WEEKLY LEAFLET 7
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This week’s leaflet opens with an editorial from our Afrikaans teacher, Hayley Africa, who reflects on the living, joyful approach to language at our school. From playful songs and poems in the lower primary to the gentle introduction of grammar in the upper primary.
We also highlight the Founders Day outings that took place on Friday, when many of our classes spent time together beyond the classroom, enjoying the outdoors and one another’s company. In addition, we take a closer look at the life of Rudolf Steiner, whose work continues to inspire the educational approach of Waldorf schools around the world, and the College of Teachers share reflections and feedback on the 2025 Fair.
I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!
Warm regards,
Kyle Snapper
Marketing
Below is an overview of the meetings, events, and activities happening around the school next week.
11
March
PS Parent Forum Working Group
2:00pm to 4:00pm
Primary school parent forum members meeting in the big meeting room.
12
March
Kidz Lit Quiz
2:00pm to 5:30pm
English quiz for the selected Class 6 students at Grove Primary School.
13
March
Market Day
12:30pm to 3:00pm
Our weekly market takes place every Friday at the school entrance.
14
March
KG Fairy Tea Garden
9:00am to 11:00am
A free Open Morning of stories, crafts and fun, taking place in the Kindergarten, Please invite your pre-school parent friends.
Kom ons praat weer Afrikaans!
Kom ons gee die tong van ons
‘n kans
om weer te dans,
loshande te hang
oor die krans.
Kom ons laat die woorde klank,
woorde vir so lank
afgemaak as mank
Let tog wel
dat ek niemand wil vertel
van hoe die taal
‘n genade dood moet sterf,
sal sterf
wil sterf.
Wragtig nee!
Daar was onreg in die naam van hierdie taal gepleeg
ons kan dit nie onder die mat inveeg
Ek staan op geen verhoog
om te betoog
dat ek met elke dialoog
net wil sien met ‘n een-taal-oog!
Maar om hierdie taal te weeg
teenoor die onregte gepleeg
maak nie sin
want net sekeres het die taal gebruik
vir eie gewin.
Ander het die taal met moedersmelk ingekry,
het selfs hulle bevrydingstryd in hierdie taal gestry!
Ons kan dit nie vermy,
Afrikaans sal in ons gene bly!
Kom ons praat weer Afrikaans,
laat ons kinders dans,
loshande hang oor die krans
met onverbeterlike balans.
Kom ons vat die kans.
Kom ons praat weer Afrikaans!
Dr Diana Ferrus (29 Augustus 1953 –30 Januarie 2026)
At our school, the teaching and learning of Afrikaans form part of a living, breathing approach to education. Language is not presented merely as a subject, but as an experience of rhythm, culture, and human connection.
In the lower primary years, Afrikaans is introduced in an immersive and joyful way. Through songs, poems, verses, movement and games, our children’s tongues are given the freedom to explore new sounds and words. This rich variety of experiences allows them to absorb the rhythm, melody and character of the language in a natural and playful manner.
As our children grow into the upper primary, a gentle transition takes place. Once the language is already alive within them, grammar and formal structures are gradually introduced. In this way, understanding arises from experience, and the foundations laid in the early years blossom into confident and conscious language use.
Dr Ferrus, in her poem Kom ons praat weer Afrikaans invites us to speak Afrikaans again, to give our tongues the opportunity to dance again. As you have engaged with your children in Afrikaans – helping the Class 5 child formulate a rhyming couplet, helping your child practise their Afrikaans oral or singing Kop, skouers, knieë, tone with your lower primary child, you have allowed your tongues to dance. Unknowingly you have partnered with us in accepting the invitation extended to us in the last stanza:
Kom ons praat weer Afrikaans,
laat ons kinders dans,
loshande hang oor die krans
met onverbeterlike balans.
Kom ons vat die kans.
Kom ons praat weer Afrikaans!
Hayley Africa
Afrikaans: Class 1 – Class 5
The Michael Oak community is invited to help transform the school library into a warm and magical space for children to enjoy. Donations of furniture, cushions, rugs, plants, and books are welcome, and volunteers are invited to join the Library Work Party on Saturday, 7 March from 10am–2pm to help clean, sort, and beautify the space. For more information, or to contribute items, please contact Mary on 074 687 8963.
