Home arrow High School

High School

The Lorien Novalis High school is one of only two Steiner High Schools in Sydney. The majority of our students come from our primary school or other Steiner Schools. 2005 sees the high school enrolment at its largest ever with waiting lists for several classes. Students wishing to enrol without prior enrolment at a Steiner school need to demonstrate an ability to work within the educational principles of the school and are usually offered a trial period of time before a permanent enrolment is formalised.

Our school is unique in many ways. High school should be enjoyable, challenging, and productive and prepare students for the years to come - spiritually academically and emotionally.
We have a school where friendships grow and strengthen. A school where everyone - students, teachers, parents and staff - treat one another with respect and dignity. A school that venerates the beautiful natural environment that is our home.  A school where all students complete studies in all subjects.

We are not a ‘new age’ school. We have a strong educational curriculum which has its basis in the work of Rudolf Steiner. The corner stone of many lessons is the creative study of the classical periods of history as they relate to the modern art of education today.  Our universal curriculum allows our students to mature and reach their potential. Without this curriculum there would be no true Steiner Education, which allows the graduating student to go out into the world secure in their knowledge of the past as a free spirit ready to contribute to our modern times.

Steiner Schools allow the true essence of each individual student to develop. The spirit which pervades every lesson and every day is one where the emerging adolescent can shed protective layers gathered to protect against negative influences such bullying, peer pressure and mindless intellectual classes. They can be who they truly are, without ridicule or disrespect. Self-confidence blossoms. School becomes a place they are now keen to attend.  Many new parents find that within a very short period of time that they have “found” their “child” again: the child that was drowning in another school where educational outcomes were all that mattered.

 

Main Lesson Book Cover

Main Lesson Book Title Page  

Lorien Novalis High School begins in Class 8, the year the children turn 14. The class comes under the care of a Class Guardian who makes the commitment to remain with the group for the next 5 years, up to the end of Class 12. The new relationship is formed when everything is new and changing for the young adolescent, especially those changes of a bodily and soul nature. In essence, at about 14, a new Being emerges.

The philosophy of the school is to educate all students in all possible subjects. Therefore all boys and all girls partake in every curriculum area. Boys often excel in gourmet cooking whilst girls can apply considerable intelligence towards penetrating the mysteries of motor mechanics. To achieve this goal of universal education in 5 years, the high school programme provides the opportunity to cover every major facet of human endeavour.

The secondary teacher engages the 'exploration' principle of study to meet the needs of the students. This exploration is conducted by a specialist teacher, that is, a person fully acquainted with his subject - the maths teacher should be a mathematician, the art teacher an artist. Only if the high school students sense this depth of knowledge and experience will they give the respect due to these representatives of worldly professionalism.

The school maintains for each student a report system for main lessons taught throughout the 5 years of high school. Each report takes the form of a synopsis of the lesson content including time, aims and materials used.

Wherever possible a life-experience or career-orientation element is incorporated into each lesson unit. The aim here is to relate the student more and more to the realities of the outside world. It is inherent in the Steiner view that as the students grow older, they wish to broaden their horizons, therefore, with a universal curriculum, the student at 18 years of age has the widest possible foundation of experience upon which to stand when asking the all-important question "What am I going to do in Life?"

Through our education we hope to bring each person, whether he spends twelve years or twelve hours with us, into a right relationship to the world.

 

More Information can be found in the High School Information Booklet, available from the school office or on the Downloads page.