Dear Father,

As we approach our Term One holiday, we pray for ourselves and for our world, especially the people of Ukraine and those trying to rebuild their lives following the devastating floods.

We thank you for the luxury of having a break, for refreshment and rest from work.

We pray for those whose lives are made harder and busier by school holidays, and we pray for those without the luxury of a holiday. May your peace be known in their daily lives.

We pray for health, that we may return from our break, safe and well.

Lord God of Sabbath rest, make yourself known to us afresh, that all our days may become holy days, to the glory of your name.

We ask this through Christ our Lord,                 

AMEN. 

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As we approach the April holidays, I would like to sincerely thank our students, staff and parents for their hard work throughout the term, a term that has seen us deal with unprecedented increasing COVID-19 cases and the impact of such. This has caused disruption to families and to the school, but we feel blessed that those who have suffered from this virus, have mostly managed to bounce back to full health. Our school remains a busy, dynamic place to learn and work together and it is that spirit of collegiality that will serve us well as a school community, as we embrace the challenges and successes that we will face during the next three terms.

At the end of this term, we farewell Ms Tina Porter, Ms Emma Tory and Ms Jessica  Lamphee, all who are preparing to welcome new babies into their families in the coming weeks. We wish them all the best for the healthy arrival of their children, and we look forward to meeting the new additions sometime in Term 2. To replace our leaving staff, Sarah Napier will be taking on the role of 6 Blue teacher until the end of Term 4. Sarah comes to Stella Maris from Holy Family Ingleburn and is excited to be joining our community. Annalise Daphne will take on the fulltime teaching of 2 Blue. Annalise has been job sharing with Emma Tory during Term 1 but will now assume full responsibility for the children in 2 Blue. Angela Cinco will replace Jessica Lamphee as a School Support Officer, assisting teachers and students within the classroom. We welcome Sarah, Annalise and Angela into their new roles and our wonderful school community.

Please note that students will return to school in Term 2 wearing their summer uniform.  The official change over to the winter uniform is Monday, 9 May  (Week 3 Term 2). However, the winter uniform may be worn from the commencement of Term 2 if parents and carers feel that the weather necessitates the need to do so. All children will need to be in their full winter uniform on 9 May ready for school photos which will occur on Tuesday 17 May.       

PRINCIPAL’S LUNCH

Tomorrow, I will be hosting a Principal’s Lunch for the following students who received the most Dojo Points in their class this term. All students have worked hard both in the classroom and in building positive relationships with others. I look forward to celebrating with the following children:

KB -  Maggie Herbert, Brody Noakes

KG - Taylor Chapman, Eden Mace

1B - Mia McKenna, Spencer Nascimento

1G -Indie Cohen, Max Patterson 

2B - Harry Kenneally, Sienna Cole

2G - Macey Hodgson, Riley O'Shea

3B - Aaron Perry, Sianna Mickovski

3G -Sienna Keane, Davey McMullen

4B - Jess Grogan, Harry Thomson

4G - Alanah Toskoski, Liam Neuschwanger

5B - Charlie Zammit, Jayden Toskoski

5G -Siair Paillas, Nathaniel Kelemete, Max Chinnock,

      Maison Benson

6B -Sophie Grogan, Kobi Howard-Shilling 

6G -Halle Stannard, Nash Lewis

CLASS OF THE TERM

Each week, points are allocated and a trophy presented to the classes for their attention during assemblies and for the manner in which they move off in class lines. The class with the most points for the term will be rewarded with a pizza party. This term’s winner will be announced next week and they will receive the reward early in Term Two.

BIG VEGGIE CRUNCH

Today, the children at Stella Maris participated in the Big Veggie Crunch. We joined hundreds of schools across NSW to break the record for the most students crunching vegetables at the same time. The aim was to highlight the importance of eating more vegetables and collectively and simultaneously, eat vegetables at 10am. Statistics tell us that only 5% of NSW children eat enough vegetables. So, by participating in this event, we were on a mission to change that stat,by increasing children's knowledge, exposure and positive attitudes towards vegetables.

Thank you for supporting this initiative.

HARMONY DAY

Last week we celebrated Harmony Day, thinking about the diversity of our community and the need to come together and to better understand
each other. The children looked fantastic in their orange-based clothing and generously donated money to go towards Project Compassion.
Celebrating days such as Harmony Day can often trigger thoughts in children and gets them thinking beyond themselves. One such highlight comes from Madison in 2B who proudly wanted to share her writing with me last week. Madison  writes:                                                             

‘Harmony Day is exciting. You get to wear orange clothes for a whole day. Usually, you wear your school clothes. Stella Maris is the best school ever. It may be Catholic, but you learn about Jesus and God. At Stella Maris, everybody is unique in their own way. Stella Maris Catholic School is where you share love, kindness and the Holy Spirit. Mr Sykes is the Principal and Miss Crandell helps around the school. She buys stuff for the school. The nuns look after us. We do not say God is not inside you because you do have God in you. Everybody does. But if you do not and you want God inside you then be kind and love others’.

