In preparation for the launch of WAVE 2019, The Girl with the Sun in her Face, there has been a flurry of excitement and activity behind the scenes as students from across the High School collaborated to create the singular image for this year's show. ​Year 9 and 10 Textiles and Design students designed and constructed the costume, modelled by Year 12 student Mayamoon, while Multimedia students captured the photo shoot on location at Brunswick Heads and contributed to the design of the poster. 

Students from Classes 4 to 6 performed at last week's String Extravaganza in the Hall, which included performances by the School's Primary School strings group Shearstrings, and High School orchestra Rhapsody.

Five senior Shearwater students were recognised for excellence in their fields of endeavour at the BASE Youth Leadership Men’s Awards last week, following on from the Women's Awards which took place earlier in the term.

Congratulations to Year 12 student Oliver Bora who won the Academic and Leadership Award, in recognition of the passion and hard work he has put into his school-based start-up, Oliver’s Hens, and his work with the Byron Youth Chamber of Commerce, as well as his commitment to changing the future of education by giving back and inspiring other students.

Congratulations also to Year 12 finalists Bodhi Kruse, and Oberon Marriott and Year 11 finalists Jarra Launer and Ashta Hall-Hart. Jarra, Bodhi and Oliver were all selected for the Community Service and Citizenship Award; Ashta was a finalist in the Sports Leadership Award; and Bodhi and Oberon were finalists in the Creative and Performing Arts Award, with Oberon receiving a special mention for his skills across a broad range of areas, including circus, music and drama.

The BASE Youth Leadership awards aim to empower young women and men in the Tweed and Byron Shires to strive for excellence through recognition, guidance and mentorship. At the awards breakfast it was great to see so many young men who are stepping up and doing wonderful things in the community, with finalists from 12 different local schools. Of the five awards categories, Shearwater had finalists in four.
 
We are very proud of all the boys and look forward to seeing them continue to do amazing things in our community.
 
Praba, Luke, Anna and Oren
Year 11 and 12 Guardians

After the expansion and activity of summer, the rain and cooler weather over the autumn equinox helped us to begin our inward journey, a process that continued this week at Preschool, with our wonderful autumn festival under the branches of Grandfather Fig. When we come together to celebrate with reverence and joy, the seed of renewal begins to grow and nourishes us all, as individuals and as a community.

We've been noticing the changes in the light during our autumn mornings, with mist in the air and the cattle egrets flying above, along with the fairy wrens, sparrows and Happy Harold Heron. The Tibouchina Sisters have been greeting us as they dance in the teasy breeze, as have our King Sunflowers, with their golden glow.

With the cooler weather, we enjoyed a walk to the creek to visit the gnomes, and the wee fairy folk. We were lucky enough to see many of Mother Nature's special gifts, including mushroom rings, orange fungi and Spindle Spider webs, and we collected some bark, sticks and twigs to make homes for our beeswax mushrooms.

Back at Preschool, the children painted liquid amber leaves to invite their parents to our autumn festival, taking as much care as Little Starry Amber, the autumn fairy.

The pumpkins have grown abundantly in our Preschool garden, perfect for our Rolly Polly Pumpkin game, followed by pumpkin and mushroom pizzas, which we all enjoyed with fresh basil from our garden.

 We look forward to meeting up again in the new term, ready for more adventures.

Susan Denney
Preschool Group Leader

After almost 20 years of mud, sweat (and probably a few tears), Shearwater's Class 7 rainforest tree planting finally reached the far western end of our 1.8km section of Mullumbimby Creek's riparian sub-tropical rainforest, towards the end of last year.

We could easily start over again, filling gaps, repairing flood damage, removing persistent weeds, extending the canopy cover and replanting areas that have proved less successful. Work that I hope future generations of Class 7 students will put their backs into, continuing the School's long-term commitment to environmental restoration.

This year, which will be my 19th (and last) with Shearwater, we have shifted our focus back to the ephemeral wetland that drains much of the School as it winds from our western paddocks, through the middle of our grounds, passing under the High School and Office buildings, and eventually exiting under the staff car park bridge.

The first section of the wetland, at the eastern end of the School, was reconstructed and regenerated when we moved to the current site, and has evolved into the thriving ecosystem we can observe from the canteen area.
The next 300 metres heading west upstream from the library was regenerated by staff and Class 7 students over three years from 2009 to 2012, with generous funding from the NSW Environmental Trust under its Restoration & Rehabilitation Scheme.

