Hennessy Catholic College - Young eNewsletter

Welcome to Week 8. On Wednesday and yesterday, we had the great pleasure of hosting 79 Year 6 students who will be our new Year 7, 2025. We have students from St Mary’s Young, St Joseph’s Boorowa, St Joseph’s Grenfell, Trinity Murrumburrah, Young Public, Young North, Murringo Public and Greenethorpe Public. The three orientation days are a great opportunity for the students to meet their new classmates and teachers and participate in many subject activities.

On Tuesday, Hennessy and St Mary’s participated in a beautiful mass to celebrate the Nativity of Mary. Father Jiss and Deacon Mark commented on the reverence and behaviour of these students and the excellent readers and talented musicians.

Year 11 will begin their End of Course exams tomorrow. We wish them all the best. This is their first opportunity to be part of the formal examination process. Many students will also use this opportunity to make decisions about which subjects to take into Year 12.

Hennessy is always proud to offer a wide range of experiences that allow students to develop their individual talents. We were very proud of our Senior Lawn Bowls Team who won the 2024 Inter-Schools Challenge State Finals in Sydney yesterday. This is a remarkable achievement and a big recognition must go to Mr Watson for his work developing this new sport at Hennessy this year.

You may have been following Pope Francis’s tour through Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Singapore. It is reassuring to see the large crowds who are turning out to see him. It is worth considering his message that the Church needs ‘to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’. He emphasises that the Church needs to be a listening church attuned to the current times to better proclaim the Gospel message to each new generation.

Just a reminder that the last day of term, September 27, and the first day of next term, October 14, are Pupil Free Days.

Kathy Holding

Principal

Year 11 Preliminary Examinations

Year 11 have commenced their exams today - they are to be congratulated on such a positive start to their exams.

Here are just some tips and suggestions for studying for the examinations;

Allow for the limitations of your attention span. Avoid scheduling large slabs of time for one subject;
Don't cram - several reviews are more effective;
Work in terms of tasks not time;
Complete practice papers and seek teacher feedback;
Make sure you include some recreation time.

Each subject has specific requirements for equipment for the examinations and the students should familiarise themselves with them, they can be found at https://www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/hsc/rules-and-procedures/exam-equipment-list In addition to that, we have met with the students and explained the rules and procedures around the exams should they wish to read through they can be found on the NESA website https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/7f63462b-d33f-4c63-9e1e-c971fab0d36b/2024-rules-and-procedures-guide.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

Should your child be unwell for the preliminary examinations;

A parent/carer must contact the College before the examination commences
A student must provide a medical certificate
A student must complete an illness/misadventure form and hand to Mrs McInerney to support the missed examination
The exam will be rescheduled (notification via Compass).

Higher School Certificate - Year 12

Higher School Certificate commences on 15th October. Students are reminded to check their Students Online account to confirm that their details have been entered correctly. They should now have effective study habits in place to support their preparation for the exams.

TAS HSC Showcase

I would like to congratulate our students; they should be proud of their outstanding work submitted. Thank you to Mr Schmidt and Mr Hem in supporting the students in their major works.

Up and Coming Activities

Year 11 Preliminary Exams - 13th - 20th September
Year 12 Graduation & End of Term 3 - 26th September
Last day of school - 26th September
Pupil Free Day - 27th September
Term 1 commences - Tuesday 15th October
HSC Commences - Tuesday 15th October - Thursday 7th November

Jessica McInerney

Acting Assistant Principal - Teaching & Learning

Ian Mergard

Director of Studies

This week has been brimming with exciting events and wonderful experiences at our school. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting our Year 7 class of 2025, as well as the graduating class of 2030. I must say, it was a joy to interact with such a spirited and enthusiastic group of students. Their energy and eagerness to participate in all activities truly embodied the Hennessy spirit. I would like to extend a special thanks to our Year 11 House Captains, who generously dedicated their time to host and lead these students with remarkable enthusiasm over the past two days.

On Tuesday, our College, in collaboration with St Mary's Primary School, celebrated the Nativity of Mary Feast Day. This significant occasion was a meaningful celebration for both St Mary's and Hennessy, as well as for the St Mary's Parish. It highlighted the strong connection and shared identity of our parish-based schools. The event was a wonderful display of our communal spirit, and we eagerly anticipate many more combined celebrations in the future.

Looking ahead, we are excited to host Elephant Education in Week 10. They will be conducting educational sessions on important topics such as consent and respectful relationships for our Year 7, 9, and 11 students. These topics are vital for fostering healthy relationships and ensuring the well-being of our students. We encourage you to continue these important conversations at home.

To support this initiative, Elephant Education will be hosting an online webinar on September 18th from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM. The webinar will focus on the importance of consent and respectful relationships and provide guidance on how to start these discussions with your children. We highly recommend that you register for the webinar using the following link: Webinar Registration.

