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Check out the very lovely newsletter sent to Audrey Flynn from Nepal including seminars, Waldorf School etc:
http://www.childrenofnepal.org/newsandevents/newsletter_xmas2008.html

Barn Dance!!!
ALFA is holding a fundraising, hell raising, dust kickin' American style
Barn dance on Friday February 20th in the Mountshannon Hotel.
The OldTimey music is by Moonshine - Lena Ullman banjo, Johnny Moynihan -
accordian, mandolin etc, Brendan Hearty guitar, a fiddle player and the
real deal caller Frank Hall. This is a great night of music and dancing
for all those of you who enjoy a laugh - everyone is a beginner! You
don't need partners - just bring yourself.
The doors open at 9pm and the first dance will be called at 9.30 pm.
Entrance is €10 and there is a bar.

Y'ALL BE THERE!!!

Gentle Rain Theatre Company, Dublin

Paul Brennan reports: It has been an exciting inception year for the company. Eight workshops in the Michael Chekhov technique were held during the course of the year, five introductory, two continuing and one advanced. 

Links were made to the Theatre Forum, the Irish Theatre Institute, Business to Arts and the Michael Chekhov Europe organisation.  

photos by Katie Reynolds

                                                                                 Paul Brennan second from left

Here is an abridged description of the September Michael Chekhov workshop by the Theatre Forum: 

'The goal of these workshops is to bring a new impulse into the theatrical profession in Ireland, and ultimately to establish Gentle Rain as a permanent theatre company working with Michael Chekhov technique.

Newcomers to the technique are led into psycho-physical exercises, improvisatory and ensemble work, to experience a taste of Chekhov’s techniques through the free expression of the creative self.

Course Director Paul Brennan has worked in the theatre as an actor, director and teacher for over thirty years, and has brought Chekhov technique into his productions for the past eight years. He has taught the technique at universities and professional workshops across Ireland'.

Your interest in and support of this promising initiative is crucial to its success. For more information contact Paul Brennan at 

apecf1@eircom.net 

The Cork Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten, located at the Quaker Meeting Hall in Summerhill, South Cork, will be moving to Susies Field, Blackpool, Cork in September. The new kindergarten is designed by the city council. 

The kindergarten provides a warm safe and healthy environment for children to develop strong limbs, sound creative minds and respect for each other. Imaginative play is given plenty of time both indoors and outdoors and each day a different artistic activity, painting, drawing, crafts, modeling and gardening, takes place. Songs, stories and poems are also an integral part of the day.  

Inquiries: Gail Thomas, 021 431 0581 or 087 774 8299

Christmas Events at the Christian Community in Clare
Christmas Eve, December 24th
Gathering at the community house for all at 5 pm
Gathering to celebrate Christmas 11.45 pm
Saturday, January 3rd 8 pm
Schooling Course part II
Sunday, January 4th
Act of Consecration of Man and Children’s Service. Programme to be announced.

Gospel Readings
Sunday, December 14 … Luke 21:25-36
Sunday, December 21 … Luke 21:25-36
Christmas
Thursday, December 25
Midnight … Matthew 1:1-25
Dawn … Luke 2:1-20
Morning … John 21:15-25
Epiphany
Tuesday, January 6 … Matthew 2:1-12
Sunday, January 11 … Matthew 2:1-12
Sunday, January 18 … Luke 2:41-52
Sunday, January 25 … John 2:1-11
Sunday, February 1 … Mark 2:1-13
Sunday, February 8 … Matthew 20: 1-16
Sunday, February 15 … Luke 8: 1-18
Sunday, February 22 … Luke 18:18-34

Rev. Tom Ravetz 22 Baylie Street, Stourbridge West Midlands UK DY8 1AZ

Phone: 0044 1384 377 190 whilst in Ireland: 087 6486617 tom@ravetz.org.uk

Congregational Correspondent
Anne Benhamanne.benham@yahoo.ie
Treasurer
Fred Hannaford fredhan@iol.ieTel: 061 37 53 91The Christian Community,Bank of Ireland,Killcullen, County Kildare,Sort code: 90-11-40Account number: 25600184
Bookings for the House
Agnes Oertel 087 2185560.
Programme/Newssheet
Please send any articles to Anne Benham.

