Kamaroi’s Class of 2023

Last Friday I had the pleasure of visiting Kamaroi’s Class 6 children and asked them a few questions about their time at school. The first thing I asked was, “What do you like most about being at Kamaroi?”

Liam answered enthusiastically, “The festivals and the fair because every festival has a different feeling towards the new season.” Dakota felt “Kamaroi is quite different from other schools, in a good way, I love that we get to use a lot of colours.” Molly likes the creative and safe community and “how I can express myself without feeling embarrassed. Kamaroi makes me feel at home.” Eloise values the environment and how “we are surrounded by lots of bushland and beauty.” Whilst Jaxon’s appreciates the way teachers communicate with the children in such a calming way. Ollie enjoys the Main Lesson because we learn so much about ancient cultures and the world.

The Main Lesson is a unique feature of Steiner education designed to deepen, enrich, and unify the learning experience. It is a unit of work focused on a particular theme or subject and is studied each day for approximately three to four weeks. I followed by asking the children, “What is your favourite subject?” The majority of the class enjoy sport, running around outside and playing games. Digital Technology was a close second along with drama and craft. Sydney and Zach are keen on extension Maths because “it’s fun, challenging and gives context.” Ariane loves library because she loves books and the places they take her.

For many of the children, Kamaroi has been their only experience of school and I wondered how they thought it differed from other primary schools. The beautiful natural environment that surrounds Kamaroi and the natural play areas were high on the list. Mia thought that “the handcraft projects and the bright, colourful, natural materials we use to make them make Kamaroi unique from other schools.” Sam believes that Kamaroi differs from other schools “because we don’t have to call our teachers Ms. or Mr. and we don’t wear uniforms.” Emma had three points, which were the festivals, no technology, and Main Lesson. Heike felt that “we do more art and music than at other schools”, and Eloise appreciates that “we use pencils and not texters for our drawings.”

Class 6 is the final year for our students at Kamaroi and has many milestone events to celebrate this. The students use firesticks in a Eurythmy choreography at the winter festival. Eurythmy is studied throughout Kamaroi and is and expressive movement often described as ‘visible speech’. Class 6 will be creating their own biography books of their memories at Kamaroi. Their final class play will be Mary Poppins, which they will perform for the whole community to enjoy.  They will be going on a four-day camp to Somerset Lodge and finally their journey at Kamaroi comes to a completion with a graduation dinner.

I asked the students if they were looking forward to high school and the majority are. They all said that they would miss their friends and the strong bonds they have made. They would also miss the beautiful environment, the aesthetics of the classroom and the creative subjects they learn here, but they are excited to embrace the opportunities that high school has to offer.