Mark your calendars and keep an eye out for what’s coming up at Michael Oak.
Kindergarten Fairy Tea Garden
14 March
Upcoming Crafting Days
See poster for dates
Dads, Dudes and Kids Camp
27 to 29 March
Big Walk
9 May
The High School spent Founder’s Day at Fish Hoek Beach, enjoying a relaxed and fun morning together by the sea. It was a great chance for everyone to step away from their usual routine and simply spend time as a group.
There were lively games of volleyball on the sand, plenty of swimming in the ocean, and ice cream all around. It was an easy, happy outing and a good reminder of how important it is to make space for connection and shared experiences.
For their Founders Day outing, the upper primary (classes 4, 5, 6 and 7) took the train to Muizenberg for a day together by the sea. Travelling by train added a sense of adventure to the outing as the children made their way along the coast. Once in Muizenberg, they spent time on the beach enjoying the fresh ocean air and the wide open space. The outing ended with great excitement at the Muizenberg water slides, where the children had the chance to play, laugh and cool off together before returning to school.
In our Kindergarten, painting is a quiet, joyful time where children can let their creativity flow. With brushes, colour and paper in front of them, they are free to explore and paint whatever sparks their imagination. At this age, it’s not about making a perfect picture, but about enjoying the experience of working with colour, movement and feeling.
This freedom helps children grow in confidence and creativity, and gently nurtures their natural connection to artistic expression. Painting becomes a space where each child can explore the world of colour in their own way, letting imagination and inner visions unfold freely.
In the Kindergarten we hold the young child in reverence as a being of body, soul and spirit. Anthroposophy reminds us that in the first seven years the child is primarily a being of will. The life forces are devoted to the sacred task of building and forming the physical body which is such a beautiful and humbling unfolding to witness I found as I watched my five children grow through the Kindergarten years. It’s as if every movement, every gesture of imitation and every sensory experience is nourishment for this unseen architecture of growth.
For this reason in Kindergarten the days are shaped by harmonious, predictable rhythm. Rhythm protects the etheric body, strengthens the life forces and allows the child to rest inwardly, even while actively engaged in the world while so much is happening.
Each morning unfolds in a breathing pattern of contraction and expansion. I loved this concept when I first heard of it and I immediately resonated with the calm and stability I could sense it would bring to the inner being of my children. Purposeful work followed by imaginative play or story followed by outdoor movement for example. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out.
A Waldorf Kindergarten strives to ensure that what surrounds the child in tone, movement, mood, activity and aesthetics is worthy of imitation and it is a deeply moving space to be in, as I’m sure all our Kindergarten parents can affirm. Something is profoundly felt.
As we shared recently here in The Leaflet, story is offered not as entertainment but as nourishment for the life of feeling within the child and as a tool to intensely stretch imagination. Archetypal images speak directly to the heart, bypassing intellectual explanation. We trust that these living pictures sink deeply, strengthening the inner life and planting seeds of moral imagination.
In watercolour painting, which the classes partake in weekly, the children encounter colour as a living being. Blue, yellow and red are experienced as qualities such as coolness, warmth and light before they are ever named. Green arises as a quiet revelation when blue and yellow meet. In these simple encounters, the children experience wonder which is the foundation of later thinking.
Outdoors the will streams into their little limbs. Climbing, digging, balancing and carrying strengthen the physical body while the inner world is enlivened through contact with earth, air and light. Free play allows imagination (which I often think of as a bridge between body and spirit) to unfold organically.
In a world that I sadly see hastening childhood toward abstraction, the Waldorf Kindergarten protects this first great developmental threshold. Here we seek to guard the sanctity of early childhood, allowing the foundations of resilience, creativity, imagination and inner freedom to be quietly and rightfully laid.
We thank you for entrusting us with this sacred beginning here in our Michael Oak Kindergarten.
In warmth,
Ginny Johnstone
Acting Marketing Coordinator & Waldorf Mama
A huge congratulations to Class 6 of 2025 for organising last year’s Fair, A Medieval Delight! What a wonderful achievement, made possible by the dedication, creativity and hard work of our learners, parents and the whole school community. Last year’s Fair made a remarkable profit of R140 000, a testament to what we can accomplish when we come together in true community spirit. Thank you to everyone who contributed their time, energy and wonderful creative gifts to make it such a success.
