Living Justice 

Staff Spirituality Day 2020

Living Justice Living Peace

After the hectic and challenging year that was 2020, it was wonderful for all staff to come together for a Staff Spirituality Day, focusing on Living Justice Living Peace. 

Keynote speaker, Dr Elise Stephenson, award-winning researcher and recently announced as an ‘Outstanding 50 LGBTI+ Leader’ of 2020, delivered an inspirational keynote address on ‘Living Justice’, where Elise shared her personal story and her experiences of Living Justice in various locations around the world. She then followed this up with small group workshops on ‘LGBTI+ inclusion and Justice’, generating much discussion and collaboration amongst the staff.

Other workshops on offer for staff included ‘My Story - First People’s Narrative’ with Kath Travis, who told a moving story about her family’s history as a stolen generation and highlighted the strength, resilience and the importance of reconnection to family, identity, land, language and culture for Australia’s First Peoples.  

‘Justice – the Spirituality of Inclusion and Connectedness’, ‘Modern Slavery, Fairtrade and the impact of consumer choice’ and ‘Ecological Justice and Laudato si’ were also offered as workshop choices for staff, providing a rich and varied program for all to enjoy. 

All staff were encouraged to bring an open heart and thinking mind to their chosen sessions, with time afterward given to reflect on how they could contribute to a more just and peaceful world. A wonderful display is now in the Staffroom representing the collective commitments of all Kilbreda staff.

Andrea Halliday

Director of Development and 

Community Relations

 Sustainability

The staff and students involved in the Sustainability Team are looking forward to a year where we can meet together and involve other students, after the extended period of remote learning last year! Our key focus last year was reviewing the waste management at the College, with the aim of reducing our contribution to landfill and recycling more efficiently. The College's response to our suggestions and plans is still underway, and we will report on our progress this year. 

Our Year 12 Student Leaders were voted in late last year and we are thrilled to have Sophia Bryant and Skye Zhu-Maguire back in charge of our team!

They are excited to get going this year with resources, information and activities for our College community. All students are welcome to join the Sustainability Team and leaders from each year level will be voted in later this term. 

Our vegetable garden was planted late last year by the Year 9 Environmental Science and Sustainability students. They raised seedlings from seeds in our greenhouse and planted tomatoes, zucchini, capsicum, eggplant, herbs and strawberries. Over the holidays the birds and possums have had a great time! We will start preparing the cooler weather plants over the next weeks. 

As you are all aware, we are back to wearing masks indoors. While this action obviously contributes to protecting our community, the Sustainability Team would like to raise everyone’s awareness of the issue that disposable masks pose to our environment. Incorrectly disposed masks not only pose an infectious threat to people but strings/elastic get wrapped around birds and marine life. If possible, it would be great if our students and staff could wear re-useable masks and wash them each night. 

There are so many different types of masks for sale and tutorials online instructing how to make them. Check out our display of masks while in remote learning last year.

We look forward to a productive, enthusiastic and active Sustainability Team in 2021! 

Sarah Avitabile

Sustainability Leader

Living Justice 

After a year of interruptions and online gatherings, 2021 will (hopefully) be a year of action and connection. Our Living Justice leaders, Mia Layne and Olivia Cooper are ready for action and are keen to recruit like-minded students.

Term 1 offers many opportunities for involvement. Next Wednesday 17 February, (Ash Wednesday) is the beginning of Project Compassion. This annual drive is Caritas’s biggest fundraiser for their numerous projects that they help to fund both here in Australia and in many developing countries. At the heart of Caritas’s work is the need for sustainable programs that will improve the lives of vulnerable people and communities. 

Project Compassion boxes will be located in all Homerooms and students are encouraged to contribute whenever/whatever they can. Project Compassion runs for the entirety of Lent. Contributions here at the College will be collected on Holy Thursday.

Other upcoming events include the Building Bridges program. This is an interfaith program where students from Years 10 and 11 will visit other colleges of different faith backgrounds with the aim of forming connections through understanding and faith mission. 

The Kildare Ministries Social Justice Forum for student leaders will also take place later in the term (March 18 and 19). This two-day camp offers our leaders the opportunity to network with other leaders from Kildare Ministries colleges, with the focus of this year being 'Wonder' and how we can encapsulate and promote it within our College community.

Trish Moloney

Living Justice Leader