Significant changes were made to the location of the main wetland watercourse when the Kindy and Preschool were built, necessitating the removal of some of our previous plantings and, during the last summer holidays, we used a large excavator to alter the drainage of the Farm’s western paddocks and the farm shed area, so that all excess water flows down behind the Kindy and Preschool and joins the previously regenerated wetland forest.

During Term 1, Cathy’s Class 7 worked with our bush regenerators, gardeners and teachers to plant over 420 plants along the section immediately behind the Kindy buildings - a combination of appropriate native trees, sedges, reeds and grasses.

It was a particularly hot and humid time of year and, although I did find some shady areas that needed planting, the students did well to endure the conditions that make such work so arduous. I thank them for that. I would also like to thank the Kindy teachers and children whose afternoon rest time played out to the soundtrack of young teenagers creating a new piece of wetland forest - not always a pleasant sound. In early September it will be the turn of the Preschool to share in that afternoon soundtrack when Julie's Class 7 have an opportunity to share in the long-term rehabilitation of our site.

If you would like to see what Cathy’s class has achieved please look around behind the Kindy buildings where recent favourable weather has helped the plantings thrive.

Ken Ohlsson
Coordinator Gardening and Bush Regeneration

While the Primary School was busily preparing for its annual Bush Dance last Thursday, students from years 8 to 11 were also out under the autumn skies, transforming the School grounds into an outdoor art gallery, as part of the High School's annual Site Day. This year’s event was titled Ephemeral Earthscapes: Pathways Back to Nature and was a celebration of autumn, art and nature. The rain held off and the sun shone, for the first year in memory.
 
Students created artworks across a range of mediums and within a variety of subject areas. There were animals made from recycled materials in a science class; blue and gold Art Nouveau-inspired shapes twirling in the wind; a giant mathematically-constructed geometric shape made from rope; a bamboo screen overlaid with a stencil design; a series of playful miniature worlds in hidden places, and some breathtaking works made entirely from natural materials, including plaited reeds, threaded leaves and flowers stuck to the muddy bank with tiny sticks. The knighted land art sculptor Andy Goldsworthy would have been proud.
 
Congratulations to all the students who worked so hard to bring their vision to fruition. In this technological  time when we are often alienated from nature, it is important to have moments of connection with the natural world. At the end of this year's event, with dirty feet, sore legs and blisters on our hands, we were filled with gratitude for this place we are lucky enough to work and learn in every day.

Anna Delzoppo
Visual Art and Design Teacher

As the ancestors did long before, we join together to share the joy of music and motion, and pay homage to gatherings prior, and those to come.

The weather gods smiled on the Primary School's annual Bush Dance on Friday evening, when students, staff and families gathered to mark the advent of autumn with song, dance and feasting. Classes 1 to 6 shared dances old and new from around the globe, weaving the ancient and the contemporary with the story of this place and time.

We, 7J, have been as busy as striped black and yellow bees for the last few weeks.

We painted our way through our silk painting block lesson, which is a fine art in Shearwater's colourful curriculum. We also did two interesting block lessons where our class was split into two groups: half of us went to the heated kitchen to bake and fry with Vanessa, and half of us marched down the hallways, our feet smacking on the concrete like the flippers of a penguin on the ice, to the IT lab, where we learned to close and click and slide on our computers, with Rhys. After two weeks of that we swapped around.

Two weeks later our block changed again. Half the class ambled down the school hallways, while chatting all the way, to the workshop, where we made small wooden boxes with Luke (I'll be doing that next term). The other half went back to the kitchen and, with Akash, we cooked and ate the spicy, fragrant food of Indonesia (yum).

As for our Main Lessons in the morning, for the fist three weeks of the term we dove into the world of medieval times (like a million years ago!) - knights, dragons, castles and fair maidens. At the end we had a  fascinating project on medieval history.

Lindel, our maths teacher, then took us through Euclid's famous geometry achievements.

It's hard to write about yourself, but we, 7J, have managed it. With our colourful imaginations, we are currently writing autobiographies, from zero to 13 (I'm up to eight years old). We also followed on with some of the subjects we were doing last year, such as: Indonesian language with Emily (which I find one of my favourite subjects), Eurythmy with Renelle (I find it interesting but I know tons of people love it), English with Julie (I adore English) and Sport with Magnum (Sport is definitely my favourite subject).

