Welcome to Week 4. There is no doubt that Hennessy is a very welcoming and supportive community. Students and staff are very friendly and our new students seem to be settling in well and making new friends.

Over the past two weeks many staff and students have been involved in community barbeques in Boorowa, Murrumburrah, Cootamundra and Grenfell. This has been a wonderful opportunity to meet families from these towns and to answer questions about Hennessy. Our Open Day is on May 26 but families are always welcome to tour the school at any time.

Year 11 Vice Captain speeches were held on Tuesday morning. There were seventeen candidates across the four houses. The standard of candidates was very high and their speeches were well prepared and genuine. I am proud to announce that the Vice Captains for 2020 are:

Joy Cass - Gallagher

Liam Jewitt - McAuley

Mia Hennock - Nagle

Justin Garlick - Rice

Vice Captain badges will be formally presented at the College Opening Mass on Monday, February 25. All families are very welcome to attend this important event. The Mass will formally launch our 2020 motto - ‘To live justly’. This motto challenges us to not just talk about the injustices of the world but to ‘walk the walk’ of doing actions to work against injustice.

Your son or daughter will possibly already have told you of our mobile phone policy. All phones are collected at the start of each lesson. This means that students have five hours without the distraction of mobile phones each school day. This policy is to both support student  learning and to reduce the time spent on social media. Students have been very cooperative with this policy and have reported that they are definitely spending less time on social media and are less distracted in class.

It has been very heartening to see rain over the past few weeks. The rainfall totals have been variable but it has given our farmers hope. Please keep those affected by drought in your prayers.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are concerned about anything or just if you would like to introduce yourself. My email is kathy.holding@cg.catholic.edu.au