Welcome to our Week 8 newsletter. On Wednesday, in very chilly conditions, we held our annual Open Day. Over 50 families joined us for a tour of the College and a chance to meet the staff and see many activities, lessons and displays. On their return from the tour, students reported on the many things they enjoyed including milkshakes from Hospitality, meeting Dolly our well-being dog, music, woodwork, metalwork, art, science and technology experiences, history displays, maths puzzles, visiting the chapel, watching sport. However, the highlight for many families was walking with the tour guides. The tour guides were students from Years 7 to 12 and were amazing ambassadors by talking about their experience at Hennessy as they took families around the college. Enrolment interviews will be held on June 19 and July 19 after school and also at other times. Please contact the Front Office if you have any queries or would like to make a booking.

Mrs Helen Close has tendered her resignation from Hennessy effective from the end of this term to take up a teaching position at Daramalan College in Canberra. I am sure all staff and students will join me in thanking Mrs Close for her time at Hennessy. She has taught in the English and HSIE areas. We will miss Mrs Close for her thoughtful, kind nature, her genuine interest in the students she teaches, and her consistent approach to professional teaching.

Hennessy aims to offer a wide range of experiences for all students ranging from various sports to a large variety of extra-curricular activities. Last week student teams from Years 7 - 11 competed in the Da Vinci Decathlon at Wagga. The students participated enthusiastically solving problems across a range of disciplines and were placed highly in many sections throughout the day. The big success of the day was our Year 11 students competing with 20 other schools to take out first place overall! This Year 11 team will now compete at the next level in Sydney next term. A big thank you to Mrs Duff for organising this opportunity.

Next Wednesday, Year 10 will embark on their snow trip. This is the first time the College has offered this opportunity in many years and I am sure the students will have lots of fun and challenges as they learn to ski or improve their current ski skills. A reminder to students, who are not attending this excursion, that they are required to be at school for each of the three days.

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.

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Subject Selections Year 11 2023 - claim the dates

Subject Selections for Year 11 2024 will take place in week 2 of Term 3.

On 21st July, Mrs Holding and myself will travel to Cootamundra to talk to Sacred Heart students coming to Hennessy in 2024.

A subject market will take place in the hall for students on Tuesday 25th July and students will have time to talk to current Yr 11 students and staff about their subjects for 2024. That evening we will be holding a Parent Information Session adn we look forward to seeing you all there.

The Subject Handbook will be available on the College website, Compass and the Google classroom House pages week 1 of Term 3. Students and Parents will also have a meeting with Executive staff Week 2, 27th July to discuss choices. The interview process is new and will be further explained closer to the date.

Andrew Morton
Assistant Principal - Teaching & Learning 

From the Director of Studies

Semester Reports

The end of Term 2 sees the publishing of mid-year reports. Reports are published to parents via Compass and are available for download as a PDF. It is important that parents download the PDF from Compass and retain the report in your own files. This means that you will future proof your access to reports because, at some stage in the future you child will no longer have a Compass profile after they conclude their time at Hennessy.

Year 11 reports were published to parents earlier this week and made available to Year 11 students today. Reports for Year 7-10 will be published on the last day of Term 2. 

Parent-Student-Teacher conferences Term 3

Save the date: Parent-Student-Teacher conferences will be conducted on Thursday 3 August. The booking system for these conferences will be opened in the first week of Term 3.

It has been my pleasure to experience our College on full display in the last fortnight with the many opportunities provided to our students. Last week, the Year 10 CSYMA class provided another retreat experience for the Year 4 students of St Mary’s Primary School as well as those from the parish community. In this experience students focussed on the sacrament that the Year 4’s were about to make, but were also inclusive of all students who attended the retreat which was titled “A Place at the Table”. A big thankyou to all students who were involved in Year 10 and Year 4, to the teachers of St Mary’s Mrs Sullivan and Mrs Gorman, and to Jessica Buchanan in organising the retreat. 

As we end the term, parents and students are reminded of the importance of attendance. Every day counts at Hennessy, and to ensure that your student is meeting the requirements to achieve their Stage outcomes at Hennessy it is imperative that parents inform the College of absences that students have upcoming due to illness or other reasons. This includes students who are arriving late or leaving before the end of the school day. Please notify an absence through Compass or by contacting the front office. Parents may have already received emails to notify of unexplained absences and are asked to follow up on these. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s House Leader.

