The Class 3 curriculum places particular focus on gardening throughout the year. Every week, Class 3P spends one morning, of our Main Lesson time, gardening with Nadia. Harvesting information and newly acquired knowledge from these sessions is then documented in each child’s 'Grow Garden Grow' Main Lesson book.

Every year, the Mullumbimby Farmer’s Market runs an event for local Primary Schools called Grow Your Own Lunchbox, in which the children harvest produce from their school garden, prepare a variety of dishes and then present these at the market as a nutritious school lunchbox. The children prepared several of their dishes in the school kitchen the day before the market and included pickles and preserves made over the last couple of months.  

We served chicken and spinach quiche, Madagascar Bean salad, Brazilian turmeric rice, native raspberries, cherry tomatoes, beetroot relish, pickled lime and cassava cake. Yum!

It was a very interesting experience to think and work like farmers throughout this process. It’s not as easy as popping into the supermarket to buy produce - we had to rely on Mother Nature to provide the right conditions for our plants to grow and be ready for harvesting. We discovered that not everything works to a plan. We were hoping to harvest our wheat at the beginning of the term, but due to the wet weather, it was too damp to harvest so we could not make any bread or flour items for the market.

All the children were very proud of their creations. They were fortunate enough to receive two awards at the Market that celebrated their efforts: the Lunchbox Snack Award for their cassava cake with native raspberries, and the Abundant Native School Garden Award. We would like to thank Nadia for all her preparation and planning to ensure the produce was ready to harvest in time for this event. 

Penny Martin
Class 3 Teacher

Class 1L has begun Term 4 with an introduction to physics through the workings of the nature beings. The children have been exploring the qualities of the four elements - earth, water, air and fire.

The earthy realm of the ‘Gnomes’ or ‘Cobolts’ started our work with mechanics - moving and shifting, experimenting and problem solving. Our room has been a buzzing hive of activity as marble runs grew around the room, exploring shape, size, angles and making adjustments to improve speed, height and drop. We then moved on to racing cars, using ramps and drawing mats to construct speedways od all shapes and sizes. Teams worked together collaboratively striving to improve performance.

This week we will be wading through the watery world with the ‘Undines’ or ‘Water Nixies’. We had a peek at Crystal Creek last Friday after the rains, just to see if we noticed any change or action, which we did of course; it was certainly flowing fast, swirling and forming little rapids over the logs and rocks. Next visit we’ll take our boats down to launch.

Over the coming few weeks we will look at the properties of wind - making propellers, planes and windmills, and learn about the work of the ‘Sylphs’ and the world of bees, birds and butterflies.

To finish this main lesson, we’ll play with the properties of fire and the work of the ‘Salamandas’ who make sure there is warmth from the sun reaching every blossom and seed for new growth. All children love to watch the flames of a fire, eyes sparkling with excitement.

Through this lesson the children imbibe the dawning of understanding that everything is interconnected and that we all have a responsibility to nurture our environment and take care of our surroundings.
Linda Mayer
Class 1 Teacher

Class 6 have recently returned from an outdoor education camp at Redlands Bay near Brisbane where they spent a lot of time in harnesses, helmets and life jackets! The students enjoyed rock-climbing, abseiling, archery, canoeing, bushcraft and a variety of team-building challenges, followed by a day-trip to Brisbane which included the SparkLab Sciencentre and the Planetarium.

It was wonderful to watch the students throw themselves into the physical challenges with such enthusiasm and confidence in their bodies, push their boundaries and negotiate the difficulties of working together as a team, especially when faced with the task of making a raft with four barrels, six poles, a few lengths of rope (and no instructions) in 25 minutes!

Literacy skills are a foundational aspect of communication and expression, and the relationship of the individual student to language is central to their cognitive, socio-emotional and spiritual development. Now that we are in Class 2, and a good way through our formal reading program, our excitement for reading sentences in books has expanded to include the creation of our own sentences.
In class 2N, the current literacy main lesson is called ‘Bugs in a Blanket’. The children are exploring the basic elements of who they are as individuals and what that looks like when we come together as a group. We have been looking at the differences between us, and discovering what makes us unique and the ways in which we are the same. The students have imagined themselves as bugs and, through the use of descriptive language, have created their first real project - a children’s story book.
The children have been guided through the process of creating their own sentences and drafting a rough copy. When our good copies are ready, we will read them to one of the younger classes.
Nick Vuorinen
Class 2

