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STELLA MARISNEWSLETTER

Term 1Issue 06

09 March, 2018

www.stellamaris.nsw.edu.au | administration@stellamaris.nsw.edu.au

Lenten Reflection

A Reading from the Book of Exodus 20:1-2

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of

slavery, you shall have no other gods before me.

Prayer

Gracious God

As we move through Lent open us up to be renewed.

Clean us out so that where there is clutter

A space can open to be filled with your Spirit.

A we read the scriptures today, inspire us to

understand your words more deeply.

We ask this prayer in Jesus’ name. AMEN

from the PrincipalDear Stella Community,

Stella’s High Achievers During the week, Olivia-James McKeown, Christine Nefodov, Molly Marr, Amy Hicks and Shana Yang returned to Stella to speak with the girls about their HSC journey. Due to the inclement weather, we had to cancel assembly so our graduates addressed Year 12 2018 who were most interested in learning what it takes to do well in the HSC.

Olivia (our Dux for 2017) spoke to the girls about the balance she maintained but her clear focus was on achieving her best. She told the girls to:

Set a visible goal - Olivia set herself an ATAR target and worked towards achieving it;

Be humble - always find ways to improve and be quietly confident;

Defy others preconceptions - it is never too late to change people’s perceptions of you;

Life does not stop - balance your family and friends with study;

Collegiate experiences - you are not alone, seek help, use Stella Tutors and ex-students to assist your learning goals;

Quality over quantity - pages of notes are not useful. Try to gain a deep understanding of your subjects.

Olivia left Year 12 with a poignant message as we celebrated International Women’s Day, ‘Never forget how lucky you are to be given such a head start in achieving your goals. Education is freedom.’

Olivia-James McKeown’s full speech is available for you to read. CLICK HERE

It was exciting to hear that the girls had moved on to study in fields such as Behavioural Science, International Studies, Commerce, Business and Actuarial Studies.

Swimming Carnival This week’s swimming carnival was a great community day and it was a beautiful sunny day. I appreciated the work that the staff, led by Jenny Wickham and the PDPHE team, undertook running the day. Thank you too to the Year 12 leaders who assisted with the event and led the students with enthusiasm. Congratulations to Wood House who won the carnival.

Beauty and the Beast This week I was privileged to see the production of Beauty and the Beast in the Star of the Sea Theatre. It was such a great evening with many students involved as actors, musicians and in stage management. Thank you to the Performing Arts staff of Stella and St Augustine’s for helping the students present a wonderful evening.

Congratulations to our SRC 2018 Please see the list of girls who are taking on leadership of the students across all years printed in this Newsletter. Well done girls! We look forward to presenting your badges at your first meeting.

Elizabeth Carnegie, Principal

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Upcoming Events and Important Information04-07 Mar Beauty and the Beast (College Production)

14 Mar Open Evening (early dismissal)

27 - 29 Mar Year 7 Camp

30 Mar Good Friday

02 Apr Easter Monday

3 - 13 Apr Year 12 Exams

13 Apr Term 1 Concludes

30 Apr Staff Day

Stella Tutor ProgramThe Stella Tutor Program now operates every afternoon, Monday to Thursday, in the College Library from 3.30pm to 5.30pm.

Our Tuesday tutor is now back from uni break so we can offer the fourth day of free tutoring each week.

Stella Tutors can help with homework, revision activities, explain concepts, advise on doing great research, guide extension work, give feedback on draft essays, dissect marking guidelines, translate NESA/teacher/assessment talk, so many possibilities! Please encourage your daughter to attend if she is in need of extra help.

Wednesday 14 March4.00pm - 7.30pm

A glimpse

into your

daughter’s

future

• Attend Principal’s address (5pm and 6.30pm)

• Tour the brand new ‘Scholastica’ building• View and interact with subject demonstrations• Join a guided tour by our student ambassadors• Meet our Heads of Department and friendly staff

see website for full details

OPEN EVENING

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Open Evening – Early DismissalWednesday, 14 March

Students will be dismissed at Lunchtime (1.30pm) to enable staff and student volunteers time to set up for

our annual Open Night.

More information coming soon.

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...Upcoming Events and Important Information continued

STELLA SWIMMING CARNIVAL 2018 We had a fantastic day at the Stella Swimming Carnival on Wednesday, 7 March. It was great to have the sun shining this year! It was a busy day for the girls, with everyone swimming in lots of races. The atmosphere was great with all of the cheering and fantastic House spirit.