Term 2 and 3 are Winter Uniform months. There are some students who are struggling to arrive at school in the appropriate uniform. A reminder that the College uniform is a representation of the pride that we have in our school and our connection to it. Wearing our full College uniform demonstrates our respect to our community. If you have any questions or are having any issues accessing uniform items, please contact your child’s House Leader or myself who will be able to assist. Please see below for the process of the College Uniform Policy:

Hennessy Catholic College has a clear process for managing uniform infringements:

Staff will ask students to rectify an incorrect uniform item immediately (removal of extra earring, tying hair up). 

1. 1st infringement: Students receive a warning from the PC teacher or teacher and record this on Compass.
2. 2nd infringement: PC teacher or teacher records the infringement on Compass. Students will have a detention outside the House Leaders for break 1 and the teacher will email parents.
3. 3rd infringement: PC teacher or teacher records the infringement on Compass. Students will have a detention outside the House Leaders for break 1 and the House Leader will email parents.
4. 4th infringement: PC teacher or teacher records the infringement on Compass. Students will have a detention outside the House Leaders for break 1 and the House Leader will call parents.
5. 5th infringement: PC teacher or teacher records the infringement on Compass. Students will be withdrawn from class for the full day. The Director of Students or the Assistant Principal Mission and Ministry will contact parents.

If a student is unable to wear the correct uniform, the school should be informed via a note, email or phone call to the student's Pastoral Care Teacher. A time frame as to when the uniform will be corrected should also be included. The process will reset each term.

Next week I will travel with the Year 10’s to their Ski Excursion. This is a momentous occasion for our Year 10 students who have not yet been able to attend an overnight excursion with the College due to COVID restrictions of the previous years. For some, this will be their first time seeing snow, and for others (like me) this will be the first time skiing. I look forward to sharing this important time with the Year 10 students. 

St Mary’s Parish Youth Group will be occurring on the last Saturday of every month - this month - it will be on Saturday the 24th of June. This is a great time to spend enjoying each others presence and to continue our faith journey. Youth group is held directly after the parish mass (Mass begins at 6pm) and ends at 8.30pm. Dinner is provided and there is no cost. Please email me on mary.wright@cg.catholic.edu.au for catering purposes by the 22nd of June if you would like to attend.

The last few weeks have been quite eventful with lots of talent being showcased and fun activities being held.

On Friday 9 June students from years 7 to 11 competed in the Da Vinci Decathlon in Wagga. This is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of student participants, with activities across 10 different disciplines ranging from engineering and mathematics all the way to art and poetry. A big congratulations to our Year 11 team for winning the competition for their age group!

On this same Friday, the rest of the school had heaps of fun during Hennessy’s first ‘Rave in the Cave’ that was held during break. DJ Jack did a great job of providing musical entertainment (and almost bursting our eardrums!?) while others showed off their dance moves. From the music and the dancing, to the balloons and the glowsticks, it was certainly an event to remember (and perhaps one to relive in the future…)

As the State of Origin games are taking place, we thought that there was no better way of expressing our appreciation for sports than having our own State of Origin championship. As such, the Year 12 Blues completely wiped out the Year 11 Maroons after challenging them to an epic game of footy (don’t worry year 11s, you can “try” to beat us again later). The rest of the year levels are looking forward to their own footy games this week, with the aim of making it through to finals taking place amongst the winners next week. Good luck to all teams! 

Additionally, the College Chess Team held Hennessy’s name high by achieving 3 wins and 1 draw against Coolamon in the Country Secondary Schools Chess Competition. Following this victory, they will progress to the next level in the competition in which we wish them nothing but checkmates.
Finally, a big shoutout to all the boys who played in the Boys Rugby League (Country Cup Riverina Finals) as well as the SW Slopes Rugby 7s Gala Day in Wagga. All teams did really well and we are super proud of every player.

I would like to leave you with a thought inspired by our Year 12 Motto: “We don’t do Average”. Use this week to go the extra mile. Nothing is impossible!

Have a fantastic week!
Sonika Brits
College Captain 2023

In Year 11 PDHPE student have been learning all about the Respiratory and Circulatory System. Here they have completed a chlak drawing competition. 

