Welcome to Week 6. What an absolute privilege we had yesterday afternoon to host potential new students and their families for Open Day 2022. We had families from a wide range of schools across the region. They met Dolly, or wellbeing dog, at the gate and then began their tour with a student tour guide. Some of the displays were: science experiments, robotics, virtual reality, music performances, art, iHi, geography, animals from agriculture, religious education, timber, metalwork, pastoral care, Library, chess competitions, scavenger hunt,  PE and of course afternoon tea in the hospitality restaurant. We were very proud of our students and staff for providing such a welcoming and engaging environment for our visitors.

Year 12 returned from their Sydney excursion this week. Students really enjoyed the variety of activities, presentations and experiences of the city. Excursions like this take a lot of planning and Mrs McInerney deserves a huge thank you for her work in organising such a successful event. Thanks must also go to the staff who gave up their time to attend this excursion. Experiences like this are very important for our students; they gain a stronger understanding of the ‘bigger’ world and benefit from being exposed to so many new challenges and opportunities.

The media is reporting the continuing teacher shortage across the nation. Hennessy is blessed to have a full contingent of qualified teachers, however, we do not have adequate casual teachers and continue to advertise in this area. We will be welcoming Miss Emily Rogers to our staff next week and she will be teaching junior geography and RE. The staff met this week and we plan to begin joining more classes with one teacher supervising. Our ideal would be that students were not in joined classes more than once a day and that no more than two classes were joined. This would not apply to practical classes or classes that need a practical room.  We are aiming to cause minimum disruption to student learning and encourage families to contact us if they have concerns. Thank you in advance for your patience and support in these circumstances.

Winter is definitely upon us, please ensure all your children's clothing items are clearly labeled.  We have an abundance of unlabelled lost property at the office. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Kathy Holding.