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STEINER WALDORF SCHOOLS FELLOWSHIP
NATIONAL EARLY CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE
(Organized by the Steiner Waldorf Early Years Group SWEYG)
Saturday 22nd November 2008. 9.30-4.00pm at
University of East London, Docklands Campus 4-6 University Way, London E16 2RD

PROGRAMME

9.30 Registration and Coffee
10.00 Singing
Keynote lecture by Joan Almon
Joan Almon was a Waldorf educator of children and teachers for over thirty years. At present she is Chair of the U.S. Alliance for Childhood, which is focused on restoring play to the lives of children.
12.00 Workshops and Discussion groups on the theme
Workshops – Eurythmy, drama, play facilitation, ring time as food for play.
Discussion groups – birth to three, three to six year olds
1.00 Lunch provided at UEL
There will be an SWSF bookshop open during the lunch hour
2.00 Workshops and Discussion groups on the theme
Workshops – Eurythmy, drama, play facilitation, ring time as food for play.
Discussion groups – birth to three, three to six year olds
3.00 Plenum discussion with Joan Almon
4.00 Finish

APPLICATION FORM

NATIONAL EARLY CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE

Saturday 22nd November 2008
Conference fee: £40.00 not refundable - for SWSF members *
Two or more from same setting £30.00 each
Late booking (members) £50.00 after October 31st not refundable
Non members £70.00 not refundable
Late bookings (non members) £80.00 after October 31st not refundable
* Members are those schools & settings in the SWSF directory; conferences are discounted for member schools
Cheques payable to SWSF please send with the booking form
Please return ASAP to: 11 Church Street, Stourbridge DY8 7LT
Phone 01384 374116, fax 01384 374142
admin@steinerwaldorf.org

Setting:

Name(s):

Address:

Email: Home phone:

I enclose a cheque for:

Your booking is not finalized until payment is made so please send payment with application form.
If your setting wishes to apply to the travel fund (amounts over the first £30.00) please tick here and a form will be sent to you.
Please note that all participants will be able to attend one workshop and one discussion group. Please indicate your preferences:
Area of interest for discussion groups – Please tick one

Birth to Three

Three to Six

Order of preference for workshops (please bring soft indoor shoes):

Please indicate 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices
Eurythmy with Eve McGregor
Play facilitation with Penny Tassoni
Drama with Sue Marshall
‘Ring time as food for play’ with Caroline Glas

HEART Course presents: An Introduction to the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading, writing and spelling by Guest Lecturer Wendy Elliot, Friday October 10, 7:30-9:00
Saturday October 11, 10:00-5:30

Wendy Elliot, lecturer at Trinity College and University College Dublin, advisor to the Department of Education and the Irish Dyslexia Association, will present a weekend workshop introducing the Orton Gillingham method.

This approach to reading, writing and spelling instruction is language-based, multisensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive and flexible. These techniques are used often in one-on-one tutorials. An intensive sequential phonics-based system reaches the basics of word formation before whole meanings. The method accommodates and utilizes the three learning modalities, or pathways, through which people learn--visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

Venue: Raheen Wood School, Tuamgrane, County Clare
Cost for the Workshop, including reading pack, vegetarian lunch and snacks: 120.00 Euros

For more information on HEART and/or the Workshop contact vcrombie@gmail.com or call 087 325 9372

Learn to be a Waldorf Teacher

The Waldorf Teacher Training Foundation Year is designed as an orientation year for the kindergarten and class teacher training but it also stands as an autonomous one year introductory course in anthroposophical studies and will be of interest to those looking for an introduction to the work of Rudolf Steiner combined with a foundation course in the arts.

Course Structure
The course takes place at Raheen Wood Steiner School in Tuamgraney, Co.Clare and has the following elements:
• Guided study in a study group.
• 8 weekend sessions starting Friday evening and ending at 5.30pm on Saturday.
• Three 5-day Residential sessions in October/November, April and July, coinciding with school holidays at Halloween, Easter and the summer break.

Dates - 2008/2009
Weekend 1 Fri 12 Sep 7.30-9.30pm; Sat 13Sep 8.30am-5.30pm
Weekend 2: Fri 3rd/Sat 4th October
Weekend 3: Fri 5th/Sat 6th December
Weekend 4: Fri 9th/Sat 10th January
Weekend 5: Fri 6th/Sat 7th February
Weekend 6: Fri 6th/Sat 7th March
Weekend 7: Fri 8th /Sat 9th May
Weekend 8: Fri 5th/Sat 6th June

Week1: Tues 28 Oct - Sat 1 Nov; 8.45am—5.30pm each day
Week 2: Tues 14 - 18 April
Week 3: Tues 30 June - Sat 4 July (this date may change, due to venue availability)

