Our two Class 7 groups returned from 10 days on Great Keppel Island this week, as one unified class, ready to move together into the High School. The camp, which traditionally brings together the two classes with their new Guardians, marks a turning point for these young people, ready to embrace all the High School has to offer after their transition year, their last with their Primary School Teachers.

Teacher Cathy Jones said it was a wonderful camp, providing many opportunities for the groups to blend together and begin new friendships, with the Steiner Island Survivor challenge and Trivia Night, camp highlights.

"The new Guardians, Lindel and Rhys, brought fresh, lively approaches that were appreciated by all and gave the students a taste of what the next few years will be like with them," she said.

Tonight, the students celebrate their graduation from the Primary School at their Class 7 formal, at which they will farewell their Class Teachers - Cathy, who will be continuing in her role as Primary School Coordinator, and Julie Marx, who will take over from departing teacher Michael Caterer, with a new group of Class 3s, just as she did with her graduating class five years ago.

Congratulations to Cathy and Julie and best wishes to Lindel and Rhys for the journey ahead with this fabulous group of students.

As part of their end-of-term camp in Brunswick Heads, Class 5W did a clean-up of rubbish found floating in Simpsons Creek and received the following thanks from the National Parks and Wildlife Service:
 
NPWS would like to acknowledge the effort and work you undertook to clean up the rubbish in Tyagarah Nature Reserve. This is a very important Reserve for the many plants and animals that call this place their home.  Thanks you for caring for this part of Country.

Once a week, Classes K to 5 have a eurythmy lesson, accompanied by Ken Naughton on piano, in our beautiful eurythmy room. Here is a summary of our recent work. I look forward to lots more lovely work in the new year.

Class 1
In Class 1 Eurythmy we have continued our exploration of movement to music and speech adding various arm gestures representing vowels and consonants. Most of these elements have been woven into stories inspired by the folktales The Turnip and Tiddilick. These have helped build on and develop the children’s spatial awareness and their relationship to the world around them.
 
Class 2
Class 2 Eurythmy has had a stronger emphasis on movement in formation. This has allowed each child the opportunity to practice adapting their own movement into a larger social group, as well as developing their own initiative and courage. Our main spring-themed lesson has been a eurythmy form called We Seek One Another,  a square form with a curbed crossing. Working with this form has helped the children to adjust quickly to a change in orientation whilst moving in time to music and a verse of Banjo Patterson’s, The Australian Way.
 
Class 3
As the children’s appreciation and understanding of music has grown this year, so has the complexity of expression in eurythmy. Class 3 commenced Term 3 by learning the C major scale, and then moved with it on the Crown Form. Later in Term 4 they moved to the music Star of Ester. Exercises with copper rods and concentration exercises have also been a major focus. 
 
Class 4
To support the Class 4 child's growing independence and the development of their feeling life, we started Term 3 experiencing major and minor chords in tone eurythmy. This term, we have worked on a choreographic form called the Harmonious Eight, in which we focused on slowing ourselves down and moving harmoniously with each other in time with the music. Rod exercises and concentration exercises continued in Class 4, with an emphasis on precision and, increasingly, calling on the individual child's initiative. 
 
Class 5
Commencing in Term 3, Class 5  has continued with dynamic fast rhythmical movement, with lots of jumping and thematic repetition. In the Hall of the Mountain King and The Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker have been favourite music pieces for this work. In conclusion to all the dynamic work this year, Class 5 are also enjoying the relative peace and calm of the Harmonious Eight. Rod exercises, such as Waterfall and Nightsong, have been a mainstay, where we either pass our rods on to our neighbours or drop and catch in rapid succession.
 

This term, in Hummingbee Kindy, we have been busy boat-builders. We began by each making our own sanding block for smoothing our hulls, cabins, masts and paddles. Next we dyed our sails to catch the breeze and, finally, we painted the hulls. Today, with much excitement, we headed down to the Brunswick River, to launch our fleet. 
 
Earlier in the term, we expressed our gratitude for our brave fire fighters by baking them a batch of crunchy buns, and a lovingly made book of drawings with messages composed by each child. We received this letter of thanks from the firies this week…
 
To all the dear kids at Hummingbee Kindergarten,
Thank you for all the beautiful pictures and support.
Everyone enjoyed the crunchy buns. They gave us all the energy we needed to fight the fires.
We are looking now forward to holidays and camping with our friends and family.
Lots of love and a big thank you from the whole crew at Mullum RFS.
Ryan, Neville, Mark, Leah, Chris, Alex, Sasha, Josh, Phill, Ron, Phil, John, James and Paul
 
During playtime, our Portuguese-speaking children have been teaching their friends some clapping games in Portuguese; the monkey bars continue to provide challenges and we've been working hard on our garden - fixing pavers and paths, weeding and harvesting.
 
