Advent Fair tonight & tomorrowPlease join us for this lovely seasonal event:

Friday: 7pm-10pmSaturday: 11am-4pm

Our biggest and best event of the year and a great fundraiser for the school.

Come tonight for a lovely social evening and some Christmas shopping.

Come tomorrow for an amazing variety of music, food, cinema and craft.

We look forward to seeing you there!

AUTUMN TerM Friday 6th December 2013

Advent Fair Time!

DATes For yoUr DiAryDecember6th St Nicholas; 7pm Advent Fair Preview 7th Advent Fair12th 7-9.30pm RMM17th KG End of Term Festival; Shepherd’s Play18th 11am Classes End of Term FestivalJanuary6th Workday for parents8th Spring Term begins9th 7-9.30pm RMM14th 8.30am Class Rep’s meeting

January cont. 20th 6-8pm Open Tour

Parents Craft Group Every Wednesday in term time at 10.30am

Parents Choir Every Thursday in term time at 9.30am

Parents Study GroupEvery Friday in term time at 8.45amPlease refer to the website before phoning the office for dates. All dates regarding the school are available at:www.stpaulssteinerschool.org/?page_id=9

school Lifeoberufer shepherd’s Play 17th December at 4.30pm and 6.30pm

Dear Parents and CarersPlease all come to ‘The Shepherds Play’ on Tuesday 17th December. This is a very important part of the children’s experience at Steiner School and the year’s cycle of festivals. Dress warmly as we will be outside for most of the time – wear wellies as we may find mud on our journey!!!

We look forward to seeing you all at this special community event. Jane Akuwudike and the College of Teachers

Oberufer is an island in the Danube, east of Vienna, close to the borders of Hungary. This island was settled by farmers from the Lake Constance region sometime in the 15th Century, and due to the rela-tive isolation of island life, their traditions and folk-ways remained intact for centuries.

One of their traditions was to perform these plays each year. In fall, when the harvest was in, the play-ers were chosen regardless of religious affiliation or status, and received their parts from an esteemed farmer whowould direct the plays for years, and then pass this honorable responsibility on to his son. The songs and words were passed on by word of mouth for generations.

In the middle of the 19th century, a professor from Vienna, Karl Julius Schröer, who was research-ing folklore and regional traditions, discovered the Oberufer Plays. He was charmed and impressed by them and returned a few years later to write down as much as he could. Years later this professor became the teacher and revered friend of Rudolf Steiner.

Towards the end of the 19th century Professor Schröer spoke to Steiner about these plays. His enthusiasm and concern about the possible loss of such precious folkways touched Steiner, who quickly realized their beauty and proceeded to bring order to the sketchy script and the music. In 1910 the first revived performance took place in Berlin, Germany.

From then on, these plays have become part of the Christmas time tradition for many Waldorf schools all over the world. They were first translated by Cecil Harwood, who tried to keep intact the medieval way of speaking — the simple beauty of expression.

Thank youThank you to all the parents that have collected and delivered the beautiful greenery and to the ones that have worked hard to make beautiful Advent Wreaths for each Class and for the Project Space. Thank you for the music at Spiral.It is much appreciated.The College of Teachers.

Workday 6th JanuaryPlease come and join in to welcome and prepare for the new year. This workday is on Monday 6th January before the children start back at school. You can help by cooking something for the lunch for those who come in or by offering childcare so others can attend. Please let your Class Reps know what you can do.Thank you.

st Nicholas VerseUpon his snow white steedWith wind and lightning skySt Nicholas leaves the skyAnd comes a riding by

The little hare hops nighAnd lifts his nose up highThe stag, with pointing hornJumps over bush and thorn

And all the creatures dearAre drawing quickly nearBefore St Nicholas bowTheir little heads so low

But we will learn a tuneOf sun and star and moonAnd sing our happy laySing on St Nicholas day

Class iii: The Bread ChainThe Bread ChainTalking about bread in Class III makes the children interested in the world. Doing the bread with their own hands, and sharing it with the whle school brings them self confidence and tremendous joy.

Daniela Ciurariu, Class III Teacher

Class iii : The Bread Chain

Class Vii: storiesChampdall, the Bad elf When all the little children go to sleep the magical elves come to play. They jump on the bed, they fly around throwing magical fairy dust at the children so that they have sweet dreams. But one little elf called Champdall was a very mischievious and he stole Mum’s bread, threw all the food out of the fridge, dressed up as a monster and whispered bad things into the children’s ears.

Champdall was small, he had pointy ears, nimble hands and fast feet. He caused so much mischief that the elf elders had to make him go on a hundred day trek to the North Pole where Santa would try to give Champdall some discipline. Champdall marched through dry deserts, freezing winters and ice cold tundras.