There were some outstanding performances from our swimmers. We congratulate the following girls who were age champions for 2018:

12 Years: Grace Shanahan 13 Years: Anna Curley 14 Years: Mila McGettigan 15 Years: Charley Porter 16 Years: Tamsyn Curley 17 Years: Rebecca Chant 18 Years: Lili Nichols

Congratulations to the winner of the Champion of Champions (fastest 50m) Race: Lili Nichols.

The Cheering Competition was won by Wood.

The overall places for the House Trophy were: 1. Wood 2. Egan 3. Smith 4. Chisholm 5. Mackillop 6. Noonuccal 7. Bashir 8. Shinnick

Well done to all of the Year 12s and our House Representatives who led the girls so well on the day. A big thank you to all of the teachers who worked so hard all day at the carnival. It was a great day!

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Innovative LearningTHE POWER OF PRACTICE“I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more luck I have.” Whilst popularly attributed to Thomas Jefferson there is general disagreement about who actually coined this phrase. Regardless of its origin, its message is important for our students. It is rare that anything of value can be achieved without hard work and ongoing practice.

In 2018 I have a Year 7 PC group. I have been speaking with the girls about their journey through high school and their learning. The discussion we have been having centres around ongoing practice being the key to improvement.

As with all things that require skill, practice is the most important thing when one wants to improve. Practice means spending time doing, not thinking about doing. Practice is a way to try things out, to make mistakes, take detours, explore unknown territory in our own time, on our own terms. Practice is also regular. Practice builds over time.

Practice also means that we have to show up and just get going. On a regular basis. Ideally every day. This doesn’t mean that we have to spend a huge amount of time every day, but it means that we need to develop the discipline to sit down and engage with the skill, even if we might sometimes not feel like it.

Another thing about practice is that we have to trust the process. We will get better over time. And there will be many times where it will not feel that way. These are the moments that separate the people who get good at what they are doing from the people who don’t. We need to push through these moments. We need to trust that when we practise, something is happening, even if we cannot see or feel it.

The Science Behind Practice Neuroscience has taught us that what our practice is actually doing is helping our brain optimize for this set of coordinated activities, through a process called myelination. So the process of practice creates more myelin which in turn leads to improvement. However, there is an important point here; If we practise poorly and do not correct our mistakes, we will myelinate those axons, increasing the speed and strength of those signals – which is not helpful.

So the important point is this; practising skills over time causes those neural pathways to work better in unison via myelination. To improve performance, we need to practise FREQUENTLY, and get lots of feedback so that we practise CORRECTLY and enhance the right things. Practising bad habits will create and reinforce bad habits. As legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi put it,“Practice does not make perfect, practising perfectly makes perfect”.

I have included a clip here on how to practise effectively for interested parents. Whilst it is sport/music centred the message remains constant in terms of practising skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=225&v=f2O6mQkFiiw

Brett Foster, Director of Inclusive Learning

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MissionTERM 1 FUNDRAISINGThis term we are fundraising for Caritas, Project Compassion through our PC classes. We are also selling Fairtrade Peace Eggs at the Canteen to raise money for Mater Dei our Good Samaritan sister school in Camden – an inclusive school for students with an intellectual disability or developmental delay. Every year Mater Dei students visit the College and we join them for their Feast Day in Term 3.

Thank you for contributing to the incredible work of Caritas and the Good Sams!

YEAR OF HOSPITALITY2018 is our Benedictine Year of Hospitality. Benedictine hospitality is an inclusive wel-come- embracing all as if they were Christ.

STELLA SISTERSStella Maris College is renowned for making people feel welcome and included. Our new Stella Sisters have been formally announced this week and are wonderful role models in our community as they live and breathe this Benedictine value in their daily lives.

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Stella CommunityCHINESE NEW YEAROn Monday, 26 February, we celebrated Chinese New Year to welcome our new international students into our community and embrace the cultural diversity at our school. Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in China like Christmas for you in Australia. It marks the first day of the new year in the Chinese calendar and is a time dedicated to family and thanksgiving.

We spent an amazing time with our local and international students playing a variety of games and eating delicious Chinese food. We want to thank you for joining us and showing inclusion to a different culture. Our very talented Ariel Leung gave us a lovely musical performance by using the elegant Chinese instrument called a guzheng. We also wrote down our wishes for 2018 on red cards and hung them on a tree so the winds can blow them up to the heavens – one of our new year traditions

As we live so far from our families, we appreciate the Stella community coming together to celebrate with us.