The Venue
The course venue is Raheen Wood Steiner School in Tuamgraney, Co. Clare, on the edge of woodland close to Lough Derg and the 1000 year old Brian Boru oak tree.
Course Fee
The fee for the Foundation Year is €1650

To Apply
To apply for a place, please send a letter of intent, including a short biographical sketch, along with a deposit of €250 (payable to "ECEP") to Early Childhood Education Programme, c/o Ruth Marshall, Ballymacdonnell, Bodyke, County Clare

Email: training@steinerireland.org

The Search for Teachers

"Ballyhall Kindergarten" Ballyhall, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
Our Kindergarten is wishing to employ a Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten teacher from September2008. Ballyhall Kindergarten is set in the picturesque countryside approximately 15km from Kilkenny city in the south east of Ireland.
We are a full day care facility operating Monday – Friday 9am to 2.30pm. We offer a young, positive, friendly and supportive atmosphere. The ideal candidate will have a qualification as a Steiner Waldorf Teacher and be responsible for the care and welfare of children in the kindergarten, working as part of a team.
Fixed term contract from 1st September, 2008 to 31st August, 2009.
If you would like to join our team here at Ballyhall Kindergarten please contact Carol McDonald at 087/9806788 or Brahim Largate at 087/7725725.


Kindergarten Teacher: Kildare Steiner Waldorf School,
Rathargid, Gormanstown, Dunlavin, Co. Kildare
Teacher needed for growing Kindergarten. Current class is full with a waiting list. A Teacher is required to join the current teacher in further developing our group. The ideal candidate would be a trained Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten teacher (or close to training completion), enthusiastic, self-motivated, and able to work well with other teachers. The position would begin in September, 2008 and ideally accommodate additional numbers in the kindergarten leading to two full kindergartens. Our Kindergarten is on our campus, which also includes a primary (lower) Waldorf school, in the lush countryside of County Kildare.
For applications or further information:
Email: info@kildaresteinerschool.org
Web site: kildaresteinerschool.org
Tel: +353 (0)45 401919
Mobile: +353 87 6202783


Assistant: Cork Steiner Kindergarten (February 2008)
The Cork Steiner Kindergarten at Summerhill North, Cork City, is currently looking to recruit an assistant to work with our two kindergarten teachers, starting from September 2008. The ideal candidate will have training in Steiner early childhood education or a strong interest in same with a willingness to undergo training with the support of the kindergarten. As Ireland boasts a wonderful part time teacher training programme this would be a fantastic opportunity for someone to work in a kindergarten while training to be a Steiner kindergarten teacher. For Further details please forward your c.v. with a letter of application to Janemaeve@yahoo.co.uk.

http://www.templehouse.ie/concert/index.htmloncert
Concert in TEMPLE HOUSE, Ballymote, Co. Sligo
Virtuoso flautist Karin Leitner and harpist Krassimira Ziegler
July 11th 8pm
€30.00 to include:
Wine Interval & Concert Recital

The Irish Steiner Kindergarten Association Presents
A Workshop with Helle Heckmannat Mourne Grange, 169 Newry Rd, Kilkeel, Co Down
A Modern Child in a Modern World The needs of todays children and parents.
HELLE HECKMANN is from Copenhagen, Denmark and founder of Nøkken, her child care program for children aged from when they can walk to 7 years, where most of their time is spent out doors. Helle is active in teacher education throughout the world, visiting classrooms and supporting teachers in North and South America, and Europe. Her book, Nøkken, has inspired many early childhood teachers.
Saturday 14th June 08 9.30am-2.30pm Cost: £30 (ISKA members £20)Lunch IncludedBookings-Karin Shea tel: 0044 28 41760104www.steinerireland.org

Sean and Kieran Murphy, two former Waldorf students now living in Kerry have created a beautiful new ice cream cookbook. The Book of Sweet Things is now available on amazon.co.uk as well as in Irish bookshops both North and South.

Last Saturday Johannes Moora from Camphill Glencraig brought two German musicians to Dingle. For the story, click on http://sessionsounds.blogspot.com/

The ALFA Project, Active Learning for Adolescents, Steiner-based, secondary education in Co. Clare,Ireland, seeks to fill the following positions:o One full-time and two part-time experienced teachers of both academic and craft subjects who will carry the work with young people from 13-16. Understanding of Steiner Education essential. o Researcher, who will research 'active learning' and Steiner Education to further the work of Alfa.
For full job descriptions and specs contact; Peggy Boyle, The ALFA Project;Main St., Scarriff; Co Clare, office@alfaproject.org or Tel 353-(0)61- 640798. See our website at www.alfaproject.org

Festival at Raheen Wood School

Last Friday evening, April 25, a group met at the Raheen Wood Steiner School to discuss a teacher training program in Steiner education. The school was decked out for its Spring festival the next days. Here are some photos of the offerings.

