Sophia Mundi Steiner School Profile Page
Sophia Mundi Steiner School
1 St Heliers Street
Abbotsford
Vic
3067
03 9419 9229
Melbourne Metro
|
Profile
MAIN DETAILS
Non-denominational
Prep to Year 12
$9,100p.a. to $12,400p.a. total fees including compulsory levies
No
Jennifer West
Co-educational
200
No
OVERVIEW Sophia Mundi Steiner School is situated amongst beautiful and peaceful surroundings of the natural bushland overlooking the Yarra River and the Collingwood Children’s Farm in Abbotsford, an inner city suburb of Melbourne. At Sophia Mundi Steiner School we aim to provide an education program of the highest quality, fostering healthy development in each individual child, providing our students with values that will enable them to find meaning and purpose in their life and also provide them with the knowledge, skills and means to work competently in this modern world. We provide a culturally rich, broadly based and integrated curriculum (Prep to Class 12) and balance academic, artistic and practical learning experiences.
PREP -The journey begins in Prep where children comfortably make the step from home and family life into a wider community. Our education offers time for the children’s development to take place in a natural and healthy way, helping them build the strong foundation that will carry them through the whole of their lives. Experience has shown that children who have had this opportunity are well prepared for primary school.
PRIMARY - In the first two years, time is given to build secure foundations for Literacy and Numeracy and interest in the world. During these years the children’s powers of understanding and memory are ready for more direct teaching of subjects, including writing, reading and arithmetic.
SECONDARY - It is here that we see the result of our program, a graduate student with a unique relationship to learning: one which will enable them to participate confidently and enthusiastically in any further study or vocation that they may wish to embark on in the future. We now have students studying their chosen subjects at RMIT, La Trobe, Swinburne, Monash and Victoria University.
SENIOR SECONDARY - Sophia Mundi is an Accredited International Baccalaureate World School, offering the IB Diploma Programme in years 11 and 12. The Diploma Programme is a great fit with the Steiner Curriculum from Prep to year 10 - both curricula develop and work with the whole child and the Steiner emphasis on independent learning sets our students up ready to excel in the IB Programme.
WELCOME
Be inspired and experience the wonder of a Steiner education at Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abbotsford, a unique and wonderful inner city school in Melbourne. At Sophia Mundi we are proud to be offering a Steiner education that has been operating for 25 years. The journey at Sophia Mundi allows children to fully experience the joys and mysteries of childhood and also awakens their thinking and imagination. We strive to educate the whole human being through the harmonious working of not only the head, but also the heart and hand, educating the child as a being of body, soul and spirit. The aim of the journey at Sophia Mundi School is the formation of young adults who can think, judge and act freely and responsibly through their strength of individuality.
Be inspired and experience the wonder of a Steiner education at Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abbotsford, a unique and wonderful inner city school in Melbourne. At Sophia Mundi we are proud to be offering a Steiner education that has been operating for 25 years. The journey at Sophia Mundi allows children to fully experience the joys and mysteries of childhood and also awakens their thinking and imagination. We strive to educate the whole human being through the harmonious working of not only the head, but also the heart and hand, educating the child as a being of body, soul and spirit. The aim of the journey at Sophia Mundi School is the formation of young adults who can think, judge and act freely and responsibly through their strength of individuality.
FACILITIES
A range of facilities are offered at Sophia Mundi Steiner School beginning with the Playgroups and Prep each having their own rooms and a beautiful garden for the children to play in which is filled with lots of adventure and a wonderful sandpit. There is also a wooden climbing frame, swings and a large enclosure for rabbits and chickens.
The Primary School Campus is part of the arts, culture and education precinct at the historic Abbotsford Convent site and overlooks the Collingwood Children’s Farm and the Yarra River, offering a natural and beautiful environment to educate our children in and a perfect backdrop to our large outdoor play areas. In addition to our classrooms and outdoor play areas, the Primary Campus has a fully equipped library, music rooms and a eurythmy room that is also used for concerts and performances.
At our High School Campus, also located at the Abbotsford Convent, you will find many facilities that include science labs, art rooms (including a pottery room and kiln), computer room, music rooms, woodwork/metalwork room, canteen/kitchen and a fully equipped library.
A range of facilities are offered at Sophia Mundi Steiner School beginning with the Playgroups and Prep each having their own rooms and a beautiful garden for the children to play in which is filled with lots of adventure and a wonderful sandpit. There is also a wooden climbing frame, swings and a large enclosure for rabbits and chickens.
