As the longest night of the year draws near and the whole school prepares to come together to mark the return of the light on Friday's winter solstice, the Primary School is a hive of activity, putting the finishing touches on lanterns, dipping candles, practising songs and the intricacies of the lantern walk - one of the Festival's highlights.

These activities, which are unique to this time of year, help build the atmosphere of reverence and wonder for the children. Friday's Winter Spiral is one of these special moments for students in Class 1, 2 and 3, helping bring an inner quiet and peace, before the colour and song of the Winter Festival story, that takes place in the Hall for the Primary School and our graduating class. The night is nigh, the time is near. We wish everyone a beautiful Festival night, full of peace and cheer.

Cathy Jones
Primary School Coordinator

Congratulations to Class 4 students, Olly and Finley, who took out first place, representing Shearwater, in the junior division of the Australian Marbles Competition, held at Brunswick Heads on Saturday. It was the second year the Shearwater team has taken out first place, with Olly also retaining his title as the junior division's overall winner. Congratulations also to Shearwater duo Anelle and Catia, who were runners up in the junior division. A lot of fun was had by all the competitors.

We don’t often have a chance to experience the simplicity of inner stillness in full consciousness. Winter is a time to look within and reflect on our lives and gather for the next year. To ensure your children experience this mood of soul here are a few possible suggestions to continue the mood into your home life:
 
• Create a quiet family ritual that you enact each year on the longest night.
 
• When you arrive for the Winter Festival in your car, ensure the radio is turned off for a quiet ride home.
 
• After the festival, go home and share a meal by candlelight. Immerse yourselves in a rich peace and quiet. Prepare the meal during the day so that you don’t have to turn on any electric lights.
 
• Have the whole family at home - no sleep-overs - for the longest night.
 
• Light candles instead of turning on the electric lights.
 
• Have a family campfire and go to bed early.
 
• Wake up early in time to watch the sun rise on the new year ahead.
​

Below are the words of our new Winter Festival song, composed by Lisa Cameron and written by Liz Kee.

Class 4 and 5 students have been enjoying some extra opportunities for physical activity for this term, with gymnastics lessons by Spaghetti Circus. The students have been developing their fundamental movement skills by participating in a range of safe and engaging activities. The lesson plans have been developed by coaches and teachers and are aligned with the newly endorsed Australian Curriculum. They are also lots of fun!

Magnum Brotto
PDHPE Teacher  

There was sunshine, rain and some fast feet flying around Lennox Head recently, as Shearwater students raced in the NCIS Regional Cross Country Carnival. 

It was the first year at a new venue with new event coordinators and the results indicate that Shearwater students approve of the sandy bush track. With over 40 students qualifying and 35 attending the day it was our highest level of participation on record. We had nine students qualify for the state championships, with three podium finishes! Isabella Devitt from Class 5 crossed the finish line 1st in the Girls 11 Year Old 3km race. Not too far behind her was Lani Goodwin in 3rd place. Charlie Heath smashed the Boys 13 Year Old 3km course coming 1st well in front of his competitors.

The Year 10 students and parents coordinated a catering tent for the day, raising money for their Vanuatu building project. A great effort for a great cause. Big thanks to Magnum for his enthusiasm and energy training the students before the day, and for some cool and calm coordinating on the day. Thanks to Djuann for assisting Magnum with student supervision. Thanks to Nick for coming early and staying late to help with the set up and pack down, and for sitting out on the track in the rain and mozzies all day. Thanks to Marcella and Nelle from my Year 11 PDHPE class who volunteered their time on the day and to Lee and Paul who travelled down to Lennox to help me with all the heavy lifting! 

Thank you and congratulations to all competitors, it was great to see Shearwater students competing happily and healthy in an inter-school sporting event. Well done and best of luck to our state runners. Run Shearwater Run! ​

Emma Sweeney
PDHPE Teacher

The first semester of Class 6 has been one of governance and discernment, challenge and achievement.  
As a group, we support one another to face our fears and work towards resilience and courage. Polishing the qualities that will help us to serve our task and one another. Please read about the highlights and experiences written by some of the students in Class 6S...

Year 6
by Paz
Year 6 has been really fun but has not been all sunshine and rainbows. When we first came to school we learnt about Rome - it was pretty fun. We did lessons where Sonia, our teacher, would write on the board. But we also got to do our own work. We could go to the library and find information. Then we could work in groups or by ourselves to make a piece of writing.
For our second main lesson we did a self-directed lesson, which is my favourite type because we get to do research and come back to the classroom and write it out. It was a math main lesson. we learnt about percentages and made it like a business where we had to pay rent and sell our products.
Every year we do a main lesson on Australian history. This year for Australia we learnt about Federation, which happened in 1901. We are also making a mosaic which we will put on the canteen. In Term 1 we did a surfing program where we went to the Pass for three hours and learnt surfing with Beau, one of the school's assistant teachers with hidden talents. It was definitely my Year 6 highlight so far.
At the end of Term 1, me and some friends were in the school netball team and went to regionals in Tweed. We didn't win but it was still a great day. Another interesting thing about Term 1 was Bush Dance. We did a dance with the other Class 6. We used poles and hit them to make music.
This term, we started having homework. We have done home projects before, but that was only once or twice. Now we have to give it to Sonia every Friday. But I guess we're lucky. At my old school, we started homework in Year 3. My favourite thing about Year 6 is the position of our classroom. We have the best place to play at lunch. We have a big fig tree, swings and monkey bars. It's next to the library and it's in a nice quiet crook, so we can make noise without being a disturbance. We are very close to the canteen, so always have good smells wafting through the classroom, and we are close to the bus stop.

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.

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