Phoebe Rohn, Class of 2012, is currently attending the Sixth Form Law Conference at Cambridge University, which runs from March 21 to March 24, 2011. The conference, run by a committee of current law undergraduate students, “was founded thirty-seven years ago to give Year 12 students who may be interested in studying law at degree level a balanced view of the Law, both as an academic subject and as a profession, and also to offer an insight into life as a Cambridge undergraduate.”

Phoebe is contemplating a career in international law, and chose to apply to this conference to pursue that goal. Conference topics include Roman law, intellectual property law, pro bono work, and a mock trial.

According to her family, last they heard, Phoebe “was standing along the Queen’s Way with some friends waiting to see the Duke of Edinburgh ‘on promenade.’ Apparently all Cambridge is abuzz because this weekend is the legendary Oxford-Cambridge boat race on the Thames. Needless to say, she is in her bliss!”

Following the conference, Phoebe will travel to Munich, where she will join 18 of our German students for a three week visit to the Munich-Schwabing Waldorf School.

Alee Danyluk, Class of 2014

Thanks to designer Kate Hixon, parent in the Class of 2012, the American Chemistry Council, Chlorine Chemistry Division, commissioned artwork from Great Barrington Waldorf High School students to print on its holiday cards for 2010.

Aneli Poland, Class of 2013, and Alee Danyluk, Naomi Pitman, and Nicholas Sagarin, Class of 2014, worked under the guidance of Waldorf art teacher Elizabeth Lombardi and then had their work chosen and reproduced on the cards.

In exchange for the rights to use the students’ work, the American Chemistry Council donated $1000 to the Waldorf High School. This money will be used to support art programs at the school.

According to the Chemistry Council, “This work was part of a larger student art project, where the students worked from supplied imagery to honor and increase awareness for the efforts of the Chlorine Chemistry Division of the American Chemistry Council and the Chlorine Chemistry Foundation to provide clean water to areas in need, such as West Africa, and, more recently, Pakistan.”

Aneli Poland, Class of 2013

Naomi Pitman, Class of 2014

Nick Sagarin, Class of 2014

(Drawing by Alice Hixon, Class of 2012)

The Great Barrington Waldorf High School proudly presents William Shakespeare’s

The Taming of the Shrew

 Thursday – Saturday, February 17-19, at 7 pm & Sunday, February 20, at 2 pm

 At Berkshire South Regional Community Center, 15 Crissey Road, Great Barrington

 Suggested Donation: Adults $15, Students $8, Families $35

 For reservations, directions, or information, please call 413. 528. 8833

OPEN HOUSE, Thursday, 2/10, 7:30 p.m. Meet teachers, students, and parents. Student work, refreshments. Brief presentation of program, questions and answers. See our great little school up close. You will spend 5000 hours in high school. Spend an hour with us to make sure it’s the right one! (This is the last scheduled open house of the year, but you are always welcome to call and schedule a visit to our school.)

December 2010

Dear Friends,

We have expanded into the first floor of the Church from which we rent, and now the warm sounds of students and teachers engaged in teaching and learning float up and down the stairs each morning. Since our last appeal, our school has grown in other ways, too, thanks to the support of our generous community. Between last spring and this fall we increased our enrollment from 26 to 32, we hired a new Spanish teacher, and we added part-time teachers in life science, math, literature, art, and music. We also bought a new (used) van and tables and chairs for our classrooms.

We recently hosted 9 visitors from the Munich-Schwabing Waldorf School, and, while they were here, we had more than 45 persons present for our morning meeting each day—we had to move the meeting from the “Big Room” to the church sanctuary downstairs. Those of you who know our building will appreciate this change. The school is fuller than it has ever been, and it feels more alive and more vibrant than it has since we started with our thirteen pioneers nine years ago. For us, quantitative growth and qualitative growth go hand-in-hand, and, for now, bigger is better. More students mean more social interaction and more course offerings, and the increase in tuition revenue does its part to support growth and change at our school.

We grow closer each year to our aim—to create an excellent, small, sustainable, community-oriented and community-integrated Waldorf school in the Berkshires, one that students value and want to attend. But more and better teachers and programs and facilities mean larger expenses, too. We cover 80% of our costs through tuition, but, like almost all independent schools, rely on the generosity of those, like you, who value what we do. We accept gifts gratefully and put them to work efficiently to support education for adolescents and Waldorf high school education in the Berkshires. Please contribute as generously as you can. Thank you!

To donate online, quickly and safely, use the Google “Donate button” just to the right of this letter.

Sincerely,

Stephen Sagarin, PhD
Faculty Chair

Mary Louise Bedard
Board Chair

KayLee Bellamy. Self-portrait in charcoal.

We are pleased to announce that Senior KayLee Bellamy has already been accepted to 3 colleges: Antonelli Institute of Art & Photography in Erdenheim, PA; Delaware College of Art & Design in Wilmington, DE with a Merit Award on the basis of her portfolio and academic record; and Oakbridge Academy of Arts in Lower Burrell, PA. Clearly, she plans to study art and design.

In an Artist’s Statement, KayLee writes, “My current work reflects on my past, but also speaks of my future. Attending Waldorf schools since kindergarten, I’ve been taught through art as the bases of learning. In elementary, middle, and high school, I was required to turn in a main lesson book at the end of any block or seminar containing hand written essays, pictures, maps, and portraits, to show what was taught in class. Because of this, my drawing techniques have progressed from an early age into tools I now use to express myself.”

Congratulations to KayLee and best wishes to her and the rest of her class for more acceptances as the academic year continues.

German visitors at Bash Bish Falls.

From October 24 to November 14, the Great Barrington Waldorf High School welcomes 9 tenth and eleventh grade students from the Munich-Schwabing Waldorf School. Flora, Nick, Stefan, Dan, Carina, Carolina, Frederika, Luisa, and Andreas are staying with families in the school, working on their English (already pretty good!) and attending school. With this visit, their chaperone, Sylvia Hochleitner, English teacher at the Munich school, has returned to our school for the fifth time; she is a friend, a colleague, and practically part of the family here.

During the first week of their visit, we arranged a trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum, a hike up Monument Mountain, a trip to Bash Bish Falls, and a trip to New York City. After that first week, visitors joined classes already in progress, including seminars in physics and History through Language. Having nine more students adds to our busy lives, and our small school feels like it’s bursting happily at the seams.

Next April, German students from our school will visit Munich for three weeks and reunite with their new friends. They are already discussing what they will do and see in Munich. (Spanish students will visit the Waldorf school in Cali, Colombia, for three weeks during this time.)

Students at Rockefeller Center

On Wednesday, October 27, the Waldorf High School and 9 visitors from Munich traveled to New York for the Day. After a ride on the subway, we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ninth graders completed assignments to do with their History Through Art seminar; 11th and 12th graders visited the art of India in conjunction with their seminar on the History and Culture of India. And 10th graders and German visitors visited a variety of exhibits, from the retrospective show of conceptual artist John Baldessari to the American Wing. We then walked south through Central Park, down 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Center, and back to Grand Central. For our German visitors it was an exciting first visit to New York, and they enjoyed everything from the subway through the museum and the seals in the Central Park Zoo to the rappers hawking their CDs (with impromptu performances) on 5th Avenue.

Order your heavyweight 80/20 cotton blend Waldorf High School sweatshirt today! Only $30. Call the school at (413) 528-8833 or email us at info@waldorfhigh.org. Alumni, parents, friends… A great gift!