Kristine Li, Suesi Wang and Madelyne Smith, Year 12 International Prefects

Student Leadership and Year 12 House Representative

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SRC 2018Over the last five weeks students in their Pastoral Care classes have discussed and considered the importance of the SRC. Many students in each Year group were nominated by their fellow peers and teachers for the this highly esteemed position of responsibility and leadership.

The nominated students entered into a voting system in Moodle and each Year group got to vote for their top four choices. As a result of this voting process throughout Week 5 the following candidates were successful in obtaining a sought after position on the SRC:

Year 8 Kiara Tulevski Mischa Morrell Angela Molinaro Alicia King Mia Hamill Ella Blunck Eloise Paterson Tilly McMahon

Year 9 Zoe Dagassan Angela Iacovitti Holly Nicholas Riley Valentine Gemma Brown Amy Fuller Elena Buono

Year 7 Representatives will be voted for after the camp in early Term 2

Congratulations to the successful SRC leaders for 2018. They will be very busy in their role giving a voice to the student perspective about issues and initiatives at Stella Maris College. The SRC will work to instigate positive changes at Stella Maris College that are in keeping with the Benedictine values of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Order. The Benedictine value for 2018 is Hospitality and this will form a major focus that underpins the work that the SRC will do as they give a voice to the student body at Stella.

The SRC Leaders will be awarded their badges and will recite their pledge as they step into their new role at their first meeting for the term, Tuesday 13th March at lunchtime.

The girls will recite the following pledge together:

SRC Pledge 2018

"In this Benedictine year of Hospitality and as a member of the Stella Maris SRC, I commit to establishing and maintaining the highest level of respect for the Stella Maris community and upholding the values of the school. I am thankful for the opportunity that you, my fellow students have given to me. I promise to try my best to make a positive contribution to our school on behalf of everyone here at Stella Maris.”

Sarah Metcalfe, Head of SRC

...Stella Communtiy continued

Year 10 Lucie Marion Hannah Page Annabelle Gilbert Mary Geng Ella McMahon Maggie Warner – back in term 2 Mia Lane Izzy Mitchell Emily Foresto Sarah Maher Millie Prior

Year 11 Jasmine Stein Charlotte Tischer Carly Lavings Jade Flemings Emma Dineen Laura Hulme Pheobe Metcalfe Isobel Tulevski Charlotte Edwards Sarah Ford

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The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award UpdateThe Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award is offered to Stella Maris students from Year 9 to Year 12. The Award is a leading youth development program, empowering all young Australians aged 14 to 25 to explore their full potential.

How is an Award Achieved? To earn an Award, each young person must learn a skill, improve their physical well being, volunteer in their community and experience a team adventure in a new environment. All Participants are supported by a network of adult Award Leaders, Assessors, Supervisors, and mentors.

The key elements of our program are: • Open to all between the ages of 14 to 25. • Three levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold, each progressively more challenging. • Four Sections: Physical Recreation, Skill, Service, Adventurous Journey plus Residential Project (Gold Level only). • Achieving an Award recognises individual goal setting and self-improvement through persistence and achievement.

This Weeks ‘Stella Stand Outs’. Congratulations to the 60 new Bronze award participants for 2018. Your first training is this Saturday from 9 -11 at the Benedict Campus. Please bring a pen and your laptop with you.

Service Opportunities Update Week 6 Term 1: Touch Football: Mrs Mezger is looking for a group of silver or gold girls to help organize and run a Year 7 touch football competition on a Friday lunch. Please contact Mrs Mezger to register your interest.

Stella After - School Tutoring: The Inclusive Learning Department is looking for silver and gold students to help with after school homework support. Available times are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 3.25pm – 4.30pm in E14. Please contact Mrs Imhoff or Mrs Taylor for more information.

Netball Coaching: Mrs Silburn is seeking a netball coach (Saturday games only at CurlCurl) for an under 10’s team. Please contact her for more information.

Service opportunity to help an African Orphanage: Creating fun teaching resources for Wisdom Academy, an orphanage primary school in Kenya (lunch, after school or at home) Please contact Donna at the Benedict Campus for more information.

Residential Project Opportunities Northern Beaches Council Youth Exchange Brewarrina – Applications close 12 March, and all details are on the Council website. The dates of the exchange are 16 – 22 April 2018.

Important Dates: Saturday 10 March 9am-11am Bronze training Day (please bring your laptop) Monday 11 March 6pm– 7pm Parent Information evening – Star of the Sea theatre.