Lovely, aren't they?

Gardeners and Growers!
Prelude for the upcoming activities of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association of Ireland (see events list below)

Have you ever hear of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer? As an organic farmer or gardener you might have read one of his books: Grow a Garden & Be Self Sufficient—still the best introduction to organic-biodynamic horticulture. (copies available from the Office of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association, Watergarden Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, €12.50)

Here’s an extract from an article on Pfeiffer by A.W. Martinez, Collier’s, May 31, 1952. (for the full article see http://rotheraine.com/golden_garbage.html):


The City With Golden Garbage?
Trained bacteria, turned loose on the refuse of Oakland, Cal., produce a rich, sweet-smelling fertilizer that’s guaranteed to perform near miracles for farm land. It’s like backyard compost, and it could save the nation billions of dollars.

Dr. Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, German-born biochemist
One morning in October, 1950, two strangers walked into the office of Tony Dalcino, president of the Oakland Scavenger Company, with a proposition that turned Dalcino’s casual smile into a look of utter disbelief. His callers wanted to know whether the company would let them have part of the daily haul of garbage from the city of Oakland, California. They hoped, they said, to put the garbage on an assembly line and sell it!

The two visitors were Richard Stovroff, a young owner of a wastepaper business in Buffalo, New York. The other was Dr. Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, German-born biochemist, holder of an honorary U.S. medical degree, and lifelong experimenter with new ways to grow better food.

Pfeiffer, a tall, robust, pink-cheeked man with an infectious twinkle, explained. In the course of his researches he had discovered a new ‘race” of bacteria which converts garbage into a sweet-smelling black earth fertilizer which could perform virtual miracles for the land. A tablespoon of the bacteria, grown in test tubes, could turn a ton of garbage into rich humus in three weeks.
Pfeiffer told Dalcino: “It costs the American taxpayers a few billion dollars a year when we throw away as garbage the precious minerals and organic material we take out of the soil in the form of food. At the same time it costs farmers nearly $7,000,000,000 a year to put some of these minerals back in the ground in the form of chemical fertilizers. That doesn’t make sense.” He had, he added, decided to do something about it ever since his arrival in the U.S. in 1940 as a refugee from war-ravaged Europe.

In control tests at Pfeiffer’s Biochemical Research Laboratory at Spring Valley, New York, vegetables grown in this converted garbage weighed 25 per cent more than those grown with conventional fertilizers, with from one to three times more vitamin A. The garbage-compost treated soil showed from one to four times as much life-giving nitrogen, and grain showed a consistently higher protein content. Laboratory experiments proved that the mixture could restore even sterile sandy soil to vigorous fertility and make rich farm land out of desert if adequate water was available. The converted garbage restored organic matter, mineral balance and structure, giving soil body, and permitting it to absorb and hold water. The organic matter released a powerful concentration of bacteria whose digestive activities and decay created plant foods, soil-binding humus and released nitrogen.

Alas, the city of Oakland did not take Pfeiffer up on his offer. Now, half a century on, have we moved on, or found anything better?

We invite everyone interested in learning more about Pfeiffer’s biodynamic approach to composting farmyard manure and barrel composting to participate under the Skillnet programme at the following venues and events:

11 AM – 4 PM on each of the following dates:
May 9, June 6, and July 4, plus a date in September to be confirmed,
at Camphill Jerpoint, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny
or
May 16, June 13, and July 11 plus a date in September to be confirmed
at John McDonnell’s farm, Shalvanstown Organics,
Slane, Co Meath

We will also assess the state of the compost via microscopy in order to establish the soil-food-web and create “Barrel Compost” the backyard gardeners gold ! Please bring appropriate clothing, overalls, boots, (a dungfork if you can)

Registration prior to the events essential at the BdAAI office

We look forward to seeing you all, as we will hardly have another 50 years to move to a sustainable agriculture!

-- Michael Miklis, Biodynamic Agricultural Association in Ireland, Watergarden, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, Tel. / Fax. 056-7754214, Email bdaai@indigo.ie
Website www.biodynamic.ie