Welcome to our first newsletter for Term 2. Staff began the term with our guest speaker, Graham Wright, sharing ways to improve our students' results, particularly HSC results. Graham was a very engaging and informative speaker who gave staff many ideas to support and facilitate student growth.

On our first day for students, we launched our new anonymous harm reporting tool, Stymie. Stymie is available to all our students.

‘Stymie helps your child to say something by enabling them to report all kinds of concerns, safely and anonymously. 

• The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages us from intervening in an emergency situation.
• Social influence affects how many children behave, so they are less likely to stand up to inappropriate behaviours in public when the number of onlookers is high.
• Often our children are burdened by serious issues involving their friends but don’t know how to help.

Rather than trying to work against all of these pressures, our solution recognises the nuanced nature of their social currency, by providing them with a safe place to start a conversation.’

More information can be found by visiting their website at:

https://about.stymie.com.au/for-parents/

On Tuesday, we had the great pleasure of hosting Year 10 students from Sacred Heart Central School, Cootamundra. The purpose of the visit was to meet Hennessy Year 10 students and to become familiar with the school, and to learn more about different subject offerings. Thank you to Mrs Zukauskas for organising this event.

Also, on Tuesday, Hennessy Year 10 and 12 students attended the Young careers expo. Students returned very energised and excited to learn about different careers. These kinds of opportunities are very important for students to begin the process of choosing their career and the pathway to achieving it. A big thank you to Mrs Parkman for her work in organising this visit.

The current hat policy has been very successful, with students enthusiastically wearing their bucket hats. The expectation to wear hats for outdoor activities will be extended to all terms of the year to help support a sun-safe community.

You may have heard the radio advertisements for our Open Day. This will be held on May 14 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. This day promises to be even bigger and better than last year, with a wide variety of activities and displays to showcase what student life is like at Hennessy. Please encourage anyone interested to attend.

It was very exciting to hear of the election of our new Pope, Leo XIV. We pray for him in his important role:

Lord, source of eternal life and truth, 
give to your shepherd a spirit 
of courage and right judgment, a spirit 
of knowledge and love. By governing 
with fidelity those entrusted to his care, 
may he, as successor to the Apostle 
Peter and vicar of Christ, build your 
Church into a sacrament of unity, love, 
and peace for all the world.  

Amen.