Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week saw the beginning of Lent marked with Ash Wednesday. As a school we celebrated with a liturgy led by our Leaders of Vision and Mission. It was an opportunity to reflect on the true meaning and purpose of Lent in the lead up to Easter.

At the Ash Wednesday mass Fr Joe shared the Pope’s Lenten message. It was a great reminder of what fasting really means. I am sharing this with you also as it was a message that I felt was quite powerful. 

May the spirit of Lent be with you and your family as we prepare for the death and resurrection of Christ.

What a celebration our Opening mass was this week. A perfect way to start the year, commission our leaders, welcome new families and staff and to recognise us as a Catholic community. Thank you to the children for their reverence, to the parents who were able to join us, the glorious choir and to Fr Joe who led us in prayer.

God Bless

Belinda Hughes

Principal

This week we are introducing to our House Colour Captains:

What a wonderful start to the school year!  

It is absolutely amazing to see smiling faces all over the school as we settle into our new classes with old and new friends.  Grade Masses will begin next week at our church with Fr Joe, and this week we enjoyed our Opening of the School Year Mass with the Commissioning of Leaders. We are very proud of Year 6 who will lead the school this year reverencing the story of all people in faith, hope and love.

Welcome to Lent! We've had the pancakes and the ashes, but there's a lot more to this season that ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It can be hard for children to understand a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter so why not sit with them and discuss how they can follow the example of Jesus by helping those a little less fortunate through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

God Bless

Alicia Sanchez-Levine

Religious Education Coordinator

Project Compassion

DONATE NOW - LINK

https://schools.projectcompassion.org.au/o/stella-maris-catholic-primary-school-shellharbour

We began Lent last week, a time when we make an effort to consider others, to break down barriers and to support those who are on the margins. 

On Tuesday 13 February, Stella Maris’ Year 6 Captains Gianna Jaksic and Mason Jimenez, represented our school with Mrs Hughes at the launch of this year’s Project Compassion.  It was a beautiful Liturgy led by Bishop Brian, who reminded us of our role as the body and hands of God in this world to help those who need us most and to raise awareness and funds - ‘For All Future Generations.’

Project Compassion is Caritas Australia's annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal.  Stella Maris’ vision as ‘a faith-filled, respectful community of learners’ engages us in our mission to ‘reverence the story of all people’ and as such lead us this year to begin raising funds to support all future generations.  Our Year 6 Leaders of Vision & Mission have led this year's Project Compassion campaign for the school.  Students are getting involved this year in classes by watching the stories of Project Compassion and helping with fundraising.

Your generous support can help change lives today - and For All Future Generations.

Each child at school should now have brought a box home to assist with fundraising.  Please encourage family members to give generously.  Once your box is full, bring it back to school and we will add the funds to the on-going total.  Together, we can make a difference!

Another way to donate is to use this LINK

https://schools.projectcompassion.org.au/o/stella-maris-catholic-primary-school-shellharbour

We sincerely thank the principal of Corpus Christi Rob Muscat for driving the Stella and Nazareth teams in their school bus to the Project Compassion Launch.  Together we truely come together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day

A huge thank you to everyone who bought Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, as well as Kim Nowakowski and the Parents & Friends for assisting in making and serving pancakes at the canteen before school to fundraise for Project Compassion.  We managed to raise over $500 to help alleviate poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity in the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in the world.  Well done everybody!

Ash Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday we celebrated a liturgy under the COLA led by the Leaders of Vision and Mission.  The students were extremely reverent and honoured to receive their ashes, making promises to return to God during Lent through acts of love and compassion.

Opening School Year & Commissioning of Leaders Mass

On Tuesday, we celebrated the opening of our school year and our Year 6 leaders Mass for 2024.  May we open our eyes to the new challenges and exciting opportunities that this new school year brings. Let us open our hearts and minds to new friends and teachers.  God, give us the courage to accept new opportunities and responsibilities. We ask God’s blessing on our school and our schoolwork, our students and teachers, our parents and friends, our sports and activities, and on everything that is part of our school, family and community. 

Grade Masses at Stella Maris 

These Masses take place at our Stella Maris Church on Tuesdays at 9:30am.  Parents, grandparents and carers are most welcome to attend.  Please find below a schedule of the Masses for Term 1, 2024.  

Yr 5 Week 5 27 February  

Yr 4 Week 6 5 March

Yr 3 Week 7 12 March

Yr 2   Week 8 19 March

Yr 1   Week 9 26 March

Kinder  in Term 2, 2024

All Saints Catholic Parish NEWS            

Programme for the Sacrament of Penance - Reconciliation (Year 3 Students)

Timetable of Events after the Vigil/Sunday Masses:  

19 February-March: Workshops began at Stella and Nazareth.  These workshops will continue for 4 consecutive weeks.  

24/25 February: Distribution of Holy Cards with Act of Contrition

2 / 3 March: Examination of the children’s ability to recite the Act of Contrition.  Parents are also asked to recite the Act.

9/10 March: Parents advised of ceremonies for First Reconciliation.

