Welcome to Week 4. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. The whole College attended a beautiful liturgy in the church lead by the Year 12 Student Leadership Team. Students received the ashes, prayed together and were reminded that Lent is not just a time for ‘giving up’ things but it can be a time to ‘take up’ things, especially positive actions and communications with others. Mr Mitchelll and Mrs Wright are to be congratulated for their organisation in making this such a solemn and meaningful event.

Tomorrow we will be having a mufti day to raise much needed funds for the earthquake appeal in Türkey and Syria. This is a wonderful example of how Lent challenges us to consider others above ourselves - to truly live out the gospel values. Students are encouraged to go beyond a gold coin to assist in this devastating disaster.

Next Tuesday is our Opening College Mass. The mass will commence at 9:00 am and all parents and carers (and grandparents) are very welcome to attend. 

Our annual swimming carnival was a huge success. The weather was glorious and the participation level was very high. Students enjoyed both the competitive and the social aspects of the day. Thank you to Mr Brendan Croese and his enthusiastic band of helpers who put so much work into making this day run so smoothly.

You may have already read on Compass that Mr Martin Sullivan and Mrs Kerrie Murphy will join the Community Council as Parent Representatives this year. Thank you to Mr Sullivan and Mrs Murphy for stepping up to these significant roles. Please do not hesitate to contact any members of the Community Council if you have any issues you would like raised, The first meeting will be on Wednesday, March 29.

On Tuesday evening a small group of staff and students cooked a barbeque for Year 10 Sacred Heart students and their families and I also spoke to them about Hennessy as an educational option for Stage 6. We always value our enrolments from Sacred Heart for Year 11 and this year have 23 Sacred Heart students joining our Year 11 cohort to make a total of 83 students.

Like other archdiocesan schools, we are partaking in what is called the Catalyst project. Hennessy is focusing on High Impact Teaching Strategies. This means that how we teach is based on the science of learning rather than fads or simply keeping students happy. The big challenge for teachers is teaching to ‘make things stick’ and this professional learning is addressing this by providing teachers with evidence based strategies so learning moves from short-term to long-term memory. To find out more about Catalyst you can go to:

https://catalyst.cg.catholic.edu.au/

Thank you for supporting the College in making such a positive start to the year.

Kathy Holding