Dear Parents and Carers

This week I have asked all our children to be aware of the impact drought is having on the farming families of our state and country. We are an extremely environmentally conscious school and I think as Catholics it is good to pray for all those who are impacted by the hardships of drought. We should be aware of the financial burden it is having on families in order to access water and food as well as the emotional impact of having to sell or even worse put down animals because they
can’t be fed. I ask parents to consider raising awareness of the drought with their children and finding time, maybe at mealtime to pray for farming families who, unlike us do not have an abundance of food and even water.

RETIREMENT                                          

At our Parish Masses on the weekend it was announced that Monsignor Bryan Jones, our Parish Priest, is retiring at the end of the year from parish ministry. Monsignor Bryan was ordained in 1964 and has served as Parish Priest at Fairy Meadow, Campbelltown and for the past 22 years, at Shellharbour City Parish. He has held many other positions of responsibility in the diocese and is highly respected for his dedication and wisdom. Father Joseph Nguyen will now be appointed Administrator of All Saints Parish effective from 12 December 2019. Fr Nguyen has worked in a number of parishes in the diocese, most recently in the Parish of Camden for nearly five years. We, as a school community wish Monsignor Bryan well and we look forward to having an opportunity to say thank you for all he has done for us.

WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY

A big thank you to the Parents’ and Friends’ Association for preparing breakfast for the staff last Tuesday to celebrate World Teachers’ Day. They were ably assisted by the Year 6 Hospitality Leaders and the teachers very much appreciated the beautiful food. It is wonderful to have such appreciative parents at Stella Maris.

1:1 iPad YEAR 4 PARENT MEETING

There will be information sessions for Year 4 Parents in preparation for the children being involved in next year’s Stage 3 1:1 iPad Program. The first session is this afternoon in the school library from 3.30-4.30pm with a repeat being held next
Monday 11 November at 6.30pm. I ask parents to attend one of these compulsory sessions, given the potential issues that can and do arise both at home and at school, when children use technology in an inappropriate way. We will also be able to share with parents key aspects of the Diocesan Social Media Policy, which will be implemented in all schools from the start of the 2020 school year.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS 

Gospel

Lk 20:27-38

The Sadducees try to put Jesus in conflict with Moses.

All Saints Catholic Parish Shellharbour

Mass times: All Saints Church

19 College Ave, Shellharbour City

Saturday   6.00pm Vigil 

Sunday     9.00am inc. Children’s Liturgy

                5.00pm (6.00pm daylight saving)

Mass at Stella Maris 

We would like to welcome all friends and families to the following School Masses this Term at Stella Maris.

Stage 3 Mass 19 November 

Stage 2 Mass 26 November 

Kinder & Yr 1 Mass 10 December

All Saints Mass - 1 November  

Students from Nazareth and Stella Maris came together to celebrate Mass on 1 November.  

Monsignor Bryan celebrated this special Feast Day Mass with the students.

All Saints' Day is a solemn holy day of the Catholic Church celebrated annually on November 1. The day is dedicated to the saints of the Church, that is, all those who have attained heaven.  All Saints' Day is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation, meaning all Catholics are required to attend Mass on that day.

After Mass the students from both schools came together to share morning tea in the Nazareth playground.

All Soul’s Day - 2 November 

All Souls Day is a holy day set aside for honoring the dead. It commemorates the faithful departed.

At this time we remember all the departed in our own families and communities.

Julie Hopkins

Acting Religious Education Coordinator

Compass

Compass is the new administration and finance system now used at Stella Maris School.  All communication will now go through Compass, this will include your child's report. We will no longer be printing any hard copies of reports, they will only be available on your parent portal, details of which were sent to you earlier this year.  Please log into Compass using your personal login details.  If you do not have your login details, please come into the school office and new details can be printed for you.

Other items that will appear on Compass include permission notes and payment where necessary,  for excursions, attendance and the ability to input all absences directly into your child's record.  We will now be asking all parents to put absences into Compass directly and not to send emails or letters explaining absences, therefore, reducing paper trails and helping our environment.

Parents are able to updated their phone numbers and email addresses directly into Compass and we would ask that parents keep these up to date and remove any outdated items in case of any emergency for your child/ren.  

Thank you for your urgent attention to this.

NSW CPSBC
We were very proud of our ten Stella Maris teams that travelled to Albury for the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Basketball Challenge. (CPSBC).  All teams played some challenging games over the weekend, developing their game play and skills. Some teams made it through their first game on Sunday to play in semi-finals, finals and grand finals, with two teams bringing home “Runners Up” medals.  Congratulations to our Senior Girls Green team, Division 4 runners up, after beating our own Stella Maris Blue in the semi final. Well done also to our Junior Boys gold team, Division 2 runners up. Special mention to our Senior Girls Gold team, finishing in Division 1, 7th in the state, narrowly losing their semi final.  Also to our Junior Girls Gold team, who also finished as a Division 1 team, losing their semi final 9-6.

We were impressed with how each team played together, sharing and passing the ball efficiently down the court, with each basket the result of a team effort. Players displayed excellent sportsmanship throughout,never giving up, right to the final siren of each game.  

Thank you to our coaches and managers for the time spent in developing each team in the lead up to the weekend.  The weekend was a great time for the Stella Maris Community, with plenty of time for team dinners, swims, social play and other get togethers.

We would like to thank 2 ex-students who assisted our teams.  Jai De Gouveia, who assisted in coaching the Senior Boys Green team and Jed Lorkin who was our first ever referee at these championships.  We look forward to seeing many more ex-students assisting in the future.

A huge thank you to the P&F for your support in purchasing new basketball shirts, ensuring each player was in the new uniform.  We had many compliments on how professional we looked.

Please note that we do not know the venue for next year as no school has come forward to host as yet.  Expressions of interest to host, have been extended to 16th November. As soon as we are made aware of the venue and dates for 2020, we will post an announcement on Compass.

GOLD AWARDS