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Welcome to Week 6. I am sure many of you were eagerly watching to see the results of the Cambodia Monster Raffle on drawn on Tuesday. Thank you to all those who bought tickets to help with this important cause. The Cambodia immersion has returned after many years affected by Covid and our plan is to run it bi-annually for interested Years 11 and 12 students in the future. A huge thank you to Mrs McInerney and Miss Hayes for their amazing organisation and support of this program. This is such a good example of the ‘Live Spiritually’ aspect of our Vision Statement as students selflessly work to support others in need. The opportunity to visit a third-world country is often a life-changing one and really challenges students’ perspectives and to seek purpose in their lives
At last week’s Community Council Meeting, there were two main topics; the first was that the Community Council would be seeking Expressions of Interest in leasing the canteen from Term 3, and the second topic was to provide feedback concerning Catholic Education’s decision (after consultation) to change all community councils and P&Fs to School Councils. Our Community Council had to look at two different models for this new council model and give feedback. All members strongly agreed that developing strong parent engagement was very important in the future.
By now you would have received a link via Compass to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Survey. These surveys are conducted in all Archdiocesan schools each year. They are valuable in collecting feedback both about what is going well and what could be improved in a school and are used to develop future directions. Please take the time to complete this survey, it closes on June 9.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask parents to carefully consider if they can support the College in improving the attendance of their child if this is currently an issue. Attendance is closely correlated with academic success and well-being. In NSW students are obliged to attend school until they turn 17. There are exemptions for those entering into apprenticeships or traineeships or full-time employment. Please contact your child’s House Leader if you would like to discuss attendance further. This table very clearly shows how attendance tracks across a school year.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns via email at kathy.holding@cg.catholic.edu.au
Walking Together in 2023.
Principal
AI in Education
I have recently been to a conference on Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short. This refers to computer systems that can perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence. Chat GPT is a platform that is creating news around Australia and its impact on Education and student learning. Across Australia 22% of students have used text generation tools such as ChatGPT. Attached is a link Chat GPT that you can look at with your children. You prompt the program with a question and it will provide a response. It's important to note that while Chat GPT can be a valuable tool in education, it will not replace human teachers or the traditional classroom experience. This term there will be a survey to check on the use of Chat GPT within our student body. Then as a College we will need to develop a vision of how AI is used in learning and to support teaching, with a focus on developing teacher and student digital competencies to use AI tools effectively and appropriately.
Subject Selections Year 8 and 9
It’s that time again where we are coming up to subject selections for 2024. The first stage of this will be Year 8 and 9 choosing their electives. The following dates are for your information:
- KLA Leaders will meet with students in Year 8 to go over elective choices; Year 9 students are encouraged to seek our teachers and KLA leaders if they have any questions
- Tuesday 6th June - Parent Information Evening at 6pm in E10.
- Wednesday 7th June - selections open for Years 8 and 9; students will be selecting during the day - they can reselect if they change their minds until selections close.
If your child has any questions the following leaders are responsible for the subjects listed. Not every subject will run, but we do offer them all each year.
|
KLA |
Leader |
Subjects |
|
CAPA |
Mrs McLachlan |
Art, Music, Photography |
|
HSIE |
Ms Jasprizza |
History Elective, Commerce, Geography Elective |
|
PDHPE |
Mrs McCann/ Mrs Dunk |
PASS, Child Studies |
|
Science |
Mr C Quinn |
Big History, Design and Technology (iStem) |
|
TAS/VET |
Miss Worner |
Agriculture, Food Technology, Metal, Timber, Hospitality (Year 10 only) |
Subject Selections for Year 11 2024 will take place in week 2 of Term 3.
Assistant Principal - Teaching & Learning
PARISH MASS & YOUTH GROUP
On Saturday evening we celebrated our Hennessy celebrated our Parish Mass followed by St Mary's Youth Group! It was an amazing night and very symbolic in that we celebrated Pentecost, representing the begining of the Christian Church and it was the begining of St Mary's Youth Group! So much fun was had and the evening ended with a heartfelt prayer.
UNIFORM
It has been wonderful to see so many students adhering to the College uniform policy. A copy of the policy is below as a reminder. Please contact the College if you have any queries.
ILLNESS
Assistant Principal - Mission & Ministry
Welcome back to the Leaders Lounge and we got a lounge!
Year 12 recently threw a pizza party for National Pizza Party Day (yes, it is a real thing) which was a great way to relieve stress from the busy assessment period and have a bit of fun as the clock starts counting down to graduation. Along with the pizza, we played a few games that we had organised for the junior students the day before at Hennessy Day that most of Year 12 didn’t get a chance to play. Between balloons and basketballs, I’m not sure what went through the hoop the most!
