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

In the last week I have been involved in the Year 9 rewards program. The students  involved are demonstrating positive behaviours in their classes and meeting all the expectations of the teachers. The new rewards system has now been rolled over and students have the opportunity to be part of this in the next five weeks.

This week Hennessy celebrated RUOK day. The Student Leadership Team has worked extremely hard in preparing activities for the Pastoral Care classes to complete in the mornings. Students have had the opportunity to write and draw positive messages around the school to ask R U OK?, created chatterboxes to ask RU OK in different ways and have participated in Walk N Talks. On Thursday RU OK week culminated in a food event cooked by the Students Leadership Team serving Nachos and Honey Chicken. On Friday the students will be treated to a live music performance for them to enjoy.

Today we celebrated the Parish Feast Day Mass in the Nativity Mary. We are proud to be a part of the St Mary’s parish and are thankful for their generosity towards us and our inclusion in all parish events. Year 8 and Year 7 classes were able to join with parishioners in celebrating mass this morning and were gifted rosaries from Fr Jiss.

Last week students were engaged in a vaping presentation to assist students in understanding the risks involved with vaping. The presenter offered sound advice and real life experiences in regards to the dangers of vaping. The college understands the real risk of vaping to young peoples health and we are arming students with the knowledge to make the right decision.

Uniform reminder of the fortnight:

Nails

Acrylic/ Gel type nails are not permitted. Nail polish, shellac or any other coloured style nails are not permitted.

Students will be asked to have the nails/ nail polish removed within an expected time frame.

Next term students will be in Summer uniform, all uniform items are available from YES embroidery, there are some second hand uniforms donated to the uniform pool at the school, if you would like to purchase any items from the pool for a donation please contact the front office. We welcome any donations to the uniform pool, please drop these off to the front office.

Mary Wright 
Assistant Principal - Mission & Ministry

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Year 12 HSC examinations

These are now on Compass for students but every student should log into Students Online to ensure their personal details are correct and to change their email to a private one. 

Subject Selections Update

Year 11 2023 - The lines have been released and I have met with most of the Year 10 students to sort out their Maths and English classes. They may also request changes at this time. 

Stage 5 2023 - Students may still request changes. 

Year 11 End of Course Examinations

The Year 11 End of Course examinations will take place between Thursday 15th-Thursday 22nd September. The exam timetable is now final. 

Students will be able to alter the subjects from Week 2 in Term 4 but they should ensure they do their best in these upcoming examinations so they can make an informed decision. 

SHARON HIBBERT 
Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF STUDIES

NAPLAN results have been posted home to the families of students in Years 7 and 9. This year's results demonstrate the growth and development of our students’ literacy and numeracy skills. It is important to keep in mind that NAPLAN results are merely a snapshot of the skills and abilities that each student demonstrated on the day of each NAPLAN test. We are pleased with the effort and application of our students, particularly given the context of the last two years of educational disruption. Therefore, for some, just sitting the tests can be regarded as an achievement. NAPLAN results are not a definitive indicator of future success, either. To gauge success, students and families should look at a broader range of data such as subjects not tested by NAPLAN and extracurricular activities. That being said, a number of students should be congratulated for achieving pleasing results and demonstrating growth above the expected rate, albeit compared to NAPLAN from four years ago.

IAN MERGARD
Director of Studies

Thank you, Hennessy community, for your generous donation to the social justice week Food drive.

We collected over 350 items for the Young Food Hall. These donations will go a long way in supporting many local individuals and families in the Hilltops region.

Year 12's have challenged staff to a THREE game challenge, called the Year 12 Challenge Cup. 

In this challenge students will compete against staff over three weeks playing Basketball, Touch Football and Volleyball.

Staff took out the first round winning the Basketball convincingly 30 to 8!

In art class, 7.1 have been doing indigenous etchings of Australian animals. These are created by the students filling a piece of A4 art paper with different coloured oil pastels. Painting it over with black paint and waiting or it to dry. the students then traced their australia animal with white carbon paper adding indigenous patterning and symbols to create the finished products as shown. 

Three netball teams representing Hennessy progressed to Phase 2 of the All Schools Cup in Wagga Wagga. The Year 10 boys were well represented and finished 5^th in a very tough pool, managed by Lachlan Dabin. The Year 7/8 Boys achieved well placing 7^th managed by Lara Turner and the Year 7/8 Girls finished 9^th in large pools managed by Amber McKay. A special thanks to Elisabeth Hall, Sonika Brits and Mrs Wark who were our umpiring super stars and umpired at such a high level they were asked to umpire the finals. Well done to all teams involved and we look forward to progressing in the All Schools Cup next year.

On the 19th August Lillian Williams cut her hair donating her pony tail to the Variety organisation. This will then be used to have wigs made for sick children who have lost their hair due to undergoing treatment for cancer. Over the last year Lillian has been growing her hair to allow for the 13 inch chop!