The Primary School Campus is part of the arts, culture and education precinct at the historic Abbotsford Convent site and overlooks the Collingwood Children’s Farm and the Yarra River, offering a natural and beautiful environment to educate our children in and a perfect backdrop to our large outdoor play areas. In addition to our classrooms and outdoor play areas, the Primary Campus has a fully equipped library, music rooms and a eurythmy room that is also used for concerts and performances.
At our High School Campus, also located at the Abbotsford Convent, you will find many facilities that include science labs, art rooms (including a pottery room and kiln), computer room, music rooms, woodwork/metalwork room, canteen/kitchen and a fully equipped library.
A RICH CURRICULUM
“Our overall purpose must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives”. Rudolf Steiner
Centred at the Steiner curriculum is commitment to preparing young people for their future vocation, enabling them to take their place in the adult world with a sense of constructive purpose as creative, focused, reliable and multi-skilled individuals.
Why writing precedes reading in a Steiner school
Many aspects of the schooling - form drawing, handwork, French, eurythmy, etc. - help to foster the children’s development for reading. The children learn the letterforms through stories and pictures given by their Class Teacher. Writing precedes reading. The children write words and read their own writing before working with printed literature. We aim to share the finest literature with the students, appropriate to their age. A rich experience of language from early childhood leads to the development of creative and articulate writers and readers. Parents and grandparents unaware of this difference in approach may become concerned about this delay in reading fluency. The delay is a conscious one. The difference in approach is worthwhile.
Mathematics is experiential and creative
An understanding of numbers is built at first on the basis of concrete, real-life tasks. Technology is used as a tool to aid thinking, not as an end in itself.
Science
Science exercises the powers of observation and thinking. Biology, Geology, Climatology, Chemistry and Physics all proceed on the basis of considered study of observed phenomena - free of prejudice, opinion and emotion. Research is based on sound methodical foundations.
Music
Students in the Primary School sing and play recorder in class every day. From Class 3 all students learn a stringed instrument (violin, viola or cello) and from Class 4 participate in one of the various orchestras and ensembles. From Class 7, students may choose to take up another instrument including woodwind, percussion, voice, piano or guitar.
Drama
Even in the youngest classes, plays are an important activity. In the Secondary School drama is developed more formally, with students creating productions around the theme of their year.
Eurythmy
Eurythmy works with language and music to give expression to the invisible aspects of these art forms. Eurythmy fosters the development of body and spatial awareness through individual and group experiences.
French
French is introduced with an emphasis on conversation - learning through doing: singing, reciting and games. Reading, writing and grammar are progressively introduced. We attempt to foster in the students a feeling for the special character of a language and of the people who speak it.
Art & Craft
An integrated curriculum of activities moves from sewing, knitting to weaving and felting in the upper Primary School. Natural materials of wool and silk are used and children make costumes for plays. Woodwork and clay modelling develops in Secondary School and painting and drawing begin to be taught as separate disciplines from Class 7 onwards, eg. Perspective drawing, black and white drawing, as are printmaking, photography and sculpture.
Physical Education & Sports
Games such as skipping, rope games and ball games are built in to the day with the Class Teacher. The nearby parklands allow for activities requiring more space. From Class 4 onwards children have lessons with a specialist teacher. The emphasis is on developing all-round skills, coordination and fitness through a program of swimming, athletics, dancing, gymnastics and team games.
Outdoor Education
The Outdoor Education programme is sequentially designed to suit the child’s developmental stage. The programme begins in Class 3 with a short, simple and comfortable camp close to Melbourne. As the child grows, they are challenged by more distant and longer trips. During the Primary classes, the children will experience two camps each year, one being strongly linked to classroom curriculum and the other to outdoor education curriculum.
When the child enters the Secondary School, they take on extra responsibilities. These older children, almost adults, are in a position of fully interacting with the world. The learning from Outdoor Education aims at ensuring this interaction with the outer world is positive for the child.
Curriculum for Classes 11 and 12
Sophia Mundi is an International Baccalaureate World School, offering the IB Diploma Programme in years 11 and 12. Sophia Mundi also offers the VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) as an alternative. Classes 11 and 12 are presented in a Steiner Main Lesson format, but cover the IB or VCAL curriculum. The IB Diploma Programme is a natural fit with the Steiner Curriculum up to the end of class 10.
An IB Diploma is an international qualification and tertiary pathway which enables students to apply for University entrance in Australia and internationally.
We now have students studying their chosen subjects at RMIT, La Trobe, Swinburne, Monash and Victoria University.
“Our overall purpose must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives”. Rudolf Steiner
Centred at the Steiner curriculum is commitment to preparing young people for their future vocation, enabling them to take their place in the adult world with a sense of constructive purpose as creative, focused, reliable and multi-skilled individuals.
