to raise the concern of safety for our children, especially as we enter the tenth week of having no lollipop person, at a time where we are experiencing darker days with decreased visibility. She is aware of the volume increase of ~1,000 cars created by George Watson's alone; and notes complaints have also been made by residents concerning the rat-running (some requesting road closures).
Councillor Main will support ESS over the next steps. She has put us in contact with two Merchiston Community Council members, Roma Menlowe and Ian Doig; as well as Stacey Monteith-Skelton, who is leading the new tool called "emergency orders", which allows the Council to put in measures first and evaluate them later (e.g. the Spaces for People measures currently outside our school gates).
Main's recommendation is to campaign the Road Safety Department of Edinburgh Council in charge of introducing School Streets Initiative, closing off roads between school drop-off and pick-up for most vehicles, similar to the measures implemented at St Peters in Morningside and eleven other primary schools in the capital since 2015.
Merchiston Community Council support
The issue will be discussed at Merchiston Community Council meeting tonight, with a special invitation extended to parent Florian Fusseis and the School.
Transport Road Safety to survey parents next week
Stacey Monteith-Skelton also confirmed late this afternoon:
"The Road Safety Team are carrying out a School Travel Plan Review across all schools in the city by cluster. This piece of work will be carried out over the next 24 months. The aim of the review is to develop a 5 year action plan with parents, children and the schools to make the routes and streets surrounding the school safer and to encourage more active travel to school.
As temporary Spaces for People measures are in place, the School Travel Plan Review for Steiners is being prioritised and the survey is due to commence next week. One of my colleagues will be in touch later this week/early next week with the links for the parent and staff surveys.
This will enable conversations to take place around the measures that have been introduced and establish what the school and parents would like to see introduced on a permanent basis. Both in relation to the temporary measures at the school frontage and also on the wider routes to school i.e. crossings, school streets and traffic calming. We will also be working with the nearby schools using the same process to improve the wider area for children and staff."
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In previous years the School has campaigned for such traffic slowing measures such as speed bumps to be installed; and the contact at the Council has reiterated that in his opinion Spylaw Road would not qualify, as it is only busy at certain times of the day.
The PV² assessment is normally calculated over peak hours 7am - 10am and 3pm - 6pm. Over just one hour, however, Spylaw reaches the benchmark for consideration of a zebra crossing in the indicative survey by ESS. In the official assessment the number of all pedestrians using Spylaw Road within 50m of the school gates is adjusted to take account of local relevant factors, namely the composition and speed of passing traffic, the road width, the number of pedestrian accidents, the presence of nearby trip attractors such as schools (ours and George Watson's on nearby Colinton Road), nursing homes (67m and 300m away), nursery (at No 2) and church (opposite ESS).
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A recent Sustrans survey showed around 38% of ESS pupils are dropped off at school by car. It is also used as a cut-through to neighbouring 2,500-pupil George Watson's College, which has its school entrance on Colinton Road, accessed from Spylaw Road by turning at Mid Gilsland Road. There is a day care nursery further up Spylaw Road and a care home 65m the other way. The volume of both vehicle and pedestrian traffic during the typical nursery and school drop off (8am - 9am) is therefore exceptionally high.
What age can a child cross the road by themselves?
As an all-through school, we currently have 71 children aged 2 - 5 attending our Early Years who are not yet aware of the Highway Code. Many pupils older than this are not ready either, as children should not be allowed out alone until they can understand and use The Green Cross Code properly. However, as of September this year, this publication redrafted its rules, stipulating motorists must stop for people crossing the road even if they're not on a pelican or zebra crossing. The situation outside our school is made worse by parked cars on both sides of Spylaw Road obscuring young children; and without a lollipop person present, many are crossing at different sections of the road.
Young pedestrians between the age of 12 and 15 are considered to be one of the most vulnerable road user groups. As pupils mature, they gain a greater level of independence by being given the freedom to walk or cycle to school unsupervised. The most recently published statistics reveal the 12-15 age-group had the highest ‘all severities’ pedestrian casualty rates in 2019.
The School would like to reignite the campaign for traffic calming measures, such as a zebra crossing illustrated below or road closure during peak school run hours, to be implemented at our school gates.
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Petition
Improve the original/current traffic calming measures at 60 Spylaw Road, Edinburgh, to make them fit for purpose for this 20mph school & kindergarten zone.
Edinburgh Steiner School submitted a petition to Edinburgh Council on Thursday morning. However, Natalie Le Couteur, in charge of approving Petitions, has informed the School the Council will need to ensure that this is not a matter already being considered by a committee, and with regret they need to extend the 3-day approval deadline. We hope to share this link with our School community next week.
