Welcome to Week 8.

This week I have had the fortunate opportunity to attend the National Catholic Education Conference in Melbourne. The theme for this conference was ‘The Future is Listening’. The conference focused on teaching our students in Catholic schools to meet the challenges of the future. It was wonderful to meet people from all around Australia and some from overseas to hear their individual stories.

There was a lot said about involving and engaging young people in the church. Fr Anthony Gittins spoke passionately about religion being an infusion of the person of Jesus rather than dogma or rules. He stated that the church should be a place of inclusion - not exclusion. Fr Anthony challenged his audience to surpass the limits of religion to inspire the young.

I believe the ‘listening’ theme has been evident at Hennessy this week as we recognise RUOK Day. Many students have commented on the ongoing need to support the mental health of each other. The Student Leadership Team worked hard to plan various activities for PC and break times and today was their RUOK Day Food Event with all monies raised going to the Vinnie's Appeal. They worked tirelessly to provide more than 150 meals for this very worthy cause.

A special note of thanks must go to Damon Xia’s parents, Mr Xia and Mrs Huang, who made a generous donation of honey for the honey chicken. They also spent Wednesday afternoon at Hennessy cooking in preparation for Thursday's sales. This wonderful community event was a great example of young people seeing a need and working to plan a response.

Mental health is a growing concern in our society and no less at Hennessy. We have a variety of programs for students as well as a strong pastoral care team and excellent counselling support. However, we can always do more and are always keen to receive feedback and ideas on how to support our students best.

Don’t forget to ask someone today ‘RUOK?’

Kathy Holding
Principal