Welcome to a busy Week 2! It has been lovely to see the students returning enthusiastically in their winter uniforms for another term of learning at Hennessy.

We were saddened over the holidays to hear of the passing of Andena Anderson, mother of Riley (Year 12) and Jack (Year 10) and Mr Igoe-Taylor’s mother, Dot. We keep these families in our thoughts and prayers. May they rest in peace.

This term we welcome Miss Emily Coffee, replacing Mrs Jorja McGrath, Mrs Zoe McCarthy returning from parental leave, Mrs Katrain Hudson, replacing Mrs Donna Watson and Mr Andrew Bigwood in his new role as McAuley House Leader. Congratulations to Mrs Jorja McGrath and husband Ben, who recently welcomed baby Albert into their family.

Actions often speak louder than words and this was very evident over the weekend when so many Hennessy students and staff participated in Anzac Day events across the region. I attended the commemoration at Young and was so proud of the behaviour and respect our students displayed, and of those students who were involved as cadets and readers. We then commemorated Anzac Day as a whole school on Monday with special guests the Hon Ms Steph Cooke, Mr Greg Walker representing Hilltops Council and Lieutenant Ken McAllister who very beautifully shared his reflections on the Anzac Spirit and his personal military service. Huge recognition must go to Mr Phil Mitchell for leading both the Young and Hennessy ceremonies. We are indeed fortunate to have such a talented and generous person in our community.

The Annual Cross Country and Colour Run, held in glorious Autumn sunshine,  were most enjoyable events held last Wednesday. There were some very serious competitors who will represent Hennessy at Archdiocesan level and lots of fun and laughs during the colour run. Thank you to Mr Brendan Croese, Mr Luke Miller, Mrs Jess McInerney and Mr Mark Chifley for their work in organising these very successful events.

Last night was our Community Council Open Forum followed by a presentation by David Kobler, from Choicez, titled ‘Raising Teens in a Hyper-Sexualised Society’ . There was a very strong roll up of parents who attended to learn more about this very important topic. We are required to have Community Council Open Forums twice each year and I would be interested in hearing ideas from parents for future guest speakers.

This week we have been hosting our Registration Panel consisting of various panel members from other schools, Catholic Education in Canberra and NESA. Schools are required to renew their registration every five years. The panel visits classes, interviews staff, parents, the Parish Priest and student leaders and looks at documents across a wider range of areas including religious identity, curriculum, pastoral care and attendance procedures. Tomorrow afternoon the panel will present their commendations and recommendations to the College Leadership Team and to the whole staff. I will share their findings in the next newsletter.

Please do not hesitate to contact me by email (kathy.holding@cg.catholic.edu.au) if you have any concerns or queries.

Kathy Holding

NAPLAN

The dates for NAPLAN are from Tuesday 11^th May to Friday 14^th May. Catch up exams are the following week.

It is vital that students bring their own headphones as we are doing the tests online. Student devices must be fully charged each day and students must have the NAPLAN browser installed. Further information is in this newsletter.

YEAR 11

Year 11 now have had one term of senior school and should have received feedback on their first assessment task. For students who did not do as well as they would have liked, some questions they could ask themselves are:

• Did I allow adequate time to do this?
• Did I submit a draft (where allowed)?
• Did I ask for help if I needed it?
• What would I do differently next time?

Year 11’s will just receive a grade on their semester 1 report based on their assessment task and it may also utilise other work completed in class. Their end of year report will include a course rank as well.

It is unlikely that any Year 11 student has no work to do at home even if this is just looking at ATOMI revision clips. ATOMI is designed to help students store information in their long term memory and therefore be able to retrieve it easily. It also assigns videos for students to watch on areas for revision. This occurs daily.

Year 11 is a big step up from Year 10 so by now students should realise they need to allocate sufficient time at home to work on classwork and assessments to be adequately prepared.

YEAR 12

Year 12 are reminded to be organised with assessments as some classes have already handed these out. They need to be using study lessons to work on these and to identify issues as they come up. I have noticed a few study groups are a little too social too often – this is not an effective use of your time and only leads to stress.

If students are having difficulty they are strongly advised to let us know so we can work out a plan of action to help them. Term 2 is always busy but after this term, the assessments are (mostly over) except for exams. Almost there!

Save the date – Year 12 Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews will be in the afternoon of June 2^nd. More details to come.

SUBJECT SELECTIONS

The process for subject selections will start later this term – more details will come soon. Stage 5 will be completed this term and Year 11, 2022 will receive information about subjects before the end of term.

Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning                              Director of Studies

SHARON HIBBERT                                                                        ANDREW FOURACRE 

Hennessy students participated in the annual cross country last week.

Congratulations to our age champions:

House champions were:

1st Gallagher

2nd McAuley

3rd Nagle

4th Rice

The top 6 students in each age group will be invited to run at the Arch Dio cross country being held in Canberra on 25th May.

Last week Hennessy College held its colour run in conjunction with the Cross Country.  The students all had a fabulous time and in the process managed to raise approximatly $1200 for St Vincent De Paul.

Our Ag students have been busy this term.

7.1- tech have welcomed new chickens. Isa browns and silkies. 

8.5- have been busy with the propagation of Rosemary after Anzac service. 

Various year groups have been preparing garden beds for winter crops.