Shearwater's Class 6 students have recently undertaken an educational tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy.
The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their civics and citizenship education. To assist the School in meeting the cost of this camp, the Australian Government contributed funding for students under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program. The rebate is paid directly to the School upon completion of the excursion.
We visited the War Memorial, Old Parliament House and the Parliamentary Education Office at Parliament House where the class passed a mock bill for a sustainable alternative energy car and fuel rebate. We then ventured onward to the Snowy Mountains and had an incredible week of skiing where we experienced many different kinds of snow, including fluffy, light snow flakes that landed on eyelashes; small round polystyrene snow flakes;
sleet; icy dagger flakes and stinging and wind-driven icicle flakes!
As well as the snow, we had two lovely days of clear blue skies with deep, soft, easy to ski snow. Everyone (except for one with a sprained ankle), learned to ski or snow board or both, and enjoyed the experience.
Many thanks to everyone who helped make this a memorable journey.
Cathy Jones
Class 6 Teacher

Virtues Education
At Shearwater, we have just commenced a whole school focus on virtues. All areas of the School will look at a virtue each week. In Term 3, these will include compassion, caring, generosity, friendliness, courtesy, consideration, flexibility, kindness and gentleness.
 The word virtue itself comes from the Latin vir, which has a root meaning of 'force' or 'agency'. In Latin, the expression virtus moralis became the established equivalent of the Greek expression arete ethike, 'moral virtue' or 'character excellence'.
An education in virtues is about a good disposition of the heart and mind that are regularly put into actions (head, heart, hands), and is the foundation to solid character development. As Heraclitus (Ancient Greek philosopher) put it, "Character is destiny" and virtues are the content of our character!
We believe that fostering the development of character means supporting children to develop and grow good habits.
The Class 5C virtues program consists of a weekly lesson where the students and I discuss the virtue in focus and its possible implications. We hear stories and experiences relating to the virtue and also do practical activities.
In our lesson in Week 1, the students spoke in pairs about what they thought compassion was and then discussed this as a whole group. We found that it is not all that difficult to cultivate a sense of compassion for others. It seemed easy to give others compassion and understanding even when they fail or make a mistake. But we realised that it can sometimes be much harder to extend that same compassion to ourselves when we make a mistake. We completed an activity that provoked compassion for self and the children answered the following four questions in their workbook, providing opportunities for awareness, insight and further discussion:

1. First, think about a time when a close friend felt really bad about him or herself or was really struggling in some way. How did you respond to your friend in this situation? Please write down what you did or said and note the tone in which you talked to your friend.
2. Now think about times when you feel bad about yourself or are struggling. How do you typically respond to yourself in these situations? Please write down what you do, what you say, and note the tone in which you talk to yourself.
3. Did you notice a difference? If so, ask yourself why.
4. Please write down how you think things might change if you responded to yourself in the same way you typically respond to your friend when you’re feeling down or have made a mistake.

Cherie Kendall
Class 5 Teacher & Primary Faculty Coordinator

Congratulations to Class 3 students Oliver Heath and Finley Pichler (pictured above) who won the Australian Schools Marbles Championships held recently in Brunswick Heads. Oliver then went on to win the Junior Australian Marble Championships. Oliver and Finley were the youngest competitors in the event, along with Liminal Casidy, also Class 3, who came second in the individual event. Well done to all the Shearwater participants!

In 2001, when I started at Shearwater, the Class 7s had just planted the first trees at the eastern end of the creek. 17 years later, some of those trees have trunks too large to wrap your arms around, and we have weeded and planted along the entire length of our 1.8 km of creek bank.
In the first half of this year, Heather's and Sally’s Class 7s continued the excellent work begun by Harry's and Michael’s classes last year, removing weeds and planting along the western end of the creek, finally reaching the School’s western border.
This work has been supported by the NSW Government's Environmental Trust, as well as a $3850 Eco-Schools Grant, to cover bush regeneration at the far western end of the creek during 2017 and 2018.
This year’s Class 7s planted a massive 727 trees and 162 lomandra, bringing the total number of trees planted under this grant to 1084 and lomandra to 244. To satisfy the grant targets we still need to plant more lomandra along the creek bank to assist erosion control, and that will happen over the next few months.
Some sections of this massive bush regeneration project have succeeded better than others, for various reasons, and it is my hope that we can spend the next 17 years and beyond continuing the good work of regenerating our section of Mullumbimby Creek’s sub-tropical rainforest.
If you wish to visit these latest works, take a walk past the Farm on the south side, turn at the marvel of our enormous rare Coolamon and you will be able to see the progress of the last four years of planting.
Ken Ohlsson
Coordinator Gardening and Bush Regeneration