Hennessy Catholic College - Young eNewsletter

Welcome to our newsletter for Week 4! I know farmers are looking for rain but at least we are having sunny autumn days in the meantime.

The beautiful weather shone on the major College events held over the last fortnight. Our annual athletics carnival was held last Monday and staff were very impressed by the high level of attendance, particularly Year 12 students and the high level of participation. Mr Croese and his team must be thanked for their excellent organisational skills.

Our annual Open Day was held last Wednesday. The day was a big success with 71 students passing through our gates which is a much greater number than last year. Families were welcomed by Dolly, our well-being dog, then student tour guides took them around the College to see a variety of activities and displays including: sports, science escape rooms, sheep and chickens, pastoral care and Cambodia Immersion displays, cupcake decoration, RE activities in the chapel, musical performances, art experiences, medieval history displays, public speaking, maths games, VR experiences and afternoon tea in the Hospitality kitchen. This was a great way to showcase what our College offers for prospective enrolments. Enrolments are now open and can be completed via our website and then an interview will be scheduled. This day was a strong example of the teamwork of our staff and students in working together to provide such an enjoyable day.

The College is named after Monsignor Jerome Hennessy and we recognise his contributions through an annual mass, House stalls and an activity afternoon organised by Year 12 students. Hennessy Day was on Tuesday and began with House stalls in the break to raise money for the Vinnie’s Winter Appeal. Mr Miller, Mrs Wright and Mrs Riordan prepared a beautiful mass followed by activities, in which students participated in pastoral care groups. The winner of the activities was once again McAuley 6. It was reassuring to see how the different pastoral care groups work together (each group has approximately 15 students ranging from Year 7 to Year 12). Students have formed strong bonds with their pastoral care group and it is encouraging to see that they have friendship support outside their year cohort. Mrs McInerney should be recognised for her organisation and coordination of the afternoon.

This term we are focusing on the next group of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit: patience, kindness and generosity. Monsignor Hennessy was a wonderful example of each of these gifts. We are encouraging students to be more patient with those around them, to show kindness through a warm and friendly disposition towards others and to be generous by unselfishly sharing with others.

On Tuesday afternoon staff participated in a Twilight Professional Learning Activity led by Ms Jess Colleu Terradas from Catholic Education. Reading has been identified as an area for improvement for Hennessy students and staff have been working on improving their skills in embedding reading and vocabulary skills into their lessons, no matter what subject.

Hennessy is very proud of its uniform and most students wear it with pride, please ensure that your child wears the correct uniform, particularly the College tie.

Kathy Holding

Principal

From the Assistant Principal

Term 2 is very busy at Hennessy. Students have received their assessments or common tasks and now it is up to students to ensure they are working to complete their tasks on time, to the best of their ability. What they need most of all is organisation and must balance commitments outside of school and in the classroom, remembering that every lesson counts.

For students in Year 10-12 we have processes around illness, misadventure and extensions. These, as well as appropriate forms, can be found in the Student Handbooks on the College website, their year group Google Classroom pages and the Student Drive.

Some important points:

If the task is an in-class task it is expected students must be present all day (i.e. do not arrive late, just before the task is being conducted).
If a student is absent for a task, parents are to make contact, on the morning of the task, with the College and myself – andrew.morton@cg.catholic.edu.au
If a student was sick or unable to attend school on the day of the task, then they can apply for Illness/Misadventure and have the task rescheduled for when they get back. If it’s a hand in and they can still submit this from home on time, no paperwork is required.
All paperwork is required within 3 days of their return to school.

Extensions are only granted under exceptional circumstances; these need to be discussed with the class teacher first but then the students need to contact me directly to confirm if they have sufficient grounds.

At the mid point of the term, unfortunately, we also have students starting to acquire negative points in the classroom. Students are reminded that what happens in the classroom is important and our core business as a school. Students should not be denying themselves or others in the class an opportunity to learn. Stay focused and do your best.

Remember, staff are here to help. Early and continual communication allows for collaboration between staff, students and parents and leads to positive outcomes.

Andrew Morton

Assistant Principal - Teaching & Learning

From the Director Of Studies

Our teachers are busily preparing mid year reports. The data in the reports recorded by teachers is a combination of academic assessment as well as the work habits applied by each student. Therefore every minute in the classroom contributes in some way to each student's report.

The Year 11 and 12 reports are due to be published shortly. Year 7-10 reports will be published at the end of Term 2.

Year 12 Parent Teacher Student conferences will be conducted on the evening of Thursday 6 June. A notice will be sent out via Compass so you can book a time to meet with your child's teachers. These conferences are an important time, just after the reports are published, to refocus your efforts in the lead up the the HSC Trial exams in early Term 3.

Ian Mergard

Director of Studies

What an amazing fortnight it has been putting the Hennessy community on show. The fortnight started with the Athletics Carnival and took us into Mental Health week where students were able to engage in daily activities around improving mental health. Thanks to Bella Cooper who organised this, the highlight of the week was definitely the notes of gratitude and kindness where students were able to write to each other what they appreciated.

