Welcome to our Week 4 newsletter! This week has been a very busy time for our Year 10 students as they consider their subject options for Year 11. It was wonderful to see so many families at the subject market on Tuesday night and again yesterday for the parent/student/teacher subject selection interviews. Next Monday, we will be holding subject selection/enrolment interviews at Sacred Heart and we are looking forward to these students joining the Year 11 2025 cohort.  The move to Year 11 is a very exciting one but can also be daunting with the large number of choices on offer. Our advice to students is always to choose what you are good at and also interested in rather than being influenced by other factors. A big thank you to Mrs McInerney and Mr Mergard for their hard work in managing this process. Also a special recognition to the office staff for their hard work in producing our ‘new style’ subject selection booklet.

Last Thursday evening I had the immense privilege of attending the Catholic Education Recognition Mass in Canberra. I was extremely proud that two Hennessy staff were recognised by receiving these prestigious awards. Mrs Mary Wright received the Mission and Ministry Award and Miss Jessica Buchanan received the Religious Education Teacher Award. These awards are very well deserved and Hennessy is very fortunate to have Mrs Wright and Miss Buchanan working so hard to make our school a truly Catholic school. 

Last week our Director, Mr Ross Fox visited Hennessy. Mr Fox met with Year 11 students and members of the College Executive. This was a good opportunity to showcase what is happening at Hennessy and to show the Director some Hennessy hospitality.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of a visit from Ms Sarah Wiggins from Classroom Mastery. Sarah spent the day moving from class to class giving feedback to teachers on their classroom routines and also led our middle leaders in developing their coaching skills to coach teachers in the future. Teaching is a complex craft; teachers often work alone without anyone seeing the wonderful work happening in the classrooms. Staff found the day to be both affirming and informative. There was unanimous agreement from staff that the classroom routines (entry, exit, cue to start, seating plans) are assisting in making our classrooms safe and orderly places of learning.

The Tell Them From Me Survey is available for parents to complete via the link on Compass. This is an opportunity to give feedback to the College to assist in informing future directions. Thank you to those parents who have already completed this survey, it closes on Friday next week, August 23.

For our families and friends, for those who gathered here and those far away, for those united in love for many years and those just beginning, for those we love and for those we struggle to love. May Christ deepen our bond to each other in God's strong embrace. We pray to the Lord.