We enjoyed a beautiful festival with our families, sharing with them the story of Dripple and Dropple and their journey from Mother Cushion Cloud, down to help Bella Billabong find her way to Mother Ocean, where they met many friends. Following our delicious feast we headed off for a treasure hunt in our garden, each child hunting for the little clay bird-feeder they had made, which was filled with kindy treasures for them to carry with them across to Class 1.

We had a lovely time meeting our new Class 1 teacher, Maria, a few weeks ago and the children are so looking forward to all they will learn with her next year. 
 
We wish all of our children and their families a restful and relaxed holiday and a smooth transition to Primary School. Thank you all for our beautiful year together.

Joanne and the Hummingbee Team

My experience? Honestly? Thrilling. It was a Rock Lobster! - Jaspa 

My experience with WAVE provided lots of new opportunities and learning experiences and I felt I improved a lot, whilst still having a good time and learning how to cooperate with a group in a fairly professional environment. The performances were eclectic, unique entertaining and unexpected. - Kingston

I found the overall show full of fun yet stressful as well. It was amazing to see the entire show evolve from a few progressing props and dances to an entire masterpiece! - Sophie. 
 
During WAVE I had the opportunity to work as part of the tech crew. This was the best experience ever. I had so much fun and got a lot out of it! - Flynn
  
Although the build up can be quite overwhelming. The overall show is an experience you never forget. - Anonymous

The amount of work and commitment that goes into each WAVE show is outstanding. It feels amazing to be a part of something so big. - Noni. 
 
It was so good I wished it would last longer. - Jeremy 

It was good to see it go from a bit of a mess to really well done! - Tyger-Lilly
 
Such an opportunity for everyone of all ages and skills to come together and work on such a big show is incredible, the outcome being so positive and satisfying. I loved every minute, helping paint sets, choreograph and learn the dances and being fully involved. - Bianca
 
Everyone is super supportive, knowing we are all working together on this amazing project. - Bianca
 
The music was amazing and the concepts of each section were clear. 
  
Wave was as usual very stressful… but in the best way possible. It was an amazing feeling being on stage, knowing all the work and commitment leading up to it. - Anonymous
 
I did backstage crew in WAVE and I really enjoyed it. - Oliver
 
I love how the whole high school came together and there was no judgement - Hili 

The process was stressful but I felt great when I saw all the props that I helped paint on stage, it feels like a bit of you is on stage. Overall it was a fun and interesting experience. - Sam
 
It was my first WAVE and it was actually really exciting. Music was really fun and the costumes were amazing. I really liked coming back every night and improving. Overall, stressful but super fun. - Miya

At the end of Term 3, Class 6C started a small sewing project. Each student sewed a square with their chosen virtue on it. As a class they decided to create a quilt and donate it to the aged care facility in Pottsville. The class presented the quilt to the residents and performed a repertoire of violin and cello pieces and songs, which were received with gratitude and joy. It was a wonderful morning getting to know one another. Both the students and elders are very keen to continue this relationship next year.

This term, the Year 11 students went to Southern Cross University in Lismore to participate in the RRISK Seminar. RRISK is an organisation that informs young people about the responsibilities and risks that come with drugs, alcohol and driving.

It was a really informative day. Paul Dillon from DARTA (Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia) spoke about strategies for planning ahead to reduce harm from drug and alcohol use. Paul was a really engaging speaker who knew his stuff and what was relevant to our age group. There were lots of lessons to take away from this presentation, such as - bread won’t sober you up and could be fatal; always eat a small amount of food if you intend on drinking; drink water if you’re consuming alcohol; don’t force water into intoxicated people let them drink water as they please; and that a lot of young people die from drug and alcohol overdose and this can be prevented from simple strategies including having someone sober nearby. Drugs can stay in your system for more than 48 hours. If you’re under the influence and think you're feeling fine you probably aren’t and shouldn’t drive. Youth living in this area are twice as likely to be randomly tested for drugs and alcohol and positive tests can result in servere penalties  that can impact your future. DARTA has lots of great information available on their website darta.net.au.

The second presenter was Justin Monk, an RMS vehicle regulations inspector, who talked about safe cars and buying and maintaining your first vehicle. He also taught  us about the hazards that come with sharing the road with other vehicles, including the risks around trucks.

All in all there was lots to learn and this is just a snapshot of a broad subject that is very important for youth and their parents to be informed about .

Year 11 student