SSWS Faculty Report for AGM 2025 

2024/25 Academic year 

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Kindergarten 

Monika Wildemann Camille Wilkins
Nunik Lobato-Hernandez Annika Winterfeldt (VIA Volunteer)

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The year began with Monika Wildemann as Lead Kindergarten Teacher for our mixed-age Kindergarten, supported by Assistant Teacher Nunik and German volunteer Annika. Together, they guided the children from September through to March Break with warmth, creativity, and care. 

As the year unfolded, several parents expressed a wish for separate kindergarten classes to better meet the needs of different age groups. After thoughtful consideration, the decision was made to create two distinct kindergarten programs. This transition opened space for renewal and growth within our early childhood program. 

We were pleased to welcome Camille Wilkins as the new Senior Kindergarten Lead Teacher, while Monika continued her work with the Junior Kindergarten. 

Over the March Break, Monika lovingly transformed the Junior Kindergarten classroom—painting, refreshing, and preparing the space, which had previously served as a Grade 2–3 classroom for the past two years. At the same time, Camille made the other kindergarten room her own, bringing warmth and beauty to the environment. 

Outdoor learning remained a central focus in the Junior Kindergarten throughout the year. The children actively cared for the kindergarten garden, planting and tending vegetables to be harvested in the summer and fall. They also took great pride in caring for Lasha Nala Huckleberry, the Angora rabbit who resides in the kindergarten garden—fostering a sense of rhythm, care, and responsibility in their daily lives. 

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Grade 1-2 

Kerry Eady 

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This year’s class doubled in size, as last year’s grade 1s welcomed this year’s rising grade 1 students into a combined class. A large part of the year’s work was building a supportive community that celebrated their different strengths and capacities. 

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The story of The Wise Enchanter led them on an imaginative journey through the alphabet, which in turn prepared them for Animal Legends and stories later in the year. 

They explored The City of Numbers and had to navigate a chart to save their island city from greedy pirates. 

There was plenty of Form Drawing, elaborate mural making and the creation and naming of new colours. The class engaged in detailed nature study that also informed their creative practices. 

They performed a beautiful play of The Shepherd Boy and His Flute for the whole school, and made elaborate decorations for Mayfair using rose branches pruned during our All School cleanup 

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Grade 3/4 

Ben Gallagher 

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This year’s class covered a lot of territory. We began the year in the Hebrew Bible, with stories from the creation of the garden of Eden to Noah’s ark. We also looked at Mi’kmaq creation stories, and ended the year with Norse myths and the destruction and rebirth of Ragnarok. 

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Along the way we studied local tree species in conjunction with a unit on cartography, focused particularly on sailing and the history of wooden boat building. We tackled complex multiplication, factoring and prime numbers, and long division in preparation for fractions. We worked on writing and revising draft summaries of stories and non-fiction texts, on proper paragraph structure, and on letters and thank-you notes. We wrote and performed a class play based on the classic book Mr. Popper’s Penguins. We went on field trips to Owlwood farm to fell a tree and mill it, and to Ross Farm to work in the blacksmith shop to forge a fire poker for the school. 

Throughout the year the students also worked to develop their will and capacity for dedicated and focused work – academic book work, creative work, and physical work. We carved Norse runes on wooden discs and built a Hnefatafln game board, we painted a scale map of the school, and we planted an extensive garden in the spring. The class felt cohesive and dedicated, both to the group and to their own individual efforts. 

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Grade 5/6 

Lasse Eriksen 

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2025 offered a new beginning for the grade 5⁄6. Mr. Mike substituted the class for a month in the beginning of the school year followed by Mr. Eriksen halfway through October. Teachers, students, parents and school had to get to know each other, which took effort from all parts throughout the whole year. 

Academically the year began with storytelling, reading and writing with Mr. Mike. When Mr. Eriksen became the teacher of the class they dived into the ancient cultures and their expressions of art and myths - Egyptian art, culture and stories at first. 

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We branched off into Freehand Geometry, and then spent two and a half weeks reading and discussing ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ by Ursula Le Guin. It was quite the struggle, because the main character had certain arrogant character traits that weren’t appreciated in the classroom. Then Christmas came. 

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After Christmas we returned to geometry using straightedge and compasses followed by a poetry block with Mr. Ben. This was followed by the amazing and unbelievable struggle for freedom in ancient Greece. Greek roots formed the foundation for further language studies , especially suffixes and prefixes. Language lessons included exploration of parts of speech. 

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The last term of the year ended with the study of light, shadow, and basic magnetism. We studied geology, made a rock collection and explored different rock compositions to establish whether or not stones contained chalk, were magnetic, were patterned, were soft or hard, all in order to determine the rocks’ place in the rock cycle. 

The finale was the Olympic Games and the independent writing of a book, which took an effort and was printed into several copies. Then we were all ready for summer. 

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Grade 7/8 

Courtney Anderson 

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Our grade 7-8 class was a small, but very close group. We began the year with an overnight camping trip to Brier Island where we laughed, roasted marshmallows, marvelled at the explosion of stars in the night sky, and the magnificence of humpback whales. This really set the tone for the rest of the year: one of wonder, excitement, and awe in equal measure. 

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We explored the Renaissance, the many discoveries and theories of Leonardo, put simple machines into action, (including the students lifting me 4 feet off the ground with pulleys). 

This class was very active in the school yard community, playing well with the younger students and being accessible and wonderful role models for them as well, co-hosting horse block for the grade 1-2 students, creating nourishing meals for the school, and actively helping with fairs and festivals. 

They moved through the curriculum at a steady pace and a constant stream of questions.

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We had a chance to visit a Mosque, and enjoy a field trip to Halifax. 

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The crowning glory of their year though, in my opinion, was their Peter Pan play which they created the storyline for, created their costumes and set, and executed masterfully. It was an absolute delight and each child shone in their own special way. 

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Subject Teachers 

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This was a challenging year for us in terms of subject teachers. For most of the year we were without permanent or full-time teachers for French and Handwork. We owe a large debt of gratitude to Erwan Pestiaux, who offered some French classes to the school as we continued to search for a full-time teacher. We also had several local artists step in to offer handwork classes throughout the year. While this meant that our school schedule was more disrupted or uncertain than we wanted, the students still received the pedagogical benefits of those two classes. 

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Parent and Tot 

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Our parent and tot program was held by a number of people this year. It began under the guidance of Brittany Roberts, was held next by Tanya Wiles-Bell, and was taken over at the end by Elizabeth Downing.

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Professional Development 

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A major thread for us as Faculty this year was our engagement with Christopher Schaefer’s book Partnerships of Hope, which we used to enliven and refine our meetings. 

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Festivals 

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Our festival life at the school is always rich, and that was true again this year. We were blessed with good weather for all the festivals and great parent and community participation. The school was glowing with Christmas trees out front for our Holly & Ivy fair, and although there was a bit of rain forecast for our Mayfair the Maypole dance was as lively as always. 

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The parent council was very strong this year and their efforts and involvement in set up were greatly appreciated by the Faculty. Fair Weather Fridays were a treat, as were the lovingly prepared meals for our faculty meetings on Thursdays. 

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Other Major Events 

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Waldorf East happened again, held at SSWS and at Seraphim Homeschool Pod, and organized by Kaitlin Brown and Vienie McShane. There was a great turnout and an engaged discussion on Friday night, as well as a wonderful selection of workshops, including two led by SSWS faculty members