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ACTION

As a Catholic school, we aim to teach our students to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and to be aware of our catholic social teaching principles of ‘Life and dignity of the human person; call to family, community, and participation; rights and responsibilities’ just to name a few. We encourage them to be aware of the needs of others and where possible, do something of a positive nature to help where they can.

Recently, we had one very special student from Stella Maris, see a need and do something about it. Anabella Condy from 2B had a conversation with a friend of hers from a different school who discussed the devastation of the floods in NSW and Queensland. They talked about what they could do to help the people affected by this natural disaster. They enlisted their parents to help get their ideas into action and they set up a stall selling chocolates, drinks and sausage sizzles. They organised raffles and face painting, all to raise as much money as they could for a very 

worthy cause. Their stall was a huge success and the girls raised just over $3300. Their nominated charity was the Australian Red Cross. As a school, we are so very proud of Anabella and her social justice action. She certainly  epitomises all of what we proclaim here at Stella Maris. In Anabella’s own words when asked how did this experience make you feel? She said ‘It made me feel good because I was doing something that Jesus would have done. I helped other people’. Congratulations Anabella.

SPORTS NEWS

MacKillop Swimming Trials

Recently, we had six children attend the MacKillop swimming trials in Sydney. Siair Paillas and Oscar Creighton were selected for their respective age groups for the 50m Freestyle and our Junior Boys relay team. Congratulations to Hugo Manns, Blake Langendam, Harry Thomson and Reid Coehlo on finishing second in the relay event at the trials. In doing so, they have now been selected to represent Mackillop at the PSSA Swimming Carnival, which will be held next week. This is a wonderful  achievement and we are so proud of all six children. We wish the relay team all the very best at their next event. Well done boys and girls!     

Diocesan Trials
Over the last few weeks, many children have participated in Diocesan Trials for their respective sports. These include:

Tennis-Julian Mastroianni and Ryze Smith

Soccer- Jayden Toskoski

Netball- Lily Griggs and Mia Barrett

Hockey- Maya Huetter

Rugby League-Harry Riddell, Tane Te Nana, Mason Soligo Tahj Dimond, Peyton Gelfius, Max Chinnock, and Ryan Floyd

Cricket - Maya Huetter

Congratulations to all students who tried their best. Special congratulations to Julian, Maya (hockey), Harry, Tane, Mason and Tahj who have been selected in the Diocesan teams to compete at MacKillop trials. Well done!

Cross Country

Last week we held our school Cross Country carnival. We were fortunate with the weather to get the carnival completed. There was great atmosphere at the oval and the children were very supportive of their peers. It was also wonderful to see so many parents, grandparents and friends there, which really contributed to community feel of the day. Congratulations to the forty-seven children who have been selected for the train on squad and will begin their training this week. Following the training sessions, a squad of twenty-four runners will be selected (3 per age group) to represent Stella Maris at the Diocesan Cross Country Carnival, which will be held at the Willandra Course, Nowra on Tuesday 3 May (Week 2). Weather permitting, the children will continue to train in the next few weeks. The train-on squad have received a letter explaining the process and training dates.

STUDENT WORKBOOKS

Tomorrow, the students in all grades are taking home an English book and their Religious Education book for parents to look through. A student reflection sheet is also going home with the books for parents to make a positive comment about their children’s progress. It would be great if parents could do this tomorrow night or over the weekend and then see that the children return their books promptly to school by Monday. All students who return their books by Monday will receive a bonus Dojo point. This will ensure that class work is not impacted by a student not having his/her book at school to work in.

EASTER EGG MUFTI DAY

Tomorrow all students are asked to wear mufti clothes (including a hat and closed

in shoes/joggers) and to bring in Easter Eggs for the Easter Raffle. This is always an exciting event organised by our P and F. The actual Easter raffle will be held next Thursday 7 April at 1.30pm. If you would like to purchase raffle tickets, which are $1 each, this can be done in two ways:
1. On My School Connect App or
2. Filling in the ticket sheets sent home and returning them with the money to the school office.
Parents who are present at the raffle on Thursday, may take their children
home immediately at the conclusion of the raffle.

MINI VINNIES

Over the course of the last few weeks, many children have been vying for positions on the Mini Vinnies leadership team. It gives me great pleasure
to announce that, after the election process, the students below have achieved the following leadership roles:
President:         Lily Griggs
Vice president:  Ivy Dimovski
Treasurer:         Chloe O'Donnell
Secretary:         Ruby Valentino
Faith leader:      Aerin Ling
I would like to congratulate those who have been elected and to those who put themselves forward for election. While the leadership team will have important roles to play, all members of the Mini Vinnies team are an equally important part of the group. There will be a commissioning ceremony early in Term 2 to usher in this exciting new leadership group.

I hope everyone has a holy, safe, restful break, ready to start Term Two on Tuesday 26 April.

Warm regards
Angela Crandell

This Sunday’s Gospel

Jn 8:1-11

The Pharisees confront Jesus with an adulteress.

19 College Ave, Shellharbour City

Saturday  5.00pm Vigil 

Sunday    9.00am, 5.00pm 

Easter Sunday Mass 17 April includes an Easter Egg

hunt for the children after 9am.

