In Class 3, we began this semester with a farming Main Lesson, looking at the seasons, the soil, ploughing, planting, harvesting and adapting to the environment. Home learning followed and many children worked in their gardens at home or started their own garden with their parent’s support. In addition, they worked on our whole Primary School home projects, The Joy of Being Me and Count Me In. It was wonderful to come back together after this time at home.

Since then we have continued with lots of literacy and numeracy practice, which has included a regular spelling and maths quiz, Mathletics and measuring. We have made metre measuring sticks and have begun to measure our world.

Grow Garden Grow, our farming/gardening Lesson with Nadia, has enabled us to engage in many practical tasks. We have harvested turmeric, washed it, sliced it, dried it, ground it, put it in jars, labelled it, and then replanted more turmeric for next year’s Class 3. We built a compost pile, all working together to place down the layers, resulting in a compostella lasagna. We have harvested the wheat we had planted, threshed it and winnowed it. We have also ground our wheat to make flour and baked crunchy buns, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We put aside some of our wheat to present to the new Class 3 at our autumn festival next year.

Working together, both Class 3 groups made a no-dig potato patch and we have enjoyed watching the seed potatoes grow, tucking compost and then straw around them as needed, as well as watching with wonder the many ladybird beetles that have come to visit the patch.

While Chris has been with the class for the past three weeks, he has been reading the children a Laura Ingalls Wilder story, Farmer Boy, allowing the children to experience the many daily practical activities on a farm, and connecting their soul life to the world and to what it means to be a human being.

From the farm to the world—in our recent Main Lesson, we have been looking at different cultures and the types of dwellings people build in different parts of the world. We looked at how people adapt to the climate, the location and the resources available to them, to build their homes. The children have been working on a project at home, making dwellings using their chosen materials such as clay, wood, straw, paper or felt. In the last week of term, they will present their project to the class, explaining how they built the dwelling, where it can be found and something about the people and the land upon which they dwell.

Chris has also been leading the children through the Bible stories of the Hebrew people, including The Tower of Babel;  the story of Abraham, Joseph and his brothers; the Exodus from Egypt; Moses and the Burning Bush; The Ten Plagues; Crossing the Red Sea; Manna from Heaven and The Ten Commandments. There have been so many other stories as the children followed the journey of the Hebrew people to the promised land. Overcoming obstacles, learning to choose right from wrong and following the way of truth and goodness are some of the images brought before the children.

Throughout the semester, the children have engaged in other practical activities. In the woodworking workshop, guided by Nick, we have learnt how to use and care for tools, how to keep everyone safe, and how to shape, saw, rasp and sand wood to make stilts. Lots of will, effort, determination and enthusiasm was needed for such an uplifting result. Crafts have included sewing, clay work and beeswax modelling. Each activity has given the children opportunities to learn and grow. As we learn to work together so much can be achieved!

Class Three have had weekly strings lessons and ensemble. Each child is progressing according to their individual capacity and the effort they put in, thanks to the wonderful guidance of the strings teachers. Again, we are learning to listen and work together to play beautiful music. 

Swimming lessons in the rain have been an adventure and a wonderful opportunity to practise moving our growing bodies with grace and rhythm.

Now settling into their new classroom, the children will begin to inwardly prepare for the next part of their journey together after the summer holidays.  
 
Jenny Lott
Class 3 Teacher
         

Hello from Preschool! What a delight these last weeks have been. The children come with smiles and laughter, and play and work all through the day. They have a wonderful sense of confidence and resilience despite all the changes that are happening around them – a picture of Preschool as a safe and predictable place to be.

We have painted, drawn, listened to stories about a secret nest of Mrs. Honeyeaters, played finger and feet games, dug holes and found worms!

Thank you to our parents for supplying extra morning tea and supporting the changes. Although the children are still enjoying their crunchy buns on Fridays!

We welcomed a new assistant to our group, Kristy, and the children embraced her soft and kind ways at once. These final weeks of the year will fly by before we know it. Hopefully we will have a fine day next week for a picnic by the creek.

Margaret King
Preschool 

The Shearwater Certificate is a pathway offered to Year 12 students at Shearwater that provides an alternative to the HSC, allowing students the freedom to create a unique learning experience for themselves, following their passion and creating a project of personal interest. Do not let the word freedom fool you. The Shearwater Certificate is a rollercoaster ride.