– The College of Teachers
Last Friday, 27 February, marked the 145th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s birth. In honour of this occasion, it feels fitting to pause and learn more about the life and work of the man whose vision continues to shape our school. The following article is based on a piece by John Davy. Click here to read the full article.
Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was a visionary philosopher, educator, scientist, artist, and spiritual thinker whose ideas have shaped education, agriculture, social reform, medicine, the arts, and spiritual inquiry for well over a century. Born on 27 February 1861 in what was then the Austrian Empire (today part of Croatia), Steiner lived through a period of immense cultural and intellectual transformation in Europe, and his work reflects a deep engagement with both science and spirit.
Steiner’s lifelong work was driven by a desire to understand the nature of human consciousness and our place in the world. Early in his intellectual life he was drawn to the writings of Goethe and became deeply involved in editing Goethe’s scientific works. His exploration of philosophy, science, and inner experience eventually led him to develop a spiritual-scientific worldview he called anthroposophy — a term meaning “wisdom of the human being” — which proposes that through disciplined thought and inner development, people can perceive deeper spiritual realities.
At the heart of Steiner’s work was the conviction that human beings are not merely material creatures, but beings with spiritual potential. He believed that modern life’s focus on the material world had obscured our deeper capacities and that a renewed understanding of human consciousness could help people live more creatively, ethically, and meaningfully in the world.
Steiner was not only a thinker but also a builder of institutions and practices that brought his ideas into everyday life. In 1913 he founded the Anthroposophical Society, which became the organizational home for his spiritual and cultural work. Around the same time, he began to weave artistic expression into his vision, including the development of eurythmy (a movement art that makes speech and music visible) and four Mystery Plays that explored human and spiritual evolution.
One of Steiner’s most enduring practical legacies is the Waldorf education movement, which grew out of his collaboration with Emil Molt to open the first Waldorf school in 1919. These schools emphasise holistic development — intellectual, artistic, and practical — and today exist across the globe, continuing Steiner’s aim of nurturing free, creative, and socially engaged individuals.
He also designed the Goetheanum, an extraordinary architectural and cultural centre in Dornach, Switzerland, intended as a home for anthroposophical work in the arts and sciences. Though the original wooden building was lost to fire in 1922, its successor stands today as a vibrant hub of artistic and spiritual activity.
Steiner’s written and spoken output was vast — encompassing philosophical works like The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, lectures on spiritual science, plays, essays on human development, and practical guides for fields such as agriculture (biodynamics) and social reform. He passed away on 30 March 1925 in Dornach, leaving behind a diverse and influential body of thought and practice.
Despite the wide-ranging impact of his ideas, Steiner remains a complex and sometimes controversial figure. His spiritual perspectives — rooted in both Western esoteric traditions and rigorous intellectual inquiry — continue to inspire some and challenge others. What is undeniable is that his work has fostered deep and lasting movements in education, culture, and human development that extend far beyond his lifetime.
We are constantly striving to make the Leaflet a more vibrant and meaningful way for our community to connect, share, and celebrate the life of our school. Your thoughts, stories, and contributions help us shape each edition, ensuring it reflects the creativity, warmth, and spirit of everyone involved. Whether you have feedback to share or an article to submit, your voice is an important part of making the Leaflet a true reflection of our community.
We Wish You All A Wonderful Week Ahead!!
Extramural art classes continue at Michael Oak this term, offering a space for children to explore a wide range of creative projects, from drawing and painting to clay and mixed media. Classes take place on Friday afternoons at the school, with additional sessions available in Constantia. Open to various age groups, the programme encourages creativity, confidence and enjoyment of art. Contact Sue for more information or to enrol.
Join The Makery for a fun opportunity to dive into hands-on crafts this term. These weekly hour-long lessons are perfect for ages 6 and up, hosted at Michael Oak Waldorf School. Come make, create, and explore.
Join Dr. Leah Murray and Coach Diane Schallert for Healing in Motion, a transformative event hosted by Stronger Together Cape Town.
🗓️ Date: 10 May
⏰ Time: 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM
💰 price: R400
A series of Eurythmy classes exploring the timeless emotional themes found in Shakespeare’s works, including sorrow, grief, loss, and friendship. Through movement and expression, participants will engage with Shakespeare’s poetry in a reflective and artistic way while developing greater awareness, connection, and creativity in a supportive group setting.