Hennessy Day was an incredible day of school spirit. It was so wonderful to see the amount of students involved in all of the different activities and engaging in what it truly means to be a Hennessy student, a place where every student belongs. Thank you to Mrs McInerney and the Year 12 teams

Next week we will begin our Cyber Safety Survey - which is an important part of the information we use to address the needs of our students. Knowing how and when our students use their devices is of the utmost importance to address issues and our device policies.

Next week we will also be introducing our Year 9’s at the College to the Catholic Schools Youth Ministry Australia (CSYMA) program with Catch the Wave. This retreat program is an integral part of the College where we walk alongside students in their faith journey and also ask them to assist other students - often in primary school with their own faith journey. Students in CSYMA will lead retreats and activities and often continue seeking out leadership opportunities as they develop. I encourage all families to speak with their students about this opportunity in Year 9.

Our Year 7 Year Level Captain nomination forms have closed for the week and I look forward to working with the Year 7’s in writing their speeches and preparing them for this leadership opportunity.

Hennessy Parish Mass is coming up on the 1st of June, I encourage all students and families to attend with us and celebrate. There will be pizza afterwards and Youth Group if you would like to participate please fill in the form below. House points are awarded. https://forms.gle/cR8f8Va8z9rmkXzX8

Mary Wright

Assistant Principal - Mission & Ministry

Hey everyone, we apologise for our missing segments but finally welcome back to another update of the leadership lounge, this time from Nagle captains Camden and Dieter.

The start of term 2 has been BUSY BUSY BUSY with students coming back and getting straight into schooling and many fun activities such as athletics carnival, Hennessy Day, CG cross country, mental health week and many many more.

Firstly we would like to congrtulate all of the fantastic efforts of the athletics carnival (Monday 13th May), participation was outstanding this year with many smiling red faces throughout the day. Congratulations to those who placed in their age groups we wish you the best of luck as you go on to represent Hennessy at further levels. Ultimately Rice took away the day coming first followed by Nagle (whoo! ?), McAuley and then Gallagher, this was just enough to place Rice on top of the leaderboard for week 3 before being knocked back down by ONLY 1 POINT this week by Nagle.

Following this on Wednesday the 15th Hennessy held its annual open day, meeting and touring new year 6 students and showing them all that Hennessy has to offer. Many interesting displays and activities were ran by Hennessy students including VR (virtual reality), Medieval History displays, religion activities, science escape rooms, Cambodia and PC displays and our very own Cafe Jerome from years 10/11 Hospitality students, which provided complimentary milkshakes, coffees and a variety of delicious food options. Year 6s were introduced to a life at Hennessy and were told about all the amazing differences from Primary to High school, we look forward to seeing all of these new faces later in the year for our orientation days and then again next year to officially join Hennessy!

As well as these two events Hennessy held mental health week throughout week 3. Interrupted by the athletics carnival, Mental Health Week began on Tuesday with physical movement ?? in house groups. Throughout this week students were educated with many statistics and educational videos on mental health, shown access to support services and ultimately talked about what mental health is and how to look after ourselves throughout High School. Hennessy participated in colouring in competitions, gratitude activities and kindness cards which were then handed out as supporting messages for Hennessy students. We would like to give a huge thank you to year 12 student Bella Cooper for working with the leadership team to organise this week for Hennessy.

Towards the sporting side of school we have been busy displaying our talents and going for gold at events such as CG cross country, All Schools Netball for years 7-10, All Schools Touch for years 7-12 and Cowra eisteddfod for our two amazing dance teams. Congratulations to all who participated in these events and we wish you luck as you progress further to continue representing Hennessy. Congraultions to our dance troupes who competed yesterday at the Cowra Eistoddfod and placed 1st in the junior and 2nd in the senior categories.

Finally just this Tuesday Hennessy celebrated Hennessy day! Our day began scoping out the AMAZING vinnies glam outfits everyone had put together with features of wedding dresses, many bright colours and some extremely interesting textures. During breaks 1 and 2 houses then put on their own stalls with Rice doing a sausage sizzle, Gallagher doing a cake stall, Nagle on spiders and McAuley selling raffle tickets for a 10kg block of chocolate! Students were swarming these stalls all looking for a treat which they most definitely found they were big hits for everyone! Following this Hennessy participated in a whole school mass, we had beautiful readings from all of the year level and vice house captains and would like to say a big thank you to Father Jiss for running a beautiful service. To finish off the day students did many round robin style games ran by year 12 students all competing for the PC cup, tensions were high as Mrs McInerny was counting points and announcing but congratulations to M6 for taking away the win and for Rice being the winning house. Even though there were no Nagle winners the whole school still had a fantastic day!

Finally we would like to congratulate all of Hennessy as outstanding amounts of points have been given out lately, keep up the amazing work and strive to get as many as you can as the leaderboard is so so close. Congratulations to the leading PC R4, you guys have all been working incredibly hard this year and it has not gone unnoticed!