On his travels he saw many things, huge birds with mighty talons, small moles who dig holes and he saw many children. As he was going through an old school called St Paul’s his sharp eyes saw all the little Kindergarten children playing. He saw the Rosebush children skipping, the Chestnut children playing with the sand, the Appletree’s playing ‘hide and seek’ and he saw the Mulberry Bush children playing houses. His heart grew and all of a sudden he felt happy and his wish to cause mischief left him.

He made a little cabin on The Green and to this day he goes to the little children’s houses to whisper nice things and give them good dreams.

son of superman Once upon a time there was a little boy called John Super. He wore glasses, a shirt and tie and smart trousers. It was a normal day in the Appletree Kindergarten at St Paul’s Steiner School except that John Super was new and he was a very shy boy. But John is not like normal kids, he has super powers! All Steiner kids just want to play so they asked him to get some toys out of the box in the corner. John did not know which ones to get so he lifted up the box and bought it to his new friends. They were amazed at what he had just done. One of the boys called Max asked “How did you do that?”. John did not understand. Max tried to pick up the box but he could not and then John understood, but said nothing. Next he saw a cooking set on the balcony and wanted to play with it so he jumped and floated up onto the balcony. Max and all his friends saw what he had just done and Max asked again “How did you do that?” John did not understand. Max jumped up trying to do what John did but did not get far off the ground and then John understood.

The end of the day was coming near and John Super decided to tell Max and his friends why he could do all these things. He explained that he is Superman’s son and that he could also shoot lasers out of his eyes. Max threw a teddy bear up in the air and John held the side of his head, aimed at the teddy bear and shot a red laser out of his eye, disintergrating the teddy bear.

At the end of the day Max waited behind to see John’s dad and was staring at the gate, willing it to open when he heard a swish. Quickly he turned around and saw him. “Superman!” Max shouted. Su-perman nodded at him, picked up John, jumped into the air and hovered. John shouted goodbye to Max and before Max knew it they were both gone.

The story Teller There once was a hotel that was all you could dream of. Anything you asked for, they would have it. It was in the biggest city in the world - New York - but only the richest of the richest could go there. Every night all the parents would go out for a can-dle-lit dinner.

They left all the kids with the best Story Teller ever; each night he would tell a magical story that always started with “Once upon a time” and ended with “Happily ever after”.

Once he forgot to end the story and strange things happened in the hotel. The story came to life. The Story Teller got sick of happy endings and of all the stories being about fairies, princesses and princes so he turned the story around and made it about the hotel, not knowing what the consequences would be. Things took place like in the story: the hotel chefs went mad and cooked worms in blood instead of spaghetti; crocodiles swam in the pools and cockroaches came out of taps.

The Story Teller was amazed that the story had come to life. The children screamed and shouted, frightened by everything happening in the hotel. “I want my mummy” said a little girl. “I need to fix everything,” said the Story Teller, “before the parents get back!” He tried to tell the rest of the story, but it wasn’t the same because the children were running frantically about and were not enjoying the story.

With difficulty, he calmed the children down, gave them some hot chocolate and made a campfire outside. They all sat around the fire and he told the children the ending of the story. Everything went back to normal and the hotel lived happily ever after.

ex-st Pauls student seeks Work experienceCan You help?

My name is Isaac Bynoe-Newby and I am looking for work experience between 12/05/14 and 16/05/14. This year I graduated from Class 8 at St Pauls Steiner School and I am currently a year 10 student taking a Theatre BTEC and my GCSE’s at The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology. The work experience week is part of Year 10 at the BRIT and students are required to organise the placement themselves.

The work experience I would be most interested in would be something to do with the arts, most preferably theatre-based. I have had experience performing and recently played the main character, ‘’Orlando’’ in our last school play, ‘’As You Like It’’ by William Shakespeare at St Pauls Steiner School. I am also very enthusiastic about music and have performed at weddings and evening events held at The Nave.

I would, however, also be interested in a placement in other areas of work. If you would like a hard-working, young person, willing to learn, in your workplace for a week next May, then please contact me by email: isaacleonbn@gmail.com I need to confirm my placement by early January. Thank you for reading.

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Community Notices

overheardConversation between KG Children about Christmas: “It’s 20 sleeps until Christmas and you know what Santa eats? He is so fat because he eats lots of mince pies!!”

riddleAs soft as silk And furry like a catYet will drink no milkNor sit on your matAppears in spring when the sun is warmAsk the bees before they swarm!

Advent Fair 2013