Middle School

Class 7 and 8
13–14-Year-olds

THE AWAKENING OF THE INTELLECT

As children become adolescents, their faculties for abstract reasoning are growing and the curriculum becomes more academic in response. Material is brought to the students in real-world physical scenarios and artistically-enriched ways. Our middle school curriculum stresses practical knowledge and creativity. Our graduates integrate thinking; assimilate information as opposed to memorising isolated facts; they are flexible, creative, and willing to take intellectual risks.

Whether the activity is studying and performing a Shakespearean play, tending to the Garden, lifting a car with the power of pulleys, learning to use a sewing machine, walking with camels or hiking along the Larapinta, the students engage in a holistic education designed to stretch their capacities and challenge them in a variety of different ways.

Each year level in middle school has a Class Guardian that stays with each class to provide the group with security and continuity of care. The Class Guardian begins and closes each day with a variety of activities such as a bushwalk, games, or movement and music. Throughout the day subjects are taught by a subject specialist who are passionate about their area of expertise.

Extending to Class 9 in 2025

We are delighted to announce the development of the new Middle School buildings in 2024. Our middle school will have its own purpose built classrooms and facilities, on our existing campus. These building will include classrooms, an outdoor handwork space and ablution block. Students in Central Australia will now have access to high quality middle school Steiner education in excellent facilities. This development will enhance our holistic learning environment that fosters the human spirit, social consciousness and citizenship in young adults.

The Main Lesson

The Main Lesson is a unique element in Steiner education. Each morning for 3-5 weeks, every year level in the middle school learns about one ‘big idea’. In this block of time, teachers and students explore in great depth one large topic, ranging from Shakespeare to Optics & Electricity.

Our Main Lessons tell the story of humanity and our journey over epochs from the ancient consciousness of legends to how we think in the contemporary world. The Main Lessons give every student a connection with the narrative that is Our Story, the human story, locating each student in a living tradition.

Outdoor Education

Our Outdoor Education program aims to change every students expectation of a 'school camp' from something regular to something unforgettable, sometimes even life changing. With Central & Northern Australia at our fingertips our students sleep under the stars, see the beauty in native flowers and bees, and stretch themselves beyond the everyday.

Technology and media

The teaching of Information Technology (computers) commences in Class 7 as students develop the capacity to understand both the operational aspects of technological devices and how to properly manage the various demands that technology places upon us in our modern lives.

Students start by learning about mechanical aspects of how a computer works and develop skills such as touch typing and desktop publishing. Later, students learn about the current digital revolution and how it is reshaping our lives, as well as how to evaluate a source for validity and the importance of curating our personal online spaces when utilising social media.

Our students learn to appreciate and utilise technology as a useful tool, while remaining mindful of its capacity to dominate our lives.

The Middle School Curriculum

Class 7

The students are becoming accustomed to a whole new way of learning in middle school, with new teachers, in a new space and sometimes new peers. It is a time of great transformation as they grapple with changing and developing mindsets and maturing bodies. It is a time that requires courage and a willingness to venture forth and try new things. Camps explore areas of local beauty and encourage students to surpass their own expectations. Maths and sciences engage the students with activities that get them to observe and quantify the world around them.

Class 8

Traditionally the year students turned 14 was important, as it was a time when apprenticeships began. And it’s important to mark this time with a number of milestones and challenges to overcome in the student’s journey towards adulthood. It is also a time of grappling with concepts of self-identity. In response to these inner developments, the curriculum offers the students the chance to perform in a Shakespearean production, - working as a team to achieve something that can seem quite daunting from the outset. Another such milestone is the Class 8 Project where students pursue an interest they are passionate about and then share what they learnt with their peers and school community.

Class 9

Is a time of great energy, strong emotions and strong opinions. In response to this students are presented with the world in a plethora of different ways. The students engage in a number of camps to be out in the natural world. Complex concepts such as the refugee crisis are explored and examined, and questions of morality, freedom, justice and equality are studied through the lens of 20th Century History. It is a time of profound change and dramatic upheaval.

More pages in this section