January 24, 2011

Hi, I thought I’d do again as I did last year, seeing I got away with it then, and plagiarise a kind of newsletter I sent to parents recently. It was a personal perspective on the year at Candlebark just concluded, followed by some comments on the school year about to begin. So I’ll reproduce […]

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June 7, 2010 Refugee Week

REFUGEE WEEK Refugee Week is coming up very soon, but it’s in danger of being crowded out by other slightly less worthwhile campaigns, like Avocado Awareness month, Painted Toenails Day, and Don’t Take Your Hamster to School Week.   I don’t mean to devalue avocados or hamsters — oh dammit, let’s not beat around the […]

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January 28, 2010

Hi again, As a cheat’s way of doing a blog I thought I’d once again plagiarize myself from an e-mail I sent to parents a few weeks ago, summing up some of the events of 2009 at the school. So here goes: In The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author comments “Grown-ups love […]

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October 20 2009

By chance the other day I came across this email from a parent who had enrolled her children here and wrote shortly afterwards to tell me of their first few days at Candlebark. It was a nice tribute to the school, and I share it now, having changed their names to preserve their privacy. I […]

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September 23, 2008

For a blog entry with a difference I thought you might be interested in seeing a rundown of classroom activities, during a random week, in the life of Candlebark. YEAR 9 Art:. Folio work (predominantly painting, drawing) and major essay (800 words) Music:  Working on a research essay on Italian Composers. Each student has chosen […]

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September 7, 2008

I’m doing this on Sunday September 7 2008, and thought I’d catch you up on the life of the school in the last week or two. Out of sheer perversity I’ll work my way backwards in describing the days, starting yesterday morning (Saturday), when teachers came in to meet with child psychotherapist Carolyn Aston, to […]

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June 27, 2008

There are three reasons for punishment. One is in the hope that we will frighten the offenders and others into a different way of thinking: that in future the activity will have negative associations for them, and so they are less likely to do the activity in future. Another is so that we the community […]

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August 2 2007

Our second blog instalment is from a prospective parent, who sent me this, by email, after visiting the school. With just a mouthful of muesli and a swig of juice our family hit the road excitedly at 7.30am. The sun was slowly making its rise over Melbourne town, on a crisp winter morn, way more […]

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June 15 2007

This is very random, starting a blog just a couple of weeks before the end of second term in our second year. But at 11 o’clock on a Friday night, it feels like a good idea. It may never feel like a good idea again. Anyway, here are a few moments in the recent life […]

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