Providing a Term's Notice

Families are reminded that the College requires one term’s notice of any move to another school or learning environment (please note that international enrolments require two terms’ notice). There are several reasons for this notice period. Firstly, budgets are set on current numbers, and, as the annual budget is set in September, we need to ensure that we are calculating costs and student numbers accurately. Secondly, once school returns in January, we are unlikely to make up numbers of any students who choose to leave without providing the required notice.

Please ensure that if your daughter is leaving at the end of 2024, you have informed the Registrar (registrar@ stellamaris.nsw.edu.au) by the end of Term 3.

Bodies of Work Exhibition - save the date!

The Stella Maris Community is warmly invited to the 2024 HSC Bodies of Work Exhibition. Don’t miss the opportunity to view the major works of our Year 12 students on Tuesday 20 August. The exhibition brings together the artwork and innovative designs from talented students who chose to study Visual Arts, Design and Technology, Textile and Technology and Multimedia Technologies.

Date: Tuesday 20 August
Venue: Benedict Campus
VIP session for Year 12 families: 6.00pm - 7.00pm
Open to all: 7.00pm - 8.00pm

Hildegard Award

Entries are now open for the 2024 Hildegard Award. Introduced last year, the Award is designed to encourage students to really think about our current world, and how their place in it holds such value, by creating a platform for students to think, create, and achieve. Submissions are due in Week 9 of this term.

Term 3 Extra-curricular Schedule

The Term 3 Extra-curricular Schedule is now available for Sport, Performing Arts and other clubs, groups and academic support sessions.

Beach2Beach - Register Today!

Every year the students and staff of the Duke of Edinburgh program are involved in the Beach2Beach Fun Run event to raise funds for, 'Happy Days' (a Mike Pawley charity, supporting impoverished Cambodian students and families).

Please tell your family and friends to join the 'Stella Maris College' team to help us enter the LARGEST school team in 2024 (prize money donated to 'Happy Days').

Date: Sunday 25 August

Distance:

• 3km (Mona Vale - Newport Beach)
• 6km (Warriewood - Newport Beach)

N.B. Duke of Edinburgh students will enter the 6km event

• 14km (Dee Why - Newport Beach)

Alternatively, you could donate directly to 'Happy Days'.

Thank you, in advance, for your involvement and support of this Duke of Edinburgh initiative.

Melanie Bradstreet
On behalf of the Duke of Edinburgh team

Parent Seminars and Workshops

Social Media - Challenges and Strategies (TONIGHT)

Parents and carers are invited to St Augustine's College tonight (Thursday 1 August) for an in-depth discussion on the pitfalls of social media for young people and effective parenting strategies. This seminar is relevant to parents of students in Years 5 - 9. Amy Smith (Deputy Principal Wellbeing) will join the panellists.

Tuning into Teens

This free online six-week course, commencing next week, is run by Relationships Australia.

"Build emotional connection with your child. Tuning into Teens helps parents teach their kids to better control, understand and express themselves. It offers tools to recognise, understand and respond to children's emotions, and helps parents manage their own."

Supporting men to connect to their teens

This two night workshop (run over Wednesday 14 and 21 August from 7.00 to 9.00pm) provides tips and tools to help men connect to their teen. Bookings are essential. Further details via the link below.

Community Notices

Manly's Got Talent

Get your act together! Manly Freshwater Parish is hosting 'Manly’s Got Talent’ on Saturday 17 August from 7.00pm at St Mary's Parish/School Hall (cnr Raglan/Whistler St, Manly).

Categories are: Instrumental, Vocal, Dance, Magic, Comedy and Other. Further details below.

Beaches Young Filmmakers Competition

Entries open on Friday 9 August in the Beaches Young Filmmakers Competition - with a $3000 prize pool on offer. See the flyer below for further details.

Term 3

Congratulations to Year 10 students Makayla T and Charlee H who represented Stella so well at Mater Dei's Feast Day last Friday. Below is a report on their incredible day with the students and staff of Mater Dei.

On Friday 26 July, Makayla and I were asked to attend the St Benedict’s Feast Day celebration at Mater Dei School in Camden. We had no idea what to expect or how the day would unfold. In the car ride there we were full of nerves and built-up anticipation the closer we got to arriving.

On arrival at Mater Dei we attended Mass where the principal awarded a student the major ‘Benedictine Award’. He was totally elated and couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. The atmosphere of the Mass was very joyful, and everyone sang along enthusiastically to every song.

