Welcome to the last week of Term 1. Today, of course, is Holy Thursday and is part of Holy Week. The Passion of Christ was described in the homily on Palm Sunday as an example of humankind acting very badly, a classic case of bullying, judgmental behaviour and unkindness. We were challenged to consider how we are behaving in Holy Week in 2021? Have we developed personally since Holy Week last year? What do we still need to work at?

On Wednesday we were fortunate to have a visit from Archbishop Christopher Prowse. Archbishop Prowse met with students and staff and was keenly interested in the academic and faith life of the students in a secondary setting.

Last week Mr Peter Igoe-Taylor led the Year 9 boys in a day to focus on respect. The boys listened to guest speakers and completed various activities. A small group of Year 11 girls visited Canberra to attend the ‘She Leads Conference’. Both these days, and the previous Year 9 girls’ days, were initiatives promoted by the student leadership team. Our Student Leadership team is working hard to have a true voice within the College and to develop activities across a wide range of year groups and interest areas.

Today we farewelled various staff:

• Mrs Donna Watson has been lab assistant at Hennessy since 2006 as well as very capably chairing the WHS Committee. Mrs Watson’s skill and expertise will be greatly missed. She will be replaced by Mrs Katrina Hudson.
• Mrs Jorja McGrath will begin Maternity Leave and we wish her all the best on the birth of her second child and look forward to seeing her back at Hennessy in 2022. She will be replaced as McAuley House Leader by Mr Andrew Bigwood and her PE classes will be taught by Miss Emily Coffee, who joins us from Dubbo.
• Mrs Danielle Hudson has been one of our Catholic Care counsellors since 2007. She is moving on to another role with Catholic Care and Miss Rebekah Sheely, who is already here will increase her hours. We thank Danielle for her care of our students over the years and we will miss her gentle wisdom.

The Parent Teacher Student Interviews were held last Thursday in hybrid form for the first time. Attendance was equal to past years with about a third of interviews being online. Any feedback regarding these interviews would be greatly appreciated.

We begin to move into reporting mode with Year 12 being the first to receive semester reports early in Term 2. This year we will join many other schools in making all our reports available online via Compass instead of hard copies. Reports will be in PDF format. Any families who wish to have hard copies will be given the opportunity to request this closer to the reporting dates.

School returns for students on Tuesday, April 20 with a chance to visit the local Careers expo for Years 10 and 12 on the first Tuesday back and our annual Cross Country and Colour Run on the Wednesday of the first week. In Week 2, the College will undergo a Registration process on April 28, 29 and 30 - looks like a busy start to the term!

Please save the date and join our parent community for an Open Forum Community Council Meeting on Wednesday, April 28 from 6:00 pm in the Hospitality Restaurant. Nibbles and drinks will be served, we will go through the scheduled Community Council Meeting and have David and Katie Kobler from Choicez speak to us. The Koblers visit the school annually to talk to students about making good choices. Their parent talk will be about raising teenagers in a world of sexting, cyberbullying and pornography. These are difficult but very important topics and I can assure you that the Koblers are very practical and engaging speakers.

I would like to wish all our families a peaceful and relaxing Easter break. I hope you have a chance to spend time with loved ones and to enjoy the beautiful Autumn weather.

Please do not hesitate to contact me by email (kathy.holding@cg.catholic.edu.au) if you have any concerns or queries.