Lastly, our recent Hennessy Parish Mass and St Mary's Youth Group event was a tremendous success. It was a special evening that brought together our Parish community. We are grateful to the over 25 students and their families who participated in reading, playing music, and performing various ministries. This was a particularly poignant event as it marked the last Hennessy Parish Mass with our Year 12 students, who received a special blessing and a medal from the parish. We look forward to continuing this tradition with the Hennessy Parish Mass at St Mary's Church in Term 4, scheduled for Saturday, November 2nd.

Mary Wright

Assistant Principal - Mission & Ministry

Welcome back to the leader’s lounge! This week’s edition is brought to you by Rice house captains Caitlin, Amelia and Beau.

HENS Cup
The perpetual HENS (Hennessy Elite Netball Squad) cup was continued over the last 3 weeks, with the grand final held on Monday. This competition has brought together teams from every year group and has resulted in many nail biting games and exhilarating finishes. Year 11 proved to dominate throughout the whole competition, starting the finals series as minor premiers.

The HENS cup has also shown that year 12 do hold the ability to win, and we also made our way into the finals. After beating year 8 in the elimination final, we faced year 10 in a very close preliminary final. 2 terms of extra time later we managed to win 7-6 and made it to the grand final, against year 11 where we lost 20-4. Congratulations Year 11 and thankyou to all who put time into organising or umpiring the competition.

Parish Mass and Youth Group
Saturday the 31st was our Parish mass for the term. There was a great turnout of students across all year groups from both Hennessy and St Mary’s. Youth group that followed was lively and full of energy. Everyone had a good time collaborating and competing with each other.

Year 7 2025 Orientation
This week future year 7 students came to Hennessy for their first round of orientation.

Youth Summit
Tuesday week 8 the current leadership team met with Andrew Britton, the Youth Community Coordinator from the Department of Primary Industries to discuss current issues facing youth in our region, and providing new perspectives and solutions to these problems.

HCCY Olympics
The HCCY Olympic games at the college have also continued throughout the last few weeks. Wordle and and Olympics based kahoot took place on Tuesday mornings as the academic challenges, and each house participated in different sporting challenges on Thursdays. The PCs making the finals are R4, N1, M1 and G3. These teams battled it out in Trivia and Volleyball during week 8 to be crowned the winning PC.

Term 3 House Cup Update
As of the end of week 7 the House cup ladder for this term is as follows. Well done to Nagle for working themselves so far in the lead.

There has also been a massive number of students achieving Silver awards recently, and some who are very close to gold awards. Well done everybody for your hard work.

As we near the end of Term 3, we want to give a special shout-out to Year 12 for all their contributions. Best of luck in your HSC preparations! To Year 11, good luck with your preliminary exams—we know you’ll do great!

Sincerely,
Caitlin and Rice House Captains

Lachlan Li, Zabir Alam and John Bromham travelled to Merrylands Bowling Club in Sydney to compete in the 2024 Inter-Schools Challenge State Finals for Lawn Bowls. At this competition they were competing against other Regional winners for a chance to win the State title.

This was a fantastic opportunity for the students as the first day of competition involved a coaching session from two current Australian players.

Despite a tough start to the competition where they lost the first game, the team was able to rebound and finish the day with two good wins. The next day was even better with a great straight sets win to secure top spot in the group.

The Gold Medal game was a nail-biter which resulted in the match going to an extra end. The team were able to hold their nerve under extreme pressure to win the match and be crowned State Inter-Schools Champions. This is an amazing result and the team should be extremely proud with how they represented the school over the two days.

The Shine Conference is an annual event for all students in CSYMA across the Archdiocese. More than 500 Year 9 and 10 students from around the Archdiocese gathered at Merici College in Braddon for the conference today, which featured a variety of keynote speakers, music, and workshops.

Hennessy students are lucky to be a part of this wonderful group and to be able to enjoy this amazing experience.

Year 9/10 Food Tech have been enjoying their pracs, concentrating on modifying traditional meals for people with specific needs.

Today a delicious, low fat butterless butter chicken, was on the menu. Malayah and Mel prepared a special plate for Mrs Duff who was most impressed with the students' culinary skills and enjoyed sharing the meal with the girls.

Last week our HSC timber and metal work students held a showcase to display their major works. It was lovely to have relatives and friends attend to celebrate the hard work of these students.

Congratulations to Sarah McDonald who has been nominated for CALLBACK which is an annual showcase of HSC Dance works. Well done Sarah, we are very proud of your achievements!

In this two-part podcast series, Clinical Psychologist Andrew Fuller chats with Internet Safe Education founder and former child exploitation detective, Brett Lee about internet safety for young people.

Internet safety for young people - Part 2

In this episode:

Tracking and intruding on relationships via technology
Password protection advice
Protecting devices and accounts
What to do if you believe you've been hacked, and how to prevent it

Listen to the Podcast

We hope you find this episode helpful and will consider sharing this resource amongst your family, friends, colleagues, and community of those who support young people.

Warm regards,

Generation Next