We met four other schools on the day, each from different areas, as well as several staff and over 100 students. Everyone was so welcoming towards us and included us in conversations over lunch and activity time.

After Mass, we were all given jobs to help with the Feast Day activities for the students. Makayla and I oversaw the tattoo stall where we met so many of the students who were all so kind, sweet and bubbly. The students enjoyed all the activities on offer but especially the jumping castles, snow cones and school disco.

Overall, everyone we met including the staff and students were so welcoming and we were glad to be invited to share such a special occasion at Mater Dei School.

Year 12 Music Night

Join us for a spectacular evening showcasing the exceptional talents of our Year 12 Music students as they present selected repertoire from their upcoming HSC program. This special Music Night will feature a diverse range of performances, highlighting the dedication and creativity of our senior musicians. Singers, drummers, flautists, pianists and guitarists will be on show, each showing off their hard work and artistic growth at this point of their HSC journey. Come and experience a night of inspiring music and celebrate the achievements of our Stella Maris Musicians.

Date: Wednesday 28 August
Venue: Bucketty's (26 Orchard Rd, Brookvale)
Time: 7.00pm - 9.00pm

Cross Country

The NSW All Schools Cross Country Championships was held at The Sydney International Equestrian Centre on July 24. Stella had five of our amazing distance runners competing at this event: Piper B, Emily C, Amelia M, Pip Q and Lyla R. This is the highest level of competition in NSW, and all of our students had excellent results.

A huge congratulations to Pip Q who won the 15 years event to be the 2024 state champion. Pip will now represent NSW at the National Schools Championships later this month. Well done also to Amelia M who finished 9^th and is the reserve for the NSW team. Emily and Lyla also finished with top 20 places in the state!

Good luck also to Lyla who is representing NSW Athletics at the Australian Cross Country Championships.

Snow Sports

The Stella snow sports team competed at the Northern NSW Championships in Thredbo during the school holidays. We had five students in the Stella team: Mia S, Amber C, Bridey C, Archie H and Lara H. The conditions at the event were very tough, but the Stella team had fantastic results. Congratulations to Amber who has qualified to compete at the State Championships and a special mention to Lara who finished 5^th in the snow board events.

Bill Turner Cup Soccer

Stella entered a team into the Bill Turner Cup this year. This is a tournament with over 500 teams from QLD, NSW, ACT and VIC.

The Stella team has been playing in knockout matches for this competition since Term 1. They have won their way through six rounds to win the Sydney area title. The team played so well all through the rounds, knocking out some very experienced soccer teams, including Manly Selective, Mackellar, Pymble Ladies College and William Clarke. It was an amazing achievement to make it to the final 16 teams in the tournament.

Unfortunately, the Stella team ended up playing last year’s winners in the round of 16 – Westfield Sports High. The game was an amazing match – with Stella really stepping up to play an outstanding level of football. It was such a close game, being 1 – 1 at full time, and Stella was unlucky to lose 2 – 1 in the last minute of extra time. Well done to all members of the squad who all played so well throughout the tournament. We are looking forward to next year’s competition already!

April U, Camille C, Charlotte C, Ellie E, Emma B, Evie M, Gracie B, Gracie E, Jess P, Lara M, Lola H, Lyla R, Maisey S, Siena A, Sophie L, Zoe V, Amber K, Amelie V, Ann M, Kayla R and Zoe A.

Netball

Congratulations to the Stella teams who played at the Broken Bay Netball Championships at Pennant Hills on Friday 26 July. All four Stella teams played well against tough competition. Well done to the Intermediate team who finished third.

Hockey

Congratulations to Isla S (Year 7) who has been selected into the NSW Hockey team! Well done on this amazing achievement!

Athletics

The athletics season is up and running. We have a busy term with trainings on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Friday night twilight carnivals. The Stella team had a great group compete last Friday night at Sydney Olympic Park. Any student who would like to take part in the athletics program is welcome to attend.

Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize

The annual Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize Exhibition is open now! This prestigious award showpieces thought-provoking works by artists and designers from across Australia, bringing together a community of creatives to highlight our environmental concerns and hopes across the nation.

The works selected present fresh perspectives on our global climate crisis and sustainable life on earth. They will be on show in an outstanding exhibition of art and design from 2 – 25 August at Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Curl Curl Creative Space and Mona Vale Creative Space Gallery.