Please see the Duke of Edinburgh website for more exciting opportunities or email linda_silburn@stellamaris.nsw.edu.au

Linda Silburn, Coordinator of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award.

Extra Curriculum

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CurriculumVISUAL ARTS NEWSThe Visual Art Department would like to congratulate Hannah Bowley, Rachel Driessen and Charlotte MacKenzie from Year 12 2017 for their inclusion in Express Yourself - Manly Art Gallery’s annual showcase of outstanding Visual Art Bodies of Work from across the Northern Beaches. Their artworks looked beautiful professionally hung in a gallery space surrounded by the work of their peers.

A special congratulations to Charlotte who received a Highly Commended for her work An illustrated account of creatures the world will never see again.

Express Yourself is on show at Manly Art Gallery and Museum until Sunday, 1 April 2018.

Marisa Quick, Teacher of Visual Arts

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Jenny Wickham, Sports Coordinator

SportSPORT REPORTNSW All Schools Triathlon Congratulations to the Stella girls who competed at the NSW All Schools and NSWCCC Triathlon at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith last week.

The individual event was held on Wednesday, 28 March. Tasma Woolley Year 12 represented Stella in this event. Tasma had to swim 750m, ride 20km and run 5km. She had a great race and finished 8th overall. Well done Tas!

We had an amazing ten teams competing in the teams event on Thursday, 1st March. In this event, teams are made up of three people, where each person completes one leg of the race (either the swim, bike or run). All of our teams did extremely well!

Congratulations to our Open team who won the silver medal in the NSWCCC event, and were fourth in NSW All Schools. This team was made up of: Sophie Wickham Year 11, Tasma Woolle, Year 12 and Holly Wickham Year 7. Well done to these girls.

Special mention also goes to Rebecca Chant Year 11, who was the overall fastest swimmer in the open event, and Holly Wickham Year 7. who was the second fastest runner in the open event.

Well done to all members of the team: Soraya *, Kylah Whyte, Chloe Hatvany, Olivia Fernie, Olivia Smith, Lara Williams, Scarlett Beaumont, Mischa Morrell, Anna Curley, Ruby Hammond, Ellie Smith, Niamh Fitzgerald, Tamsyn Curley, Isabelle Seibold, Molly *, Charley Porter, Arabella Condon, Isabella Stein, Annelize Howard, Zoe *, Angelina *, Olivia Lovell, Charlotte Byrne, Taya *, Sophie Wickham, Tasma Woolley, Holly Wickham, Rebecca Chant, Hayley * and Isobel Tulevski.

Head of the River Rowing Congratulations to Grace Burke, Year 8 who represented Stella in the Head of the River Rowing Regatta last weekend. Grace competed in the Year 8 Single Skull event and won the SILVER medal This is a fantastic result in such a prestigious event. Well done Grace!

Water Polo The open competition will commence next Friday night at the Warringah Aquatic Centre.

Expressions of interest are now being called for players in Years 8 and 9, who would like to play in the schools competition which will be held on Monday nights in Terms 2 and 3.

Touch Football Good luck to our Open BBSSSA team who will be playing at the BBSSSA Gala Day at Doyalson on Monday, 12 March.

Best of luck also goes to the five teams who will be playing in the NSW Touch Regional Championships at Nolans next Tuesday, 13 March.

Stella Swimming Team Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected to represent Stella at the BBSSSA Swimming Championships on 19 March at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre: Nikita Newling, Charley Porter, Rebecca Chant, Grace Shanahan, Mia Lorello, Anna Curley, Tilla Garrett, Soraya *, Mila McGettigan, Sophia Thomas, Kayla Kimball, Tamsyn Curley, Athena Liang, Sophia Howison, Lara Williams, Caoimhe *, Olivia Fernie, Ella Garrett, Hayley *, Scarlett Beaumont, Sophie Wickham and Charli Hammond.

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inclusive innovative inspiringGail Hickey & Maree Sewell, Uniform/Book Shop Supervisors

9976 1819 or uniform_books@stellamaris.nsw.edu.au

Canteen and Uniform ShopCANTEEN ROSTER: Hours are 9.30am - 2.30pm. If you are unable to attend on your rostered day PLEASE call Bernie to arrange a replacement on 9976 1826.