Our trusted household helper has been part of our family for over 20 years and helped raise my two daughters, both of whom attended Michael Oak. She is a wonderful childminder, familiar with the Waldorf ethos, and prepares delicious meals, including vegetarian options.
With the children now grown, she is looking for one additional day of work. As we have lived across the road from the school for many years, she is well known within the community.
For more information, please contact Dudu – 083 595 3242, or Catherine – 076 932 9957 for a reference.
Join our nurturing Waldorf kindergarten community part-time! We’re looking for a warm, reliable Assistant Teacher to work alongside our lead teacher on Thursdays and Fridays. If you bring a genuine love for young children, a rhythmic, calm presence, and flexibility for occasional relief and school events, you’ll feel right at home. Become part of a supportive, nature-inspired team at Imhoff Waldorf School.
Parenting in the Digital Age
The DSK looks forward to hosting another public talk with The Digital Law Company and Emma Sadleir on 21 April 2026 at 18h00:
Parenting in the Digital Age – advice, guidance and education in all aspects of social media and the law.
Everything you need to know to survive about raising children in an online world – the laws, the apps, the issues.
For more than 20 years the Young Men & Women in Michael Oak’s Class 10 have stepped out of their usual world and into a week of adventure. A time where they can look back to see where they’ve come from (roots), inside to see who they are (heart) and ahead to imagine possibilities (wings).
This experience comes at a point in the curriculum where they have already started looking for answers which many of us are still searching for. The Roots, Hearts & Wings Adventure (RHWA) is an opportunity to take a courageous step into an understanding of ourselves and those around us.
Through all these years a constantly refreshed and trained team of volunteers from the school community (parents, teachers and alumni) has welcomed them into this safe space for growth and friendship. The magic lies in that the answers do not sit in any one of us, rather they are assembled out of all of our stories.
If you are interested in contributing to or being part of the RHWA team, then please contact the Class 10 Guardians (Caleb Gallant & Victoria Sigalas), or Roy Davids, to find out more and put yourself forward.
Caleb – cgallant@michaeloak.org.za
Victoria – vsigalas@michaeloak.org.za
Roy – rdavids@michaeloak.org.za
Safe, supportive morning vocal sessions for women. No singing experience needed. Build confidence, express yourself freely, and feel truly heard. See attached poster for details and contact Cindy at 072 210 9269.
An intensive course over 7 weeks where participants immerse themselves in the Theory U Four Levels of Listening. Learn to hold space for empathic and generative listening through awareness-based practices, conversation, embodying, and journaling to enhance the quality of relationship in life and work.
Learn the art of unconditional love – for yourself and others. Join Brian Grimley in a year-long journey of heart, healing, and connection. Blossom begins 14 April 2026.
Thomas Yohane (nephew of Chatama, a former Michael Oak gardener), a Malawian gardener, is fit, hardworking and available for work on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
For a reference, please speak with Jean Cohen, piano teacher at Michael Oak, or WhatsApp her on 072 348 1860.
SCETT will host a lecture on Eurythmy Therapy with therapists Norman Kingeter and Rob Schapink. The talk explores the origins of this healing movement practice developed at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Switzerland. For workshop enquiries or registration contact:
Julia O’Leary ( juliaoleary021@gmail.com)
or Liz Smith (liz@quella.co.za).
A gentle yet powerful retreat for anyone willing to explore life’s big questions around meaning, mortality, and healing. Through creative processes, meditation, and group work, you’ll be supported to turn toward what we often avoid – and discover unexpected depth, spaciousness, and aliveness.
Dates: 30 & 31 May 2026, 9am–5.30pm
Location: Castle Rock, Simon’s Town
Cost: R2500 (early bird extended to 13 April)
Payment options: subsidised spaces, exchanges, or payment plan (R1000/month for March–May)
Contact to book or request support: groups@presenceinaction.co.za
Dharma is Michael Warldorf Alumni and studied at Centre for Creative Education, graduating as an Early Childhood Development teacher.
She offers music theory lessons to compliment the students that are already learning an instrument at MO.
Call: 071 776 0612
What's the difference between spring rolls and summer rolls?
Their seasoning.
