It has been my pleasure to work as Acting Principal as Mrs Holding takes leave for the next 5 weeks. We have had many opportunities to grow and learn as a community in the last week alone.

Last week we held the College Captain elections, where ten incredible students stood in front of the students and staff of the College to propose their leadership. The staff and students were impressed by the differing ranges of proposals and the confidence and grace which each leader spoke with and I congratulate each nominee on their outstanding performances. The voting process took place immediately after the speeches and at the end of the day, the College Captains for 2023 - 2024, James Payne and Jasmine Sullivan were announced.

On Tuesday students and staff were visited by Helen Bramanathan from the Catholic Education Office - Canberra Goulburn. Students had previously begun their journey with Christian meditation at the College and it was an important time to spend with Helen as we further deepened our knowledge. We thank Helen for her time with us in Young. 

This week Hennessy Catholic College was randomly selected for an audit by the state education governing body NESA. The random inspection guidelines were as follows:

In 2023, 30 schools will be chosen at random:

• 18 government schools
• 8 individual non-government schools
• 4 systemic non-government schools.

In particular our assessment was based around the policies and procedures of “safe and supportive environment - child protection” and the Stage 4 and 5 curriculum area of Science. Hennessy prides itself on being a Child Safe school as well as delivering quality curriculum and high standards and as expected performed well under the inspection, with some identified areas for further growth.

The next fortnight sees many activities involving the community and we look forward to welcoming families to our Father’s Day Mass and BBQ breakfast next Thursday.

Welcome back to the Leaders Lounge article for week 6!

Can you all believe that it is week 6 already! As Hennessy students hit the ground running into term 3, there have been so many achievements from our Hennessy students this term already! Congratulations to year 12 for finishing their HSC Trial Exams, amazing job! And thank you to the rest of the school for your amazing efforts in Sporting, academic and volunteering events over the past two weeks. 

On Wednesday the 23rd of August, Hennessy participated in a gold coin donation fundraiser for the Saint Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal. Students had the opportunity to wear out of uniform in the theme “Winter Warmer”, it was great to see all of the students participating and wearing their ‘winter warmers’. 

Furthermore, year 12 have had the delight to be back at school this week after their two week HSC Trial Examination period. Where they are awaiting results and feedback over the coming 2 weeks. For year 12 this is a great opportunity to ‘learn from their mistakes’ and use this time to pursue their HSC goals over the next 2 months, and work on correcting, condensing and implementing their course knowledge, into practical applications, like past papers. 

Moreover, Hennessy had the opportunity to take a group of 14, under 16 girls to the Katrina Fanning Cup Rugby League day. On the day the girls showed much teamwork, sportsmanship and school spirit. Congratulations!

Further on the topic of sport, Hennessy year 7 and 8 girls participated in the Rugby 7s ACT/NSW State High School and College 7s final. Overall on the day the girls were named 2nd overall. Throughout the tournament the girls improved their teamwork and continuously strived to achieve their very best result on the day. This further endorses Hennessy’s motto of ‘country kids can do anything’, congratulations girls for proudly representing Hennessy. 

Whilst year 12 were away on trials, the year 11 future leaders had their opportunity to show the younger students at Hennessy their potential to be a leader heading into 2024. On Tuesday the 15th of August Hennessy held their captaincy speeches, with 10 brave and proud year 11’s standing up and expressing their leadership, goals and visions moving into 2024 as a potential school leader. We would like to congratulate our 2024 School Captains Jasmine Sullivan and James Payne, the future of Hennessy is looking bright and in amazing hands heading into 2024. Further we would additionally like to congratulate the following 8 other amazing leaders who nominated themselves for a captaincy roll: Camden Cummins, Bella Cooper, Paul Barrett, Fraser Johnson, Dominic Moran, Sarah McDonald, Caitlin Drum and Amelia Rowan. 

As a message from the 2023 leadership team, we wish you all the best heading into your senior year. The leadership skills you all demonstrate are outstanding, and if we have one main piece of advice heading into both year 12 and leadership roles, ‘never give up, and always strive to succeed’. Congratulations to all of the future leaders at Hennessy!

Lastly in the house cup, congratulations to Gallagher once again for topping the leaderboard. Year 12 has come in hot heading into our final weeks of school with a house competition of weekly dodgeball, starting off strong in week 6 with Gallagher vs. McAuley, with a strong win for Gallagher 3-1. We will be following them as they progress to the next round.  

Thank you for taking the time to read our article this week. We would like to wish everyone a wonderful and happy mid-term and we look forward to seeing all of the wonderful achievements from our fellow students ending this term. Just a reminder, year 12 we only have 4 weeks to go, so remember to enjoy it while it lasts. 

Thank you, 
Emily Pratt 
McAuley House Captain

Hennessy have won the Country Secondary Schools Chess knockout tournament, Riverina Division! 

Winning a very tight match against Marian Catholic College Griffith, who beat them in the final last year.

Congratulations to Ben Knapman, Ryan Blake, Jimmy Cronin and Jorja O'Brien who were great representatives of the College. They are looking forward to playing against the other division winners in the Sydney tournament. 

On Wednesday the 23^rd of August, year 12 Work Studies had a successful meeting with Hilltops Council in relation to WHS on Ripon street. The students have been writing letters to the council over the term sending proposals with photos, for the white lines to be repainted along the roads, no parking signs in front of the gates of the school, with one of these being for emergency vehicles only and parking for disabled persons. Gary Lucas and Anna Deverman attended the college to further discuss the proposals and hand deliver a letter of reply from the manager of engineering and assets Mark Crisp. The students have been successful with some of their proposals and have been invited to a council meeting early September, in order to discuss the proposed amendments that were included in the original proposals. Congratulations to Allen Yang, Michelle Li, Jack Anderson and Anika Li for their hard work so far within their final semester of secondary schooling at Hennessy.

On Monday 22nd August 41 students travelled to Canberra to participate in the Archdiocesan Athletics Carnival. In what was a successful day for the college with 11 students qualifying for the NSW Combined Catholic Colleges Carnival to be held in Sydney on 11th September. Below is a list of students who placed at this years diocesan carnival.

Age Champions

Boys 12yr Age Champion – Ryan Sumich

Girls 13yr R/U – Malayah Anesbury

Girls 16yr R/U – Eliza Taylor 

Boys Opens R/U – Regan Bannister 

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