This year there were five students who undertook the journey, Tula Tansley-Beckerman, Judah Tsadik, Gemma Susanna-Davies, Aurora Bodhivajra and Charli Gaiter-Thompson.

The learning that comes out of undertaking a year-long project is invaluable, and the skills these students have developed will serve them well in the future. They have learnt things no textbook can teach, and no exam can assess. They have learnt to believe in themselves, to communicate clearly, to think critically, to problem solve, to ask for help when it’s needed, to get up and keep going when things are hard, to support others and work together.

The Shearwater Certificate can be done as a 120 or 240 hour program, in conjunction with three or four HSC subjects. Year 12 is challenging at the best of times but I think we would all agree that this year has been particularly difficult. It has presented these students with new challenges, unique to these times. When they presented their proposals a year ago none of us knew what this year would be like, that we would have an extended lockdown and limited access to external facilities among many other things.

The students presented their work, comprising displays and speeches, last week, and although we couldn’t invites their families and community to the event, due to COVID restrictions, it was still a beautiful conclusion to the process. These students deserve to be congratulated and celebrated. They have demonstrated resilience and determination and I am so incredibly proud of them, and very grateful to have been part of their journey as their supervisor.

Anna Delzoppo
Shearwater Certificate Supervisor

Congratulations to Year 11 Textiles student Gypsy Hunter who was recently awarded third place in the Senior Category of the international Wool4School student design competition. Entrants were asked to design an outfit, made primarily from wool, which was versatile, protective, dynamic and functional, to aid in commuting and traveling, under the theme ‘Wool on the Go’.

The SRC have been up and running through Semester 2 and despite lockdowns, we have been able to do some leadership workshops, establish what we love about the school and also work out what we want to see improved and how we might help make that happen. Many ideas have been discussed such as dress code, student events, classroom comfort, better signage and wellbeing services. Small actions have been taken to help make sure students' voices are heard and supported. One issue we discussed was the number of students coming to school without breakfast. The solution — Breakfast Club! 

We canvassed teachers that had experienced breakfast clubs at other schools to find out what worked and what didn’t. The SRC developed a survey which was filled in by over 70 students. The results surprised everyone. On that particular day, we found that just under half of our students were coming to school without breakfast. The reasons ranged from having to leave too early for the bus, to making them feel sick on the winding road to school, through to being in too much of a hurry, forgetting or just not feeling like it first thing. Some were getting something at school if they had time but many buses arrived too late to go to the canteen and some students didn’t have money with them. That very afternoon, after tallying up the surveys, we heard that due to staff shortages, the canteen would not be opening the next day. Breakfast Club (and now Lunch Club) were going to have to happen very quickly!

We purchased supplies that afternoon and had some basics ready to go at 8.30am the next day. Toast, tea, cereal and fruit were all on the menu. At lunchtime, the cooking elective baked some sausage rolls and pasties we were able to give out to those who were hungry or hadn’t brought lunch. We managed to do this for each of the three days the canteen was not able to open. Over 100 students accessed the service each day and overall it seemed a great success.  

The SRC would like to thank James and all the teachers and students who supported them to make this idea a reality in such a short timeframe. The canteen will be open every day between now and the end of term and the SRC will take on board all that was learnt from the trial and see if it’s something they will propose in some form  next year. In the meantime, it’s a good reminder to make sure students are coming to school with food in their bellies ready to learn, and with enough food to last them for the day. We are lucky to have such a wonderful canteen and thank Steve and the crew for the wholesome and affordable options they provide every day.  

Sarah Ndiaye and the SRC

​Our Class 7 students had the opportunity to experience the illustrious silk paintings and picture books of local author and illustrator, and former teacher, Kim Toft, this term.

Kim guided the class through the process of story-boarding, providing inspiration for the classes' Indonesian assessment task, in which they are creating an advanced pictorial based on the life of a family member of their grandparents' generation. 

Emily Joy
LOTE Indonesian Teacher

 
Term 4 always brings a flurry of activity, and this year is no exception.  Our current clay project in 6P has seen the class creating Roman aqueducts using wooden moulds which we made in woodwork earlier in the year.  The plan is to add to the aqueduct that currently lives in the Class 6 play area – a structure created by the current Year 9 students. 
 
Not only have the class handmade the individual clay aqueducts—mould and all. But they have also used their time throughout the year to immerse themselves in the art of mosaics, creating the decoration for the base of the ancient Roman structure. 
 
