22 Term 4 Week 5

Welcome to Week 5 of Term 4! It is hard to believe that we are only 3 and a half weeks away from the end of 2022. As always, lots is happening at Stella, as you will see in the many articles throughout the newsletter this week! 

REMEMBRANCE DAY:

Last Friday was Remembrance Day – a day where the world acknowledges the atrocities of war and loss of human life. In our Remembrance Day liturgy at 11:00am in the Church, each of our prayers of the faithful began with “God of Peace”. One of our foundational theological Catholic beliefs is that ‘our God’ is a God of peace and love and hope.

It is our job to live our lives in the way God wants us to. God wants us to be people of peace, love and hope. To treat our ‘neighbour’ – the person sitting next to us, standing in front us, living in our country and the rest of our world with compassion and kindness. To be ‘Good Samaritans’.

Our students acknowledged the significance of our ceremony with their behaviour and reverence.

STAFFING NEWS – 2023:

We are well and truly into planning mode for 2023 with class structures, class placements and ongoing work around strategic focus areas being developed and worked through. I can share with you the following ‘comings and goings’:

• As has been reported previously, Maureen Thompson (ESO Curriculum), Cathy Lainio (Front Office) and Charlotte McCann (Y1 teacher) have announced that they will be departing us at the end of the year.
• Further to this, David Molloy has recently won and accepted a permanent teaching position at Tenison Woods Catholic School in Richmond. We congratulate Dave on this appointment.
• I can also announce that Hannah Moroney and her partner Brad are expecting their first child in May next year. We congratulate them both on this exciting news. Hannah will be with is for Term 1 of 2023 before taking maternity leave.
• We have appointed the following people to begin with us in 2023: Julia Roy (ESO – Curriculum), Emma Chapman (Inclusive Ed Coordinator), Cody Kelsh – Teacher – Cody comes to us from Hawthorndene Primary school where she is currently the Year 5 teacher. Cody has also completed a number of temporary relief days with us this year. Tomara Brown – Teacher – Tomara is currently working at our site supporting our Year 4 classes and also works part time at Tenison Woods as a Year 6 teacher. All other staff currently with us will remain at Stella Maris in 2023.
• We are currently completing the process to appoint Cathy’s replacement and I look forward to sharing this news with you in the coming week or two.
• I also look forward to sharing our 2023 Teaching and ESO structure with you all in the coming weeks.

Our teachers are also continuing the important job of placing students in classes for 2023. We aim to have this complete by Week 8 and as always students will have the opportunity to meet their teacher and new classmates on Tuesday morning – December 13^th.

SPORTS DAY:

Our 2022 Sports Day is upon us! We are looking forward to another fantastic day at Bowker St oval from 8:45 – 2:15pm. Please see the separate email sent to families today with some final reminders about the day.

BUILDING UPDATE:

Our Building plans continue to move along at a good pace. While not a lot can be ‘seen’ at present, we are working hard with our Architects – Russel and Yelland and our Builders – Sarah Construction behind the scenes to ensure that our it is as smooth and successful a process as possible.

The Developmental Approval Plans are currently sitting with the Marion Council, and you may have seen the signs around the school which form part of the Community Consultation phase of this approval process. I have been approached by a few of our neighbours about our plans and have had some discussions with them about the reason and purpose behind the build.

Without doubt the main concern from our neighbours (in fact really the only concern) they are raising with me is the parking challenges and the kiss and drop times in the morning and afternoons. They are worried about ‘extra students and families’ making this more of an issue into the future. I have reiterated that we are very close to the ‘cap’ number of students who will attend Stella Maris. We are not a school which has the capacity to grow much bigger than we are now and so what we are experiencing now is generally what we will experience into the future. As part of the plans which were put into Council, we have outlined a number of things we will do to try to limit the current parking and kiss and drop challenges we are experiencing – acknowledging at the same time that some of these challenges are ‘unavoidable’ and very difficult to ‘fix’.

One of the things as a community we can do is to ensure that we abide by our school and council expectations during these times. I again provide you all in this newsletter with some important reminders about our school expectations during these busy times and ask that you respect our residents and the parking laws and requirements set in place. As always, I again ask that you pass on this information to whoever may be involved in the pick up or drop off of your children.

The other major element of our building planning is exactly what the 2023 school year will look like. As I have said previously, there will be a need to do things ‘differently’ to how we do things now in some instances. However, I am very committed to ensuring that the ‘educational program remains unaffected over the course of the year. Over the next week or two and into early 2023 I will continue to share information with you about the changes to our school environment which will need to occur during the 2023 school year. As always, I know that you will support us during what will be a challenging time in our school life, and see this with an ‘end in mind’ approach.