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Leaders Lounge!”

We will talk again soon!

Camden Cummins & Dieter Dickinson
Nagle House (best house) Leaders

Last week Year 11 IT Students attended a week of virtual work placement, which was hosted by Amazon AWS and run online from School.

Students had workshops on digital careers, Artificial Intelligence, Web Development, Big Data, Cybersecurity & Cloud technologies. They completed three AWS badge certifications on Cloud 101, Security & Cloud Compute. They had mentoring sessions with AWS employees and discussed options with digital careers and what it was like to work at Amazon. Amazon leadership principles were discussed and how to link to their project.

Over the course of the week they worked on a real world problem, where they developed cloud based solutions that included WebDev, Big Data, Data analytics & AI technologies.

Their group presented to all schools across the state and also to their peers at School.

They achieved three awards which was the second highest achieved across the state.

Students dive into digital careers

Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education of NSW visits Students

College fees are now due.

Should you wish to discuss your fees, please do not hesitate to contact Nadine Woods, Buisness Manager on 63821486 or via email nadine.woods@cg.catholic.edu.au.

Hospitality students from Hennessy Catholic College recently showcased their skills at the Empowering Women - Return to Work Pathways program in Young. This event, which brought together 20 women from the local and surrounding regions, was a significant step in supporting women as they work towards their personal, study, and work goals.

The three-day program, delivered by Empowered Collective in partnership with Vinnies Canberra/Goulburn and funded by the NSW Government through Women NSW, benefited from the culinary talents of the students. The students had the honour of catering for the final day of the program, preparing morning tea and lunch for 25 attendees. As part of their hospitality course, the students need to acquire service periods, and this event served as an excellent opportunity. It also allowed them to cater to specific dietary requirements, further enhancing their skills and experience in the hospitality industry.

We greatly appreciate the opportunity to be involved in such an empowering event. It was rewarding to see the students' dedication and commitment, with some arriving well before school had started to assist in the preparation.

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The College Athletics Carnival was held on Monday 13^th May at Gus Smith Oval. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the three records that were broken by Malayah Anesbury. Firstly, in the 14 Years Girls 100m sprint, Malayah clocked 13.77 seconds, breaking the previous record of 14.13 which was set by Eliza Taylor in 2021. Malayah continued her success in the 14 Years Girls Long Jump, with a result of 4.33 m, surpassing the old record of 4.31 m set by Eliza Taylor in 2021. Finally, Malayah triumphed in the Open Girls Triple Jump with a result of 9.65 m, breaking the previous best of 9.41 m set by Lauren Jenkins in 2010.

Well done to the following students who demonstrated an outstanding level of participation in all events throughout the day: Evelyn Sinclair, Sybella Murphy, Azalea Sullivan, Eliza Taylor, Caitlin Drum, Jasmine Sullivan, Dieter Dickinson, James Payne, Niall Lambert & Jake Williams.

The final point score for the carnival was as follows:

RICE – 1215, NAGLE – 998, MCAULEY – 819, GALLAGHER – 768.

Congratulations to RICE House!

Athletics Carnival Age Champions are as follows:

Division	Age Champion	Runner-up
12 Years Boys	Hamish Summerfield	Lachlan Loughhead
12 Years Girls	Evelyn Sinclair	Georgia Carswell
13 Years Boys	Zander Ashton	Ryan Sumich
13 Years Girls	Klara Booth	Somer Oldfield
14 Years Boys	Cayden Cross	Liam Holt Lincoln Sutherland
14 Years Girls	Malayah Anesbury	Tahlea Cummins
15 Years Boys	Jesse Thorpe	Harry Coddington
15 Years Girls	Evie Stinson	Emily Buck
16 Years Boys	Lachlan Shea & Harry Boxsell
16 Years Girls	Amarli Kelleher & Charlotte Campbell
17+ Open Boys	James Payne	Niall Lambert
17+ Open Girls	Eliza Taylor	Jasmine Sullivan

What a wonderful day, I would like to congratulate all the students on their involvement in our dress-up theme “Vinnie’s Glam” – thank you for supporting our local charity organisations. We had a wonderful day, students donated to our Vinnie’s Winter Appeal, ran stalls during our break and sold some amazing treats.

We celebrated a wonderful Mass. Then in our Period 5 activities ran by our Year 12 students we were able to see some amazing leadership and skills from our Pastoral Care classes during the activities. Students were involved in activities such as Waterbomb Tennis, Trivia, Skipping, Basketball, Spelling Bee, Minute to Win it, Egg and Spoon races and much more.

Some highlights from the afternoon;

Teamwork from Pastoral Care classes and great sportsmanship
Leadership skills from Nagle 4 and McAuley 5 – the Year 11 students stepping up and role modelling to the younger students
Mrs Navori and Mr Quinn’s sack race
Rice 6 and their outstanding ‘red’ vibes for team spirt
Mr Croese and his Gallagher 2 ‘Just Dance’ skills

House results for the day;