Other Activities
Club Spectra
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – Albert Einstein
Do you know how to make elephant toothpaste? Would you like to eat ice cream you made using dry ice, just like Heston Blumenthal?
Club Spectra is where curious, scientifically minded girls from Years 7 to 10 meet to investigate, hypothesize, explore, make, create, solve, build, fly, grow, eat and invent! They can also undertake a CREST project and they receive invitations to attend special excursions such as those offered in National Science Week.
CREST is a CSIRO awards program that facilitates student research and invention. The projects are designed by the girls with the support of career scientist mentors. Projects can be submitted for entry into the STANSW Young Scientist Award scheme.
Baking Club
“I don’t always eat cookies….. Wait, yes I do.” – Cookie Monster
This club for Year 7 runs in Term 4 for six weeks one afternoon per week. The girls learn how to bake biscuits, cakes and slices under the watchful culinary eyes of our sweet-toothed Food Technology teachers.
Writers’ Group
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou
This group is for aspiring journalists, travel writers, poets, novelists, bloggers and anyone just interested in expressing themselves in print for the fun of it! Our girls take risks and have fun with their writing and submit it for publication or test it against their peers in competition if they choose to. Here, they can tap into the workshop atmosphere to find their creative flow and share their ideas.
Our young writers create portfolios, mastermind short stories, author hard-hitting articles and wax lyrical in their poetry, going wherever their pen and their imagination take them.
The group has a long history of producing some inspired pieces of writing. Some of their achievements include
- Second place in Junior Prose and several Highly Commended in Senior Poetry and Senior Prose in the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature 2016
- Highly Commended and Commended in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards 2016
- UNSW University Medal and First in the State in Australasian Schools Writing Competition 2003, 2014 and 2015
- Shortlist Write Now! Competition 2013
- First Prize Guringai Festival Reconciliation Writing Competition 2012
- Second Prize Mosman Youth Awards in Literature (by a Year 9 student!) 2012
- Poems and short stories selected for publication in the Write4Fun Anthology 2006, 2011, 2012
- Shortlist Mosman Youth Awards in Literature each year 2003-2010 and 2015
- Shortlist Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year 2009
- First prize National Council for Women Youth Award Essay Competition 2008
- First prize and other shortlistings NSW RSL My Country Essay Competition 2007
- Third Prize Mosman Youth Awards in Literature – Senior Prose Division 2006
- First and Third prizes Mosman Youth Awards in Literature – Senior Prose Division 2005
- Future Leaders Writers’ Prize Final 6 Shortlist Australia wide 2005
- First Prize Mosman Youth Awards in Literature – Senior Prose Division 2004
- High Distinction UNSW Australasian Schools Writing Competition (top 1%) 2003 and 2004
Art Club
“I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it.” -Van Gogh
Open access to the Senior Art Studio is available one lunchtime a week. Girls work on school-based projects or on any art-making activity they like – just for fun! Art Club gives younger girls an insight into professional arts practice. For seniors, it allows for more extended and sustained activities that are not always practically achieved in timetabled lessons. Seniors are also able to use the studio during their study periods to catch up on or extend their practical work. The space offers our senior artists a creative place to be when in need of inspiration. The Art Department also offers HSC Visual Arts girls studio days in the holidays so that every girl is able to achieve her highest potential in the presentation of her Body of Work.
Knitting Club
“It is pure potential. Every ball or skein of yarn holds something inside it.” – Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
The Knitting Club is dedicated to knitting squares for the not for profit organisation, Wrap With Love. Contributors knit squares that are sewn into blankets. To date over 323 000 blankets have been knitted and distributed to people in 75 countries. Stella Maris is proud of its girls for contributing to this simple and effective endeavour.
The squares knitted by the Knitting Club are sewn together by the mother of a staff member and then donated to Wrap With Love.
Anyone can join the Knitting Club – girls and staff. It meets once per week at lunchtime through the cooler months, all equipment is provided and no experience is necessary. Some members knit at home as well and parents are welcome to send in squares (email Knitting Club to get the specifications).
Click here to learn more about Wrap With Love.