16 March 11 am: Celebration of Reconciliation

If there are any questions related to any of the Sacraments, please contact the parish office via email shellharbourcity@dow.org.au

KINDERGARTEN ENROLMENTS

Kindergarten 2025 enrolments are now open online via our website- https://www.smsdow.catholic.edu.au/enrol/

Enrolments will close at the end of term so we urge you to go online and submit your application as early as possible.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN 2024 is scheduled to take place between 4 and 12 March. The schedule for Stella Maris is as follows:

Wednesday 13 March - Writing

Monday 18 March - Reading

Tuesday 19 March - Conventions of Language

Wednesday 20 March - Numeracy 

The National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy, assesses students’ in Year 3 and 5 across three Literacy areas - Reading, Writing and Language Conventions, and in Numeracy. All assessments, except for the Year 3 writing test, are completed online using an adaptive process. This process monitors students’ responses, and based on their accuracy, selects the difficulty level of the next group of questions. This adaptive process produces more precise data about what students know and understand. You can find information for parents at https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/for-parents-carers 

This assessment scheme is one of many ways we collect student data, and while NAPLAN data is important, and we want all students to perform at their best, it is absolutely unnecessary for students or parents to be worried about these assessments. Students are well-prepared at school by building familiarity with the processes needed, and have had similar experiences during PAT assessments completed every year. Please minimise any discussions at home about this assessment, and avoid creating any pressure on students about it by practising or studying. The students are well-prepared at school through their regular classroom teaching and practises where needed. 

PIVOT SURVEY

This year, the students in years 3-6 will be participating in a PIVOT wellbeing program. The Catholic Education Office has supported many schools across the Diocese in implementing this program over the last few years. The program aims to help school’s better support student wellbeing and to give students more voice and agency in their learning communities. Please refer to the Compass notification on insights to learn more about this program. 

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS PARENT RESEARCH PROJECT

Last week we shared the opportunity to be involved in a nation wide research project that Stella Maris had been selected to participate in. The project aims to gather from schools effective communication methods and strategies used to communicate with parents. If you would like to be considered to be involved in the project on Tuesday 27 February please contact the school office.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING 

Students at Stella Maris Catholic Primary School participate in Social and Emotional Learning programs that are part of the school curriculum. These programs aim to enhance the mental health and well-being of all students. 

Additionally, we conduct a mental health and well-being survey with our Years 3 - 6 students, which provides us with meaningful data around the internal strengths, feelings and behaviours of all the students in each year group. This data allows us to provide large groups of students with extra support through 30 minute lessons each week, facilitated by Mr Price. 

This year, we have added another level of support for a smaller group of students who, for various reasons, would benefit from more intensive and targeted support. These students will identify their own social or emotional goals with Mr Holgate, who will plan and implement lessons and practise strategies with these students each week. These opportunities will include a combination of 1:1 lessons, small group playground and/or classroom support to practise specific skills. 

If your child has been identified as someone who would benefit from extra support with Mr Price or Mr Holgate, you will receive a letter about this.

CONDOLENCES

This week we pray for Mrs Heddles and Ms Bongailis whose father and grandfather passed away last week surrounded by his family.

P & F CALL OUT

Thank you to all parents who were able to join us for our first AGM and GM on Monday night. 

I welcome the new executive for 2024.

President - Kim Nowakowski

Vice President - Karla Atley

Secretary - TO BE FILLED

Treasurer - Lucy Timpano

Diocesan Representative Sport

It is a busy start to the year for representative sport. The Diocesan representative pathway for 2024 is well underway with Basketball and Tennis completing their first round of trials at the end of 2023. In February we have several Stella Maris students trialling in the sports of Touch Football, AFL and Cricket. Students who were successful/unsuccessful in their nominations will be notified in the coming weeks, in order of the trials. We wish all our students the best of luck in each of their sporting pursuits.

South Coast Swimming Carnival Team

Students who have been selected to attend the South Coast Swimming Carnival will be notified by the end of this week (Week 2). After lengthy discussions, there will be no swim squad this year with results from the school carnival being final. New students to the school will have the opportunity to nominate current times across all events which will be cross checked with previous results. After this, a decision will be made around the inclusion of these students as ‘independent’ (representing the South Coast Carnival as an independent swimmer, not a Stella Maris representative).

For more information on Diocesan sport, Gala Days, event information and dates, please make yourself familiar with the CEO DOW website and look through the Sport section. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the school.

Mrs Sablowski

Sports Coordinator

Canteen News

We are a school run canteen and rely on volunteers to operate.

Canteen is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to make and prepare lunch orders and serve the children over the counter.

Online orders can be made via the My School Connect app - www.myschoolconnect.com.au/stellamarisps click on create account.

St Joseph's Catholic High School

Enrolling Now - Year 7 2025/2026 Open Afternoon and Information Evening

Enrolments are now open for Year 7 2025 and Year 7 2026. We are also accepting enrolment applications for other year groups.

On Wednesday 28 February, prospective students and families are warmly invited to see first-hand what St Joseph's has to offer.

• School tours will depart hourly at 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm. 
• Tour bookings are essential and can be made using the TryBooking website
• An Information Session will be held in the Hall at 7:00 pm to allow families the opportunity to participate in both a School Tour and the Information Session

Applications have moved to a digital platform this year. Please head to the Enrolments section on our website or scan the QR code below for the Open Afternoon Try Booking Link and Enrolment Form: 

Corpus Christi Catholic High School 

Enrolments now open. 

Open Night is on 6 March 2024 4pm to 7pm - all welcome.