I encourage you to come and see me (or send me an email) should you have any questions or concerns about any aspect of these plans.

CAMPS:

Over Weeks 2 and 3 of this term our Year 5 and 6 students headed off to Pt Hughes for thier annual camp. Camps are such an important element of our school life. They provide so much for our students and staff - including opportunities to connect with each other in a different environment, learn life skills, conquer fears, engage in 'different learning' experiences and most importantly have a lot of FUN.

Of course, these experiences take much effort, energy and organisation and a big commitment from our staff – who as always with the children at heart of what they do, are more than happy to spend. I do acknowledge and thank those staff who attended camps over the last couple of weeks – Hannah, Dave, Lou, Milano, Paula, Tony, Jenna, Kym and Julie.

CAROLS IN THE RESERVE:

We are very much looking forward to gathering in Ramsey Avenue Reserve for our annual Community Carols night on Thursday 8^th December. Further information about the logistics of the afternoon and evening will be provided in the next week or two, but please note the details in today's newsletter and sent via See Saw earlier this week. We are looking forward to another great Stella Community gathering.

Thanks for your ongoing support or our great school!

James

VINNIES CHRISTMAS APPEAL TOY DRIVE:                                              

This Christmas Stella Maris is again planning to support the ‘Vinnies Christmas Drive’. Our Year 6 ‘Social Justice Group’ will be helping to coordinate this important outreach work.

Items can be sent to school during weeks; 6, 7 and early week 8, so they can be delivered for sorting into Christmas hampers.

This year our local Vinnies Chapter is asking just for donations of new toys, as they have a shortage of storage space. Please see below examples of items which can be donated. Gifts can be placed in baskets in your child’s classroom up until 9am Thursday 8 December. Please do not wrap any of the items as this will be done by Vinnies as it allows them to allocate gifts appropriately

Toy Suggestions:

• Building blocks, hand-eye co-ordination toys or crawl and play mats
• Musical toys
• Beach or surf gear
• Puzzles and games
• Gift voucher for a retail outlet
• Microscope or science kit
• Teething toys, bath toys or rattles
• Action figures, dolls or dress-ups
• Toy cars (Hot Wheels or similar) or remote control cars/bikes/trucks with batteries
• Backpacks, handbags or accessories
• Arts and crafts supplies or stationery
• Sporting equipment
• Perfume, aftershave or other toiletries
• Movie tickets
• Story books, novels or diaries

******** All items must be in by 9am Thursday 8 December.

ADVENT LITURGIES MONDAY MORNINGS UNTIL THE END OF TERM, 8.50AM HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH

ALL INVITED TO JOIN US!

Starting a week early, on Monday 21 November, we will be holding Whole School Liturgies for the liturgical season of the Catholic Church which is called, ‘Advent’. The students and staff will on these days to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

The Season of Advent offers us each year, an opportunity to seek God within the boundaries of our souls while living outwardly amidst the noise and activity of the world around us.

Advent is a time where we re-sow the seeds of faith and hope.

The four weeks of Advent allow us time to ponder how Jesus came into this world in such a stunningly humble way. As we contemplate His birth in a bed of straw in a messy stable, perhaps, we see our own life as being a little messy too.
Our life is often distracted, a little self-centred and sometimes leaves us wishing we were better people. If we can slow down and refocus our attention, we might realise that God is there, waiting to love us even though we often have so many unfulfilled good intentions and so many unfulfilled desires about our own spirituality.

We invite all families to join us each Monday until the end of term to prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

SOUTHERN CROSS

The current edition of the Catholic newspaper put out by the Archdiocese called,’ The Southern Cross,’ is available at; www.thesoutherncross.org.au

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

God has included you in His plans – have you included Him in yours?

🎄 C H R I S T M A S   R A F F L E 🎄

Raffle books (10 tickets per book) will be coming home this week.

Tickets are $2 each. We will be offering discount for bulk ticket
purchases up front (pricing to be confirmed)

Thankyou to the following families for your generous donations!!

Robbie Hart
Keiko Hart
Ashlea Quigley
Todd Quigley
Alicia Egidio
Anthony Egidio
Loretta Delfino
Funky Monkey Bars
Clealand Wildlife Park
Snowys Outdoors
Jurlique
JB Hi-Fi

Raffle will be drawn 8th December 2022 at the School Carols event. 🎟