Year 9/10 elective art walked down to Springfield art on Tuesday 13^th to participate in a POP Art workshop based on the artist Roy Lichtenstein and his techniques. These include the implementation of primary colours with Benday Dots and black outlines to make them pop. The students drew their own art pieces of everyday objects and images to fit within the black frames of the backing board while implemented these techniques to showcase their amazing artistic abilities.

Last Thursday and Friday Hennessy competed in the da Vinci Decathlon at TRAC Wagga. Teams from Years 7-11 travelled from as far as Moama, Leeton and Cowra to participate in teams of 8 across 10 disciplines: engineering, maths, code breaking, art & poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy. 

Our teams had a very successful time and were placed in many of the categories including;

Year 8
3rd place - Creative Producers
3rd place-Engineering

Year 9
1st place - Code Breaking
2nd place - Creative Producers
2nd place - Engineering
3rd place - Mathematics

Year 10
3rd place - Art & Poetry  

Year 11
Overall Winners

Year 11 named as Overall Winners in their division on the day was a huge highlight!

Congratulations to all students who attended over the two days.

On Tuesday 6th June, 40 students participated in the Boys Southwest Slopes Rugby 7s Gala Day in Wagga. The day was wet, cold and muddy. All students demonstrated great sportsmanship, camaraderie and integrity. They represented Hennessy well!

Year 7/ 8 Teams

Hennessy 1- They had a convincing win against Wagga Wagga Christian College and lost against Mater Dei in a tight match, resulting in Hennessy 1 coming 2nd in Pool A. They came away with 4th place after a tight 3rd v 4th game against Kildare. Players included: Paddy Sullivan, Lincoln Sutherland, Dan Minehan, Lewis Shae, Cooper Dabin, Toby Wales, Alex Reynolds, Nick Bailey and Owen Reid.

Hennessy 2- They were undefeated all day, winning games against Kildare, Sacred Heart Cootamundra, TRAC, resulting in 1st in Pool B. This team unfortunately lost in extra time to Mater Dei in a 2 point contest. This team will progress through to Canberra in Term 3 to compete in the Southern NSW/ ACT Brumbies finals. Cayden Cross (Year 7)  was chosen as player of the match. Players included: Carter Mackenzie, Harry Coddington, Oscar McCann, Hugo Davidson, Huntah-Max Robinson, Oliver Miller, Oliver Edwards, Cayden Cross, Archie Coble, Charlie Lane, Gus Forbutt.

Year 9/ 10 Team

The year 9/10 team was made up of mostly year 10s. They came 4th in their pool, with some tough games against Murrumbidgee (Griffith), Mater Dei and Kildare. Mater Dei were the eventual winners of the day. This team came away with 6th place with a convincing win over TRAC in the final game of the day. Players included: Joshua Cameron, Christian Johnson, Quade Cooper, Drew Edwards, Jesse Jewitt, Edward Maloney, Will Glover, Caleb Schiller and Lachlan Bailey

Year 11/12 Team

The year 11/12 team were made up of soccer and rugby league players and came together to form some impressive plays, moves and intercepts. After a tough first game, they were down to just 7 players, with niggling injuries causing a hindrance. They played against Mater Dei, Kildare, TRAC and Murrumbidgee (Griffith). Players included: Joshua Craig, Hardy Glover, Sam Grewal, Sam Nasser, Oliver Baker, Corey Gale, Fraser Johnson, Lachlan Dabin, Paul Barrett and Liam Birks.

We will be taking 2 teams to the Girls Southwest Slopes Gala Day early term 3.

Thank you to Miss Coffee, Mr Miller, Mrs Cass and Mr Prindable for assisting with these teams.

The Year 8 Camp is an annual event that occurs at Hennessy Catholic College. The camp provides opportunities for students to further improve their connections and sense of belonging as a year group. It is an expectation that all Year 8 students attend this excursion. 

Dates: Thursday 24th August to Friday 25th August 2023

Times: Depart 9am Thursday and return 5:30pm Friday

Accommodation: Borambola Sport and Recreation Centre.

Some of the Planned Activities include: Mud Run, Initiatives, Archery, Rock Climbing, Fencing, Cookout, Survival Skills, Orienteering

Notes and payment via Compass

Payments due 1st August