As we draw to the end of a hectic and ever changing semester, I would like to thank you as a community for the trust you placed in the College over the period of learning from home and the subsequent return to learning face to face learning. As an Assistant Principal and parent I am aware of the strain this placed on families and appreciate you working in partnership with the College to ensure the wellbeing of our students.

Positive Behaviours Survey - Bullying follow up and report summary

As part of the Bullying Survey conducted at the College we have started a Student Action Group to obtain their valuable input into how we can ensure that all members of the community feel safe and reduce the incidents of bullying at the College. The survey highlighted the following.

• Almost 90% of the student body said they feel safe at Hennessy Often/always.
• 82% of students said they had never been bullied at Hennessy. 
• The vast majority said that bullying happened during breaks on the playground.  The College also needs to investigate how to break the bullying cycle with student action to support each other on the playground and involve teachers on duty. Verbal bullying was the greatest area of bullying that had been directed at students or they had witnessed. This highlighted the need to empower our students with resilience and to be upstanders and not bystanders. Almost half of the students identified said that they had attempted to stand up for a friend and stop bullying.
• The survey suppourted the findings in the 2019 Mission Australia survey report from 2019, students will go to their parents or friends before they will come to a teacher. With this in mind we need to continue empower parents and friends to make sure they know what to do when their child or friend comes home and reports they are being bullied. The Community Council raised the concern of what a parent can do if their child is identified as a bully. The following links give points on how to deal with these difficult and sometimes confronting situations for both parents and students:

Student - Ive-been-called-a-bully

Parents- helping-your-child-stop-bullying-guide-parents

The College wants to seek parent feedback and was hoping to have a survey for this newsletter but we are still exploring the best options to conduct a parent survey early next term.

College Captains visit to Canberra - Covid 19 Forum

On Tuesday some of the College Captains attended a forum in Canberra to communicate their experiences of Covid 19. They had the opportunity to share their stories and the impact of the pandemic on their education and personal lives. Our students came away surprised that some other Colleges had simply moved to an academic focus during the remote learning period. The Canberra Colleges were very inquisitive and impress by Hennessy’s approach of Academic Wellbeing. They were amazed that every family was contacted. Also that each week there was a year group assembly run by the Captains that included a principals address, birthdays, dance offs, fancy dress and scavenger hunts.

As always the College’s greatest ambassadors are our students and Albie, Sarah, Mia and Bridie did the College proud.

If you have any concerns please contact your child’s PC teacher or any member of the College’s Wellbeing team.

Mark Chifley

Assistant Principal Mission and Wellbeing