For the latest updates to the school calendar please click HERE

Should you wish to receive a copy of the minutes from the Whole School Parents Meeting held on 18 August 2022, please email cwalter@michaeloak.org.za.

We need more photos to share in the Leaflet, on our social media channels and for our soon-to-launch new website. With so much always going on at school we would like to ask for your help to capture and share these special moments. If you have taken any good photos that you feel are worth sharing, please email them to leaflet@michaeloak.org.za. (If you have too many to send in an email, then we will send you a link for uploading.) Thanks in advance for your help.

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This is a reminder to our school community that dogs are not allowed on the school grounds. This includes the regular school day, as well as activities in the evenings and weekends.

Dear Michael Oak Community

No transformation journey is easy. We often speak of the need to transform and sometimes of the goals we wish to achieve by identifying the new form or structure we wish to see emerge as a result of the process.

“Form” is one aspect of a two-fold concept that has been a part of the thinking of human beings from ancient Greek times, if not before. “Form” represents the outer reality (the physical, material shape of the thing) and “substance” relates to the inner essential attitude and orientation that characterises the other pole of reality. In a true process of change a transformation is only complete and true, only long-lasting and sustainable if it is accompanied by a transubstantiation. Our inner orientation needs to change if we hope to achieve any outer structural changes in our way of being as a community or society.

The process of change at Michael Oak will inevitably take place on several levels, and - in the spirit and essence of evolution – be an on-going process. My involvement at present at the school is to support and assist, guiding where necessary and informing where needed, the process of transforming and transubstantiating ever more in the direction of becoming a Waldorf school, particularly in the work that needs to be done with the high school curriculum.

It certainly is true that Michael Oak has achieved much of value in the past 60 years. The work of maintaining and improving is never done – and renewal and revitalization are the keys that keep opening the doors to our future becoming. In this current process are we able to identify the goals we wish to achieve? What does the outcome look like?

As a school, the difficulty is often that the best achievement is only fully experienced and expressed years later when the child and young person has grown up and comes to realise the impact and formation, the essence and substantiality of the education they received. In a research paper by Douglas Gerwin and David Mitchell published in 2007 in the USA the following summary of Waldorf graduates were identified:

• Waldorf school graduates value the opportunity to think for themselves and to translate new ideas into practice. They both appreciate and practice life-long learning, and have a highly developed sense for aesthetics.

• Waldorf school graduates value lasting human relationships … and they seek out opportunities to be of help to other people.

• Waldorf school graduates sense that they are guided by an inner moral compass which helps them navigate the trials and challenges of their professional and private lives. They carry high ethical principles into their chosen professions.

The picture which emerges is that the aim of the education is not a certificate or the passing of examinations (useful as those may be in a certain context) nor is it the acquisition of the content of various subjects. The goal is far more trans-formative, trans-substantive than that. It is about the qualities of a human being: thinking in freedom, relating in a sense of supportive community outreach, and acting out of an understanding of the good, the beautiful and the true. 

As we embark again on this trans-formative and trans-substantive journey of ever more meeting the needs of young people by guiding and challenging them to discover their becoming human (to rise above the degradation and corruption that has become increasingly accepted as the norm) and present the world with a living picture of an engaged and loving humanity, we are undertaking a sacred task. Perhaps there is not any that could be more important today. It is a privilege to accompany such a process and play whatever role may be needed to see it unfold ever more strongly and truly.

Michaël Merle

Reflections from Sarah Brassington,
our Class 5 substitute teacher

Dear Michael Oak community

I have had the privilege of stepping into Class 5 this term while Ms Moore has been away. 

As some of you are aware, I am a former student at Michael Oak - all the way from Kindergarten through Class 13! Like the flowering plant metamorphosing through the seasons, many seasons of growth and change have passed by and I now find myself back at Michael Oak teaching the main lessons rather than learning about them as a student. 

I have been warmly welcomed by many familiar faces and some new. Being back in the classroom has brought nostalgia as well as comfort as I find myself feeling quite at home in the warmth of the school’s ethos. 

I am thoroughly enjoying my time with the class 5s. As you can see from the accompanying photos, we have delved into the life of plants in a botany main lesson. We will end the term on a journey back to the ancient civilizations, to the land of Mesopotamia. 

I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to step into the class as a teacher, and experiencing Michael Oak from this new perspective.  

Warm regards
Sarah Brassington