As part of their hospitality program Hennessy students and the Leadership Team hosted Australia's Biggest Morning Tea for staff last Thursday to help raise funds for the Cancer Council. The morning was filled with an abundance of delicious treats, coffee, milkshakes and mocktails, as well as live entertainment, raffles and competitions. It was a great morning and a huge congratulations and thanks to Mrs Navori and the Hospo Team for all of their preparation and involvement.
Students have been busy both inside and outside of the classroom from fish dissections in Year 11 Biology to the dance team winning at Cowra Eisteddfod, Basketball competitions in Tuggeranong and the Rugby League Country Cup! It’s fantastic to see the amount of students getting involved this term with the various different opportunities.
Saturday night mass was hosted by the College, with students participating in altar serving, readings and music. It was really great to see the amount of students who attended the mass as well.
As a part of the climb back to the top of the House Cup leaderboard, Gallagher house has been building house spirit through a variety of weekly challenges this term. These have included PC Poster Competition where we challenged each PC to make a group poster and to come up with a PC motto to go with it and Hennessy themed Trivia which had numerous questions about our house patron, Bishop John Gallagher. It’s also great to see the boost in participating in college events; it was particularly great to see some fantastic costumes on Hennessy Day from Gallagherians including wizards, Bumblebee, Tinkerbell, Abraham Lincoln and a Jamaican bobsledder.
Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Leaders Lounge!”
Hope you have a great week!
Elisabeth Hall
Gallagher House Captain
On Friday 12th May Hennessy completed its annual Athletics Carnival at Gus Smith Oval. All students were set a goal to participate in a minimum of 5 events and it was very pleasing to see that 77% of students that attended the carnival participated in 5 or more events. Congratulations to Malayah Anesbury and Eliza Taylor on breaking records.
On Wednesday 24th May, our Hennessy Dance Troupe competed at the 69th Cowra Eisteddfod. The girls have been learning their routine and rehearsing for 2 months under the watchful eye of choreographer Felicity Job. The girls danced a Jazz routine to "Bad Romance" by Robyn Hurder and Ricky Rojas and came up against a very polished team from Orange performing a lyrical piece and a team from Cowra with a Hip Hop routine.
The girls had an outstanding performance on the day, coming away with 1st place and a score or 90/100.
Congratulations to Eliza Taylor, Bridie Sullivan, Madi James, Angelic Sutherland, Mollie O'Leary, Lily Meacham, Ella Glassett and Mia Bell.
The girls will now go on to perform at Bathurst in August.
Nagle have continued their dominance of the House Cup, remaining on top of the leaderboard at the half-way point of Term 2. More Bronze Awards have been issued over the last fortnight, for students who have tallied up at least 2 points in each area (Living Spiritually, Learning Dynamically & Acting Justly) and a total greater than 15. These students include: Cybele Hewitt, Oscar McCann, Oliver Baker, Sienna Capra, Pheobe Apps, Sarah McDonald, Jack Willis, Harry Coddington, Amelia Rowan, Lizzie Sinclair, Isaac Brown, Liam Payne, Tayliah Butcher, Regan Bannister, Jack Murphy, Michael Oakley, Nicholas Canellis, Alice Dymock, Angelic Sutherland, Sophie Manchester, Ryan Sumich, Joshua Reeves, Callum Holt, Ruby Holt, Stuart McEvoy, Lizzie Reeves, Diesel Hardy and Lily Boda. Eliza Taylor and James Payne have been highly involved in the academic, spiritual and sporting life of the College over the past 15 weeks and sit on top of the Leaderboard with 29 points each.
7.1 technology, have been very busy, weighing chickens, managing vegetable gardens and handling the sheep.
As part of the Year 11 Biology Course on respiratory systems, students conducted fish dissections to understand how different species breathe.
Through the dissection, students identified the key components of the fish's respiratory system, including gill arches, gill filaments, and blood vessels. They witnessed the importance of gill structure for gas exchange, where oxygen enters the bloodstream and carbon dioxide is expelled.
This practical activity enhanced students' scientific skills, such as precision, observation, and teamwork. By working in groups, they shared their findings and discussed the connections between the fish's respiratory system and classroom learning.
Students in Year 8 Science have been making the Periodic Table - Here is the finished product!
The Year 11 IT Students are currently completing a week of mandatory work placement. This is being hosted by Amazon AWS and is run online from School.
Students had sessions on Amazon & AWS history, careers options, Web Dev programming, Internet connected devices (IoT), Machine Learning, Cyber Security and various AWS services. Amazon employees ran mentoring sessions for students each day.
Students worked in teams to complete a real world project by solving a current “problem”. They worked through the Amazon Cloud Introduction training, which provides industry badge certification.
Year 11 Ag students finalised the animal production unit with a sheep dissection.
Thank you Dr David Woodward and Young Veterinary Clinic for donating their time and expertise.
Students also completed egg counts and drenched the Merino Wethers, which are part of the NSW MERINO wether challenge.