Why writing precedes reading in a Steiner school
Many aspects of the schooling - form drawing, handwork, French, eurythmy, etc. - help to foster the children’s development for reading. The children learn the letterforms through stories and pictures given by their Class Teacher. Writing precedes reading. The children write words and read their own writing before working with printed literature. We aim to share the finest literature with the students, appropriate to their age. A rich experience of language from early childhood leads to the development of creative and articulate writers and readers. Parents and grandparents unaware of this difference in approach may become concerned about this delay in reading fluency. The delay is a conscious one. The difference in approach is worthwhile.
Mathematics is experiential and creative
An understanding of numbers is built at first on the basis of concrete, real-life tasks. Technology is used as a tool to aid thinking, not as an end in itself.
Science
Science exercises the powers of observation and thinking. Biology, Geology, Climatology, Chemistry and Physics all proceed on the basis of considered study of observed phenomena - free of prejudice, opinion and emotion. Research is based on sound methodical foundations.
Music
Students in the Primary School sing and play recorder in class every day. From Class 3 all students learn a stringed instrument (violin, viola or cello) and from Class 4 participate in one of the various orchestras and ensembles. From Class 7, students may choose to take up another instrument including woodwind, percussion, voice, piano or guitar.
Drama
Even in the youngest classes, plays are an important activity. In the Secondary School drama is developed more formally, with students creating productions around the theme of their year.
Eurythmy
Eurythmy works with language and music to give expression to the invisible aspects of these art forms. Eurythmy fosters the development of body and spatial awareness through individual and group experiences.
French
French is introduced with an emphasis on conversation - learning through doing: singing, reciting and games. Reading, writing and grammar are progressively introduced. We attempt to foster in the students a feeling for the special character of a language and of the people who speak it.
Art & Craft
An integrated curriculum of activities moves from sewing, knitting to weaving and felting in the upper Primary School. Natural materials of wool and silk are used and children make costumes for plays. Woodwork and clay modelling develops in Secondary School and painting and drawing begin to be taught as separate disciplines from Class 7 onwards, eg. Perspective drawing, black and white drawing, as are printmaking, photography and sculpture.
Physical Education & Sports
Games such as skipping, rope games and ball games are built in to the day with the Class Teacher. The nearby parklands allow for activities requiring more space. From Class 4 onwards children have lessons with a specialist teacher. The emphasis is on developing all-round skills, coordination and fitness through a program of swimming, athletics, dancing, gymnastics and team games.
Outdoor Education
The Outdoor Education programme is sequentially designed to suit the child’s developmental stage. The programme begins in Class 3 with a short, simple and comfortable camp close to Melbourne. As the child grows, they are challenged by more distant and longer trips. During the Primary classes, the children will experience two camps each year, one being strongly linked to classroom curriculum and the other to outdoor education curriculum.
When the child enters the Secondary School, they take on extra responsibilities. These older children, almost adults, are in a position of fully interacting with the world. The learning from Outdoor Education aims at ensuring this interaction with the outer world is positive for the child.
Curriculum for Classes 11 and 12
Sophia Mundi is an International Baccalaureate World School, offering the IB Diploma Programme in years 11 and 12. Sophia Mundi also offers the VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) as an alternative. Classes 11 and 12 are presented in a Steiner Main Lesson format, but cover the IB or VCAL curriculum. The IB Diploma Programme is a natural fit with the Steiner Curriculum up to the end of class 10.
An IB Diploma is an international qualification and tertiary pathway which enables students to apply for University entrance in Australia and internationally.
We now have students studying their chosen subjects at RMIT, La Trobe, Swinburne, Monash and Victoria University.
Principal's Message
Sophia Mundi is an independent, non-denominational and co-educational inner city Steiner school offering an affordable, enriching educational pathway from Early Childhood to Senior Secondary. We are located on a five-acre campus in inner city Melbourne within the beautiful and safe surrounds of the Abbotsford Convent, adjacent to the Collingwood Children's Farm. We are a not-for-profit organization, a member of Steiner Education Australia, and an International Baccalaureate World School, offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma, starting at year 11 in 2012. We are the the first school in Australia to offer the unique combination of a Steiner curriculum and the International Baccalaureate.
Sophia Mundi’s senior school has recently moved from our Nicholson St campus to join the primary school at the St Mary’s campus within the Abbotsford Convent. We are now preparing to construct four new classrooms and new science laboratories to replace what we have previously used at Nicholson St. The Prep classroom and prep garden will also move from Nicholson St early in the 2012 year.
We look forward to meeting you at one of our regular school tours, which are held on the first Tuesday of each month. Prep tours are held on the first Friday of each month.
Jennifer West, Principal
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