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Don't Get Dressed & Donate This Friday
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It can be really hard to get up at this time of year... Why not channel that lethargy and come to school still in your pyjamas, or a onesie, on Friday 19th November. Make sure you are warm enough, though!
The School is fundraising towards Children in Need. Class 4 will be coming round during Main Lesson to collect donations (£1 suggested) for those who are taking part.
A bit of fun, and in a good cause.
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Open Studio By Steiner Teacher
Edinburgh Steiner Art Teacher, Mary Trodden, is exhibiting her own work at the Patriothall Gallery in the heart of Edinburgh on 27th and 28th November, 11am - 4pm.
Wasps Scotland Ltd
Patriothall
Edinburgh
EH3 5AY
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Edinburgh Steiner School's social media pages for the School, Early Years, Growing Spaces, Teacher Training Course and Christmas Market can be found here.
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Putting An Advert In The Tuesday Notice
Edinburgh Steiner School’s weekly news ezine is sent out to 720 recipients’ inboxes every term-time Tuesday. (View the most recent Tuesday Notices here).
Anyone sharing a relationship with the School is welcome to submit a Notice for the upcoming edition(s) at £5 per edition (paid through the online School Shop here), ordered in first-come-first-appears. Submissions are up to 100 words and can include link(s) to an external website and/or social media page(s).
Steiner Waldorf education acknowledges pupils are profoundly affected by their built environment. All proceeds from Notices go towards the School’s Growing Spaces Project, benefiting all current and future ESS pupils.
Submission Forms are downloaded here. Once completed, this can be emailed back to communications@edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk by Friday noon before the first edition you would like your Notice to appear in.
Future publication dates for the Autumn Term 2021 are:
November 23rd, 30th
Dec 7th, 14th
Edinburgh Steiner School Session Dates
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House- and Cat-Sittter Needed
We are looking for a reliable house- and cat sitter for the time over Christmas and New Year (Dec 20th - Jan 8th) while we are back at home.
We live in a comfortable, warm and renovated semi-detached family home in South Edinburgh. The house is within cycling distance to the city centre, well-connected to public transport and within walking distance to the Pentlands.
Our cat (1 year) sleeps indoors but spends most of her days outdoors. She needs to be fed twice/day, and let out and back in again.
For more information please phone Maria on 0750 3690 683
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Care Staff Vacancies
Garvald, West Linton are recruiting for Care Staff. If you are interested in improving the lives of people with a learning disability, providing a caring and nurturing environment whilst supporting our residents to take part in our on-site Workshop activities and leisure/social activities, please phone Donna Chisholm on 01968 682211 for an informal chat and further information.
For more information on the work that we do at Garvald and to apply online, please visit our website. Alternatively e-mail to request an application pack and job description.
Please feel free to share this information to anyone you think may be interested.
Facebook Job Description |
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Looking For Cello
I am looking for a good quality, size 3⁄4 cello for my son . If somebody in the School
Community has an unused instrument, I am happy to buy it , borrow it or rent it.
Please contact Marianna,
Mob:07522670325.
Thank you
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Calendar By Former ESS Scholar
I have just released my 2022 Calendars, featuring 12 of my favourite photos taken over the last year from Scotland and England.
Every calendar is hand printed on high quality gloss paper in Leith, Edinburgh and is wire bound ready to be hung up. Each picture can be cut out and kept as a print at the end of the year. Every purchase helps me out massively and allows me to keep travelling and creating content!
Calendars can be purchased from my website: www.jacobmurray.co.uk/shop. They will begin shipping during the first week of November and should arrive with plenty of time before Christmas. Shipping is £2.50 to the UK and £7.99 worldwide. See pdf
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Peripatetic Guitar Lessons On Campus
From a teacher with a huge amount of experience, both teaching and performing (as well as a parent of the School, and PVG registered).
Classical: Advanced Certificate LRSM
Flamenco: 4 years study, concerts and TV appearances in Spain
Electric: Guitar Institute Certificate, London
Mobile: 07425388992
Email douglasanderson0602@yahoo.com
30 min lessons (£15)
Classical: Advanced Certificate LRSM
Flamenco: 4 years study, concerts and TV appearances in Spain
Electric: Guitar Institute Certificate, London
From October 27th there will be the opportunity to change to a time slot during the School day on campus (with appropriate lesson time discussed with pupil's Class Teacher ahead of booking). Flyer |
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Sarah Miller works alongside Alistair Pugh (Co-Chair of College), and Trustee Layla Tree.
The Tuesday Notice is produced by the Communications Team and edited by Helen Newton - School Coordinator and Alistair Pugh.
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Tel: 0131 337 3410 Ext 3
Email: communications@edinburghsteinerschool.org.uk
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