Mass at Stella Maris 

Grade Masses with students at our Stella Maris church will begin in Term 2, Tuesdays at 9:30am.  Parents and carers are welcome to attend.  Please find below a schedule of the Masses below.

Week 2 - 3 May, Yr 6

Week 3 - 10 May, Yr 4

Week 4 - 17 May, Yr 2

Week 5 - 24 May, Yr 5

Week 6 - 31 May, Yr 3

Week 7 - 7 June, Yr 1

Week 8 - 14 June, Kinder

The Sacraments

Confirmation - Year 6 or Older

Information regarding the Sacrament and enrolling will occur from 7.00 - 8.00pm in the Parish Hall on Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May.  Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation will take place on Sunday 3 July 2022 11.00am & 2.00pm.

Communion - Year 3 or Older 

Enrolment for First Holy Communion will occur on the weekend of 17 and 18 September 2022.  

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

Harmony Day

Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity.

It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.​  We celebrated the day with a mufti day, fundraising  a total of $497.05 for Project Compassion.

Moreover, Mrs Jenna Hogan composed a whole school song and shared it with parents, carers and friends under the COLA.  It was an amazing demonstration of how we can all come together in friendship and joy.  

A sincere thank you to Mrs Hogan for taking the time to share and teach this beautiful song with our Stella community.

Project Compassion

Our whole school lenten fundraiser spans across the six weeks of Lent each year.  Project Compassion brings thousands of Australian schools, parishes and supporters together to raise funds for people living in some of the most vulnerable communities across the world. 

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, please bring it back to school and we will add the funds to the on-going total.  

To date, we have managed to raise a total of $768.45, which is enough to provide two boar piglets for breeding in the Solomon Islands, household materials to build their own toilets in Mozambique and computer skills for numerous arts workers at the Djilpin Arts Centre in the Northern Territory.  Together, we CAN make a difference!

ANZAC Day

Year 5 will present an ANZAC Liturgy on Wednesday 27 April at 9:45am.  Please come and join us and our Warillia RSL representatives to commemorate those who have and continue to serve those in need. 

Holy Week Remembrance Liturgies

Friday 8 April 2pm and 

Friday 29 April at 11am 

We would like to invite parents, grandparents and friends to our Holy Week Liturgies under the COLA.  These will be presented by the Leaders of Liturgy and each grade.  

On 8 April we have Kindergarten, Year 1 and 2 performing at 2pm. 

Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be presenting on 29 April at 11am.

Holy Week this year takes place during the school holidays.  It begins with Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week.  Palm Sunday is a commemoration of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, coming in peace and riding on a donkey.  Jesus' entry into Jerusalem coincided with the Jewish festival of Passover. He was met by crowds of followers and supporters who lined the road into the city and waved branches cut from palm trees. They laid palm fronds on the road and even laid down cloaks for Jesus to ride over. This entry into Jerusalem fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies promising that God's Messiah would enter the holy city and go to the temple.

Holy Thursday, a holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter, commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. 

Good Friday, commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and is a day of mourning for all Christians. 

On Easter Sunday, we rejoice in the risen Christ!

Everyone at Stella Maris would like to wish all our readers a blessed Easter, and a safe and relaxing holiday.

God Bless

Alicia Sanchez-Levine

Religious Education Coordinator

You will have seen a letter sent home today via Compass regarding changes to reporting of absences for your child/ren.

An email, listing your child's unexplained absences, was sent on Wednesday afternoon.  Could you please check this and if your child has any unexplained absences, can you please log into the Compass parent portal and enter an attendance note for these days.  Absences are required to be explained within 7 days of the absence. 

From next term, parents will not be able to put the absences into Compass if the 7 days have passed and they will need to ring the school office and give the explanation over the phone.  

If I could ask you all to log into Compass and give a reason for your child's unexplained absences before the end of term, this would be very much appreciated.

Thank you for your co-operation with this.  

PLEASE submit your Kindergarten enrolment application !

Kindergarten enrolments for 2023 will close on 8 April 2022. 

Due to the very high amount of applications received for 2023, no more applications will be accepted after this date.

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.

P&F Reminders and Dates for your diary:

• Easter egg donation and mufti day - FRIDAY APRIL 1. Students wear coloured clothes and bring in an easter egg for our Easter raffle.
• Easter raffle - THURSDAY APRIL 7, 1:30pm. Purchase tickets online through My School Connect.
• Welcome BBQ - FRIDAY APRIL 29, 2:30-5:30pm. Purchase tickets online through My School Connect. Please email parents@smsdow.catholic.edu.au if you can assist with volunteering.
• We still need one parent liaison representative for YEAR 3 and YEAR 6. If you are interested in this role, please email kimm_e66@hotmail.com.
• Please continue to donate any baskets, boxes or bags that can be used in our Easter raffle. These can be dropped at the school office.

• Any unused Stella Maris uniform items at home? Our uniform shop would love you to donate them. Please send them into school labelled as “Donations for the uniform shop.”