As a class, we look forward to the culmination of their clay, woodwork and craft lessons and leaving a further legacy in the playground for future classes to admire.
 
With our Primary School experience coming to a conclusion, 6P has been reminiscing on their learning journey both as a class and as individuals. With a majority of the class taking the journey from Class 1 and even Kindergarten before that, we have had occasions where songs and verse have spontaneously risen during our class discussions and gatherings.
 
In Class 1, every 6P family received a reminder of the goal of the Primary School journey.  I share this as a reminder to all of the expectations and wonders of the journey, and the blessings that we, as teachers, strive for each and every school day:

​Throughout the Kindy year, we offer the children a variety of tasks which have been carefully planned to meet them where they are in their development. Early tasks are short and sweet, designed to be completed easily by the children, giving them a boost in confidence as they see their finished crafts displayed around the room. Later in the year, the tasks become longer, more challenging and have more steps involved.

Late in Term 3, each Kindy child finger-knitted balls of wool in all the rainbow colours. Some children thought they would never be able to finish one ball, let alone all the colours, but one-by-one they all got the hang of it and by the beginning of Term 4, were beaming and proud and ready for the next step.

This term, we began to weave our rainbow finger-knitting onto a round weaving board. Again, many children thought they would not be able to finish all their colours, but the whole class kept trying, and encouraging each other until now, almost all our weaving has been finished, and the children are, rightly, very proud of themselves.

There were many guesses about what our weaving might be... a pillow, a new rug for Kindy, a nest, or a shell for a turtle. This week at last, the children were each given a green turtle to begin to feed with fluffy wool. When the turtles are full and strong, their shell will be sewn onto the body and they will have a beautiful turtle, that they have made themselves, a reminder of what can be achieved when they put their mind to something.

We choose longer-term, multi-step projects at this time of year for this very reason—to allow the children to carry this inner feeling of confidence with them into Class 1 and beyond.

It’s a wrap! Another wild ride on the WAVE magical carpet. Somehow at this supremely unpredictable time on our planet, we managed to pull off another incredible Wearable Arts performance event last week.
 
Although it was disappointing not to have our sponsors, families and other members of our community here to see the show in person, the footage is in the editing suite as we speak, and we hope to be able to release the video of the event by the end of term. Stay tuned!
 
In the meantime, we hope you will join us in applauding our wonderful winners. We had so many students get involved in this year’s costume comp and the judges professed their job was not an easy one!
 
The winners of WAVE 2021: My Message to You are:
 
 
Overall Grand Winner
Gold Sponsor James Hardware Mitre 10, Mullumbimby
Mixed Messages by Susan Germann
 
Directors Prize
Silver Sponsor Chincogan Real Estate, Mullumbimby 
Help by Jimmy & Milika (Year 10 Shearwater) 
 
Section 1 (My Message to You) Winner 
Silver Sponsor Crystal Castle
Alien Princess to Earth by   India Giannoni  (Year 12 Shearwater)

Section 2 (Silhouette Creations) Highly Commended  
Sponsored by Mullum Co-op  
The Bitch by Ruby, Aneeka, Marley, Gemma, Marco & Scarlett (Year 9  Shearwater)
 
Section 3 (How I Feel) Winner
Silver Sponsor Crystal Castle
High Priestess by Tiehj Kerry
 
Section 4 (Horns, Helmets and Masks) Winner
Bronze Sponsor Westpac
Horndusa by Eloise Gallea 

Section 5 (Flora Fabulous) Winner
Bronze Sponsor Tinker, Tailor, Dancer, Trader/Archer The Store
Gondwana Reverie by Rosie Hamilton
 
Emerging Artist
Sponsored by Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce
Shining Knight in the Mist by Marshall Peach
Warrior by Junah Robins (Year 8 Shearwater)
 
Creative Use of Materials
Bronze Sponsor Baxter & Jacobson Architects
COVID Waste by Maya Chaffer (Year 8 Shearwater)
 
Student Encouragement Award
Bronze Sponsors Westpac & Tinker, Tailor, Dancer, Trader/Archer The Store
Encrusted by Olive Morris (Year 9 student)
Message from Water by Hannah McIntyre (Year 7 Shearwater)
Exhaustion by India, Zoe, Anouk & Zemmer (Year 9 Shearwater)
Fighting Flames by Anouk, Darcie, Lekha, Amani, Grace, Scout & Natasha (Year 8 Shearwater)