I asked some of my fellow 7J students how they were enjoying Class 7 so far. "It's great," said Grethel. "Meh," said Orin. "Better than Class 6," said Luca. "So far, so good," said Stanley. "Good," said Charlie. "Strangely AWESOME," said Mahina.

I love it (singing)!

By Evie Sinniah
Class 7J

After studying Les Murray’s 1969 poem An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow, our Year 12 Standard English students composed short stories that explored one of the ideas from the poem. Here is a selection of them...

S T R A N G E R S    B Y   A   M E T R E
​by Lae-Ella Sinniah
 
He’s only a metre away from me. Just sitting there. I know men like him. He’s not very well kept. His misbehaving hair sticks out and hangs scraggly around his hungry looking eyes. What is it with men these days? Does he not own a hairbrush? The stranger shuffles around on the bench, stretching his legs out. Making me nervous. He moves a little closer. I scrunch my leather bag for comfort, playing with the tassels to distract myself from his uneasy presence. I know men like him. With their cheap arrogance and wanting gaze. Believing that the world is there to serve them, to satisfy their wants and desires. I wonder where the bus is? Maybe I should just get a taxi…
 
She’s only a metre away. I can smell her generously applied perfume from where I sit. God, I love that smell. It reminds me of visits to my grandma’s house as a kid. She would suffocate me in her big hugs and kiss me all over saying I was her favourite grandchild. It made me feel special, although I knew she said that to all her grandchildren. The heat of the day is beginning to irritate me. I shuffle around in my seat, moving over slightly and stretching my stiff legs after an epic day of work. Can’t wait to get home and watch some telly. The stranger sitting next to me looks tired too. Wonder what she did today. She’s clutching her handbag with a fierce look plastered on her furrowed brow, lips taut and fingers fidgeting aimlessly with the tassels on her handbag. Some people really need to loosen up. What does she think I’m going to do? Mug her? Maybe I should talk to her. Where’s the bus?
 
I can feel him watching me. He turns his head slightly to the left, his eyes inspecting me. Like a wild animal sizing up its prey before pouncing. Maybe I should call someone. Yes, that’s a good idea. I rummage for my phone. Nope, that’s not it. Oh no, where is it? I really need to do something about this bag. Half the stuff in here is just rubbish anyway. Should get that sorted out. Where is my phone?! I sip in a sharp breath. The stranger beside me fades away and panic takes his place. Beads of sweat begin to form on my upper lip. Heart pounding, I sit very still and wait.
 
I watch her as she clatters around looking for something in her handbag. My curiosity grows stronger the more flustered she becomes. She sure is something, ay. She seems cool enough, but she needs to chill. She’s really looking for something. I wonder what? I guess everyone is always searching for something these days. I chuckle to myself, bemused by my sudden wisdom. I can see the rapid rise and fall of her chest, although the stranger beside me sits very still, eyes fixed on something far off in the distance, as if willing the bus to come faster with her mind. On the bench between us, I see an old mobile. The kind that still has buttons. I guess that’s what she’s looking for, huh.
 
The stranger beside me taps me on the shoulder. I jump! Finding it hard to breathe, I turn to him, every muscle tensed, ready to run… or scream. He smiles at me. What does he want? He reaches out with a steady hand and passes me my phone. Is this yours? He asks in a deep, gentle voice. He sounds just like my brother. I know I should say something but the surprise sticks to the back of my throat, blocking words from forming. I snatch the phone from him, turn and leave. The bus welcomes me with a comforting splutter and hiss of its engine. Sitting comfortably at the front of the bus, I glance out the window. I see the stranger who once sat beside me as he continues to wait patiently for his bus. My heart beat steadies as the distance between us grows. Relieved to be heading home, I make a mental note to sort out all the junk in my handbag. Then I sink safely into my seat and close my eyes.
 
She doesn’t smile back. She doesn’t say thank you. She just reaches out with her small shaking hand and takes the phone from me. She’s scared. Of what? I have to admit I’ve been looking a bit rough lately. Maybe I’ve scared her with my lazy eye. I’ve always found that kinda weird. But I can see the fear in her, it oozes out of her small fragile body. She opens her mouth as if to say something, then changes her mind and walks stiffly away. Confused, I watch as the bus swallows her up and steals her away. I wonder what her problem was? I shrug my shoulders and shake my head. Hope I get home in time for the footy game.
​