Dear Carrie, I noticed that you are in Mooroolbark, there is an excellent Steiner Primary only school near you in Kilsyth South, called Ghilgai. They have regular monthly introductory evenings and we went to one and found it to be a really great school. My mum also works there one day a week as an accompanist for the Eurythmy and has found the teachers to be really committed to teaching and the school as a whole being a warm and inviting environment. They are extremely strict about class size, linked to the size of the class rooms. They do not allow, under any circumstances, more than 22 children per class which means there will never be a problem with class sizes getting too big. They have been there a long time (since 1981 I think) and are well established. I was amazed what the children even in the younger classes were producing from their work. Including maths, which they would do using drawings, charts, just like normal maths but with an artistic flair to it, as well as tying lessons in with each other, ie when learning about India their maths calculations were about something indian too etc.

Another excellent school, although a bit further from you is the Little Yarra Steiner School, where my daughter will start the Ring-a-Rosy class next year (2.5 hrs per week without parents). I love this school, not only because of its location, but also because it has a very close-knit community feel to it, it is from Playgroup to Highschool with small class sizes still and it is known for its very strong musical stream.

Hope this helps you with your further search. Both school will have an open day and fair this year, maybe give Ghilgai a call to find out when, Little Yarra has a website lyss.vic.edu.au.
Regards
Sonja