One of our talented Art students was selected as a finalist this year. Congratulations to Alana R for her artwork titled, Eyes Wide Open.

Do go along and have a look if you can through August, the quality of the works in the exhibition is always outstanding, and we were thrilled that one of our student's work is a part of it.

Kindifarm Incursion

We were so excited to welcome ‘Kindifarm’ to Stella this week for a Year 7 Visual Arts incursion: ‘Animals Alive’!

Our budding artists spent the morning developing their drawing and observation skills as well as learning a little about ‘life drawing’ (drawing something in real life) and in the case of baby lambs, ducklings and piglets: those life drawing models were very wriggly!

Our students experimented with a variety of materials: charcoal, graphite, and white pencil on black paper to experience the different results, and experiment with tone, texture and composition.

The students had a lovely time and were thoughtful with the animals, being quiet and calm as well as doing a wonderful job focusing on the task in hand. We have some wonderful drawings from the morning which the students can develop upon in class.

It was so lovely to have the animals visit and a bit of a treat for the other year groups (and teachers!) to come and say hello.

Welcome back – Luna Park is now on sale!

Welcome back to Term 3. Just as a reminder, here are the Terms 3 events:

• P&F General Meeting – Thursday 8 August – confirmed
• Trivia Night – Friday 23 August – 12 tickets remaining
• Luna Park Family event – Saturday 14 September – tickets on sale!
• Stella Ladies (Mums) Long Lunch Event – late September – EOI below

Call out for help: Raffle & Silent Auction Donations for Trivia Night (23 August) and Father’s Day Breakfast (30 August)

Can you help? We're seeking prizes for our Term 3 Raffles and Silent Auction.

Your generous contributions will support the 2025 Welcome events and a mental health charity. Please fill out the form to help us promote and acknowledge your donation. Prizes will be split across both events. Thank you! 🙏

Funds raised from these events will go towards donating to a mental health charity that will be chosen next week (thanks for your submissions), the 2025 Welcome event and the Year 7 Term 1 mixer.

Luna Park Family Event: date confirmed - Saturday 14 September

Stella friends and families, prepare for an extraordinary afternoon at Luna Park on Saturday 14 September.

Join us from 1.00pm until the park closes (approx. 8.00pm TBC) for thrilling rides that will leave you breathless. Let's see who's brave enough to conquer the Sledgehammer!

🎟️ Don't miss out—grab your tickets today. Ticket sales close at 4.00pm on Thursday 6 September as we need to pay five working days in advance to get this special price.

Ticket prices are:

🎟️ $42 for adults or daughters/siblings over 14

🎟️ $32 for daughters/siblings under 14.

All the family is welcome, whether they attend Stella or not. We are currently limited to 100 tickets, so first in, best dressed!

🌈🌟 We can't wait to see you at Luna Park on September 14th! 🌟🌈

Click here to purchase tickets

Stella Ladies Long Lunch

Last year, we drank gin, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. So, we suggest taking a Friday afternoon off from work and sharing some fun time with other mums and female carers.

We are thinking of a late lunch, Friday 20 September, venue TBC.

Let us know if you are interested and the lunch price range. The expression of interest will help us gauge numbers and pick the right venue to suit budgets. Responses are anonymous and for planning purposes only.

P&F General Meeting - Thursday 8 August

Are you interested in the P&F and want to get more involved? The next Stella P&F General meeting will occur on Thursday 8 August. We would love to see you there in person, starting at 7.30pm. If you want to be kept informed, drop us a note at pandf@stellamaris.nsw.edu.au, and we'll add you to the list.

To join remotely, please click here, and you can find the full agenda below.

Week commencing Monday 5 August

Week commencing Monday 12 August

The Uniform Shop is open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 8.00am to 4.30pm during term and can be emailed on:

uniform_books@stellamaris.nsw.edu.au

Stockings, gloves, scarves and jumpers are available online.

Black socks $3 (to wear with pants and as an alternative to stockings with the skirt) are available in store. We do hold limited stock as these can be purchased elsewhere.

Please ask your daughter to collect online orders from Recess after the order has been placed. Reminders are generally not sent. Please use your daughter’s name on the order. There is space under ‘Billing Address’ on the order for your daughter’s name.

Please follow this link to the P&F Facebook second hand page: