The end of the school year brings a torrent of waves, surging voluptuously, towards the end of term. Teachers experience the need to finish main lessons and fill in gaps, before the new year arrives. Then there’s assessing the children, formally and informally, with a view to school reports, looming so large during November. Adding to the picture, many classes work on their class plays, verses and music introduced from early in the term.

The Class Play! Our little ones, so vibrant and full of energy, learning to work together, oblivious to the impact they have on each other, waif-like, they barely have their heels on the ground. It’s not the final performance that sums up the whole, it’s the piecing together of the fabric of the class along the way, that has a lasting effect. Steiner indicated that throughout the younger years, before Class 5, the children are rarely able to put their new-formed selves aside to embody a character. Then there is the transformation at around 11 years of age, enabling the child to live into a character and meet the audience whole-heartedly, as someone other than themselves. Main lesson stories and characters are drawn, written about, discussed and embodied. Then with many aspects of the play already under their belts, the Class Teacher brings the play to the class. Roles are sought after, some are evident, some therapeutic, others left begging. There is choral work, backstage, costumes, and always music, that brings the play to life.

You may ask why this work is honoured with so much time and space in Steiner education? Why do we revere storytelling and drama? At Shearwater, the work in the Primary classes establishes the foundations within the children, for our High School teachers to recognise, acknowledge, utilise, and mould into the dynamic program and performance that is WAVE. Indeed, we do this to bring the young human being to its fullest potential — to extend; to provide boundaries; to nourish growth through experiencing working alongside one another; pulling and pushing together; meeting new horizons; striving towards aspirations, and supporting each other to achieve the same; holding hands, listening and growing together.

As parents, you come in at the end, often not until later in Primary School, to witness the final product — The Performance, a result of the long, growth-full process that underpins the class play. The performance has brought the class together, discovering success and elation through sharing the fruits of their labours; an achievement to be reflected upon in years to come; preparation for the future, when working collaboratively is the key to productive outcomes.

We offer our High School students an amazing opportunity to explore individual choice and skill development through WAVE. When I first arrived at Shearwater in 2018, I volunteered to support WAVE behind the scenes, where students prepared to perform. Each student had a choice to commit and take personal responsibility to work collaboratively towards the production of WAVE. I observed the students working around each other, knowing themselves and the other, with respect and purpose.

This is the outcome of freedom to make choices, to know thy self and work collaboratively. To celebrate being a part of a whole, a breathing, thriving organism that is holistic and alive — the Class Play in a broader sense. A community Class Play. After experiencing now quite a few class plays and WAVE in various forms, it is with wonder and a lot of work, supportive of each other, students of all ages, and teachers in every sphere of the School, that we move forward together, always aware of the stages of development of the human being — our precious youngsters, the budding middle years, our blossoming teens and our graduates, bearing with them the fruits of schooling at Shearwater. Now these young adults are about to go forth into the play of life - with inner strength and with our blessings.

Linda Mayer
Shearwater College

This term, several of our High School students attended a Try a Trade day at Kingscliff TAFE where they participated in practical activities and demonstrations, including house building, brick laying, electrical work and mechanics, as well as trying out a working at heights virtual reality simulator.

The students then got to put their new skills into action at the Kingscliff Hospital work site, building scaffolds and plastering, as well as installing ducting and fire safe devices. It was a great day and everyone came away from it with a better picture of the training and career options available to them.

Lachlan Gibbs
High School Science Teacher

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​In Class 6, it has been a busy semester with a series of Main Lessons that have allowed these twelve- and thirteen-year-old children to delve deeply into a range of learning areas, with the expanding intellect that characterises early adolescence. The Class 6 curriculum provides many wonderful opportunities to connect our academic studies with real-life situations and lived experiences.

In English, the children explored and extended their understanding of different text types, with a focus on narrative and persuasive texts. The persuasive text task involved a collaborative learning exercise, in which the children wrote a letter to our Head of School, James Goodlet, outlining their ideas for new playground facilities — a great opportunity to use persuasive writing techniques in a real life context.

Our key numeracy study this semester was business maths, in which the students created an imaginary business, selling products or services. We explored a variety of mathematical concepts during this Main Lesson, including creating tables, using the four processes, calculating costs, business incomings and revenue, marketing and finally calculating profit (or loss). 

In Science, we explored light and colour, for which our classroom became a darkroom! The students discovered that colours are the result of the interaction between light and darkness, as exemplified in the rainbow. When we study the human eye we see this secret mirrored — between the white of the eye and the black of the pupil, spreads the coloured band of the iris, which is the Greek word for rainbow. Each experiment in light was conducted in a phenomenological way, with observation, recording observations and reflection as the main way of gauging experience.

Exciting work! But the highlight of the year for Class 6D was our Geography study — a wonderfully experiential exploration of the Kosciuszko National Park, including a trip to the nation’s capital. In visiting and interacting with a number of environments very different to that of their home communities, the children extended their appreciation for, and knowledge of, a range of geographical landscapes and environments.

We also visited the Old and New Houses of Parliament, as part of our study of Governance, and took the opportunity to explore the intersection of art and personality at the National Portrait Gallery.
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In the high country, the children were fortunate enough to enjoy the full spectrum of mountain weather - from bluebird conditions, to wind, sleet and falling snow. During our stay in Jindabyne we experienced one of the largest dumps of snow seen this year. To experience the uniquely beautiful Australian Alps fully blanketed in snow is something that will live with these children forever. It also meant that our final day of skiing and snow-boarding saw us carving up some of the best powder the mountains had seen in years! 

Dallas Hewett
Class 6 Teacher

It was so incredible to see our audiences back on site enjoying the show after two years of in-house performances. And we couldn’t do it without the creative genius of all of you fabulous makers, doers, builders, sewers and dreamers who give so much time, energy and love to the event.

​We hope you will join us again next year - same time, same place, new vision! Plans are already afoot for WAVE 2023. Keep an eye out for the launch of the costume competition in autumn.

Congratulations to the winners listed below (and to everyone who got a garment across the finish line and onto the catwalk!).

Don't miss our show gallery on the WAVE website and stand by for the Horizons video and announcement of next year's show early next year.

And the winners are…

Overall Grand Winner (Gold Sponsor James Hardware Mitre 10, Mullumbimby)
Dame Denim by Tiehj Kerry

Director’s Award (Gold Sponsor James Hardware Mitre 10, Mullumbimby)
Punkcycle by Olivia Weir & Jasmine Von Bertouch  (Year 10 Shearwater)   

Section 1 – The Event Horizon (Bronze Sponsor Fuji Xerox Business Centre Northern Rivers)
Winner — Kaleidoscope Bloom by Kirra Canty
Highly Commended — Space Oddity by Tobsha Haig (Year 11 Shearwater) 

Section 2 – Punk Bricolage (Bronze Sponsor Oliver’s Hens)
Winner — Honestly Trash by Lucette Richer, Mika Asherovitch & Lennox Thomson (Year 10 Shearwater)
Highly Commended — Punk Princess by Scarlett Rushton (Year 7 Shearwater)

Section 3 – Headdress single garment section (Bronze Sponsors Fuji Xerox Business Centre Northern Rivers & Oliver’s Hens)
Winner — Space Pilgrim by Serena Susanna-Davies
Highly Commended — Starry Night Van Gogh by Maggie Wretham  

Section 4 – Double Denim Dynamite (Akash Waddell, Outdoorism Camp Store, Murwillumbah & Joy Ben-Hur)
Winner — Let Them Eat Cake: Marie Antoinette in Denim by Maggie Wretham  

Section 5 – Love the Earth (Mercurius & Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Seminar)
Winner -- Freyja the Warrior Goddess of Love by Elke Van Rees
Highly Commended — Our Love of the Earth Chronology by Sumari Geitz (Year 11 Shearwater)    

Creative Use of Materials (Bronze Sponsor Baxter & Jacobson Architects)
Om Mane Gerard’s Tide of Love/Deirdre’s Diameter of Consciousness/Nick’s A Bit of This and That Creativity by Michael Lester                

Emerging Artist (Crystal Castle)
Punk Princess by Scarlett Rushton (Year 7 Shearwater)

Youth Award —18 years and under (Elena B Williams Music)
Space Oddity by Tobsha Haig (Year 11 Shearwater)  

Youth Award — 12 years and under (Delzoppo Occupational Therapy Services)
Promised to Punk by Luzius Rushton & Aston Lawrence (Year 6 Shearwater)  

​Internal Student Award
The Queen is Dead, All Hail the People by Aimee Green, Eliana Mutimer-Korn, Nina Backhausen & Erin Bulmer (Year 10 Shearwater)