Mon 12 Mar Tues 13 Mar Wed 14 Mar Thurs 15 Mar Fri 16 MarJasmine Cosgrove

Jo CarmichaelEmma Smith

Jane LaneShelley Anderson

Liz BrunSteph O’FlynnKerry Seipelt

Lisa McGregor

Margaret RobertsJo Daley

Caren HuxfordAmanda EasonMelissa Jones

Ruth MayohKatrina Harvey

Catherine GriffinKaren CurriePetra Weiss

Sharelle PollettTrish ChapmanRobyn Lavings

Sue HanleyRachel Upperton

UNIFORM SHOP Opening Times During School Terms: 8.00am-4.30pm Tue/Wed/Thu.

My Student Account We are seeing many girls in the Uniform Shop carrying large amounts of cash. We would advise for safety that Student Cards be loaded with money for Uniform Shop purchases. This can be done on the Portal.

Second Hand Uniforms The Uniform Shop is now accepting some second hand winter uniforms. Please bring summer dresses into us at the end of Term 3. Please contact us before bringing items in.

Winter Uniform Prices Junior Senior (Years 10-12) Extras Skirt $70 Skirt $120 Jumper Wool $72 Stockings $9 Blouse $35 Blouse $35 Jumper Cotton $72 Scarf $10 Blazer $165 Blazer $200 Gloves $7

Sports Uniform Prices Sport shorts $34 Tracktop $67 Limited sizes of previous style sports uniform at reduced prices Sport Polo $43 Trackpants $45 available for Year 10 Previous style water polo costume (can be used for water sport) $65

Winter Uniform Fitting - 3 DAYS LEFT! The winter uniform will be sold until Thursday, 15 March. We need to see your daughter by 15 March to place our only order for the blazers to our supplier. We order for each of the girls and do not have many spares. If we don’t see your daughter by this date there may not be a blazer for her.

Items to be purchased Year 7 – full Junior winter uniform Year 10 – Senior blazer and skirt Year 11 – Senior pink blouse New to Stella since Term 4 2017 - Full Winter Uniform Other Years – replacement items as required. Please try on now to see if any new items are to be bought, particularly blazers, as they will have to be included in the order.

VOLUNTEERS Tuesday 13 March Justine Mckee

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Careers

Jeanette Ferguson, Careers Advisor

WomenofAviationOpenDaySaturday10March9am–3pm

Adayforwomenandgirlstofly:•Informationandadviceonlearningtoflyforfunorcareer–free•Flightsimulatorexperience–free•Barbecue–free

ChooseaTrialInstructionalTrainingFlight–youflytheplanewithaninstructor•WarragambaTrainingFlight–$149•NorthernBeachesTrainingFlight–$149•HarbourScenicTrainingFlight–$299

Bookaflightnow:ContactusandmentionWomenofAviationDayforthespecialratesabove

Ifyourareunder18youmustcomewithaparentorwrittenpermissionfromaparentorcarerifyouwishtoflyinalightaircraft.

SydneyFlyingClub/FlightCollege60BirchStBankstownAirport2200P0297098488F0297071045members@sfcaero.com.auwww.sfcaero.com.au

Notre Dame Medicine Info Session 25 March, 10.00am to 12.00pm 160 Oxford St, Darlinghurst

Those considering studying Medicine commencing in 2019 are invited to attend an information session at our purpose-built Darlinghurst campus.

Call us on 02 8204 4404 or sydney@nd.edu.au for further information.

25 March bookings: http://www.nd.edu.au/events/2018/medicine-info-session-sydney-march18

UTS Discovery Sessions in Midwifery and Nursing

Midwifery – 24 April. 5.30pm

https://www.uts.edu.au/future-students/health/why-health-uts/events-and-brochures/discover-sessions

JMC Academy Virtual Reality Workshop 27 March, 4.30pm 561 Harris St, Ultimo Integrating film, music, animation and sound into VR! https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/virtual-reality-workshop-sydney-tickets-42653131665

AFTRS Upcoming Courses Our courses are the perfect way to learn new skills, have fun, make new friends and be taught by industry professionals at AFTRS' state-of-the-art film, TV and radio studios in Sydney. We run a wide variety of school holiday courses for both kids and teens throughout all of the school holidays.

16 April. Music for Film & TV: 13-17 yrs 18 April. After Effects for Teens. 23 April Video Editing with Premiere Pro: 13-17 yrs 26 April HSC Video Intensive: 15-17 yrs 26 April Blood & Guts Movie Makeup: 9 - 14 yrs http://www.aftrs.edu.au/short-courses/kids-and-teens

Commercial Pilot - BASAIR Career Free Info Seminar 26 March. 7.00pm to 8.30pm Bankstown Airport Register at: http://www.basair.com.au/Events