Year 8
Since the last time I wrote, several significant events have happened in the lives of our Year 8 students and in the life of Kilbreda College. We have celebrated Easter and ANZAC Day and spent a couple of weeks recharging our batteries during the Term 1 break.
We have also mourned the loss of several hundred peaceful Easter Sunday worshipers in Sri Lanka in a senseless act of violence. It is a sad irony that the freedom that Australian men and women have fought for in wars around the world would be so gratuitously undermined in the same week that it is celebrated. Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge’s beautiful words in his ANZAC Day homily try to make sense of all this loss of life and the sense of nihilism that can easily accompany it:
“Wars do end; the numbness of heart and soul passes; hope rises from the ash-heaps.
On this ANZAC Day we look the misery in the face;
we look back, sobered and grateful.
There is a past and there is a future.
There is something left in the world,
something of inestimable value:
the peace won through self-sacrifice.
That peace is at the heart of this Easter season.”
The hope that the Archbishop speaks about is ever present at Kilbreda: hope in a future that welcomes all, especially the stranger, makes paramount the needs of the most vulnerable and brings a sense of purpose.
This hope manifests itself in a variety of ways in the Year 8 community. One is the Foreshore Program, where students spend a series of Tuesday afternoons working with leaders from the Kingston City Council to tidy and maintain the area surrounding Mentone beach. The following girls have committed to the Foreshore program in Semester 1:
- Andy Bonzon
- Giulia Camillo
- Charli Clark
- Ande Campos
- Chloe Cronin
- Olivia Davies
- Olivia De Bruin
- Jade Exell
- Sienna Ferguson
- Elizabeth Floyd
- Caitlin Gellie
- Georgia Hitchcock
- Ruby Jameson
- Caitlin Kitto
- Sienna Koop
- Lulu McCartney
- Alicia Meo
- Erica Mifsud
- Sienna Quill
- Brianna Smith
- Tatiana Stavrinidis
- Sheriden Steele
- Mary Tobin
- Claudia Vannutini
- Chelsea Willis
Sienna Koop (Yea 8) wrote about her experience of the first week of the Foreshore Program:
On Tuesday 26 March, 25 Year 8 students traveled to Dixon Street Car Park, behind Mentone Beach, to start the first Foreshore Program session of 2019. We started off meeting Laura, who would run our program. Laura explained that we would be planting above the beach. She showed us an example of how to plant and how to get the plant out of the pots. We then collected our gloves and our shovels and started to plant.
We planted around 200 plants in a short amount of time. After we had finished, we had five minutes to collect rubbish along the beach. On behalf of everyone who participated, we would like to say thank you to Laura and the team for a great afternoon and we all look forward to coming back soon. Also thank you to Elizabeth Floyd who was our photographer for the session.
On 3 April, in the last week of Term 1, the Year 8 group spent time together learning about anxiety and how it may affect them or their friends.
Anxiety is one of the most common metal health conditions and when it is severe it has a very debilitating effect upon the sufferer. The sessions were presented by The Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria (ARCVic), which is a state-wide, specialist mental health organisation, providing support, recovery and educational services to people and families living with anxiety disorders. They aim to support and equip people with knowledge and skills that will build resilience and recovery and reduce the impact of anxiety disorders.
Hayley Meure (Year 8) reflects on the time she spend learning about anxiety:
This week representatives from ARCVic visited the Year 8s. The presenter spoke to us about the importance of both being aware of anxiety and ways to cope with it. She spoke to us during Periods 1 and 2, taking us on a long journey, starting with the fact that anxiety is not something to be embarrassed about and is not unusual, moving on to try many different 'meditation-like' coping techniques.
The most interesting part of the speech for me was the techniques. She suggested that the best way to deal with anxiety was to pause and look at the issue rationally. It was definitely something to remember! Thank you for the opportunity, I really appreciated it!
I would like to acknowledge and congratulate Sophie Bloomer who won the JLTAV Languages Competition. Her art work was on the cover of the conference booklet. Well done Sophie!
Finally, I would like to bid a very fond farewell to Hayley Meure who is leaving with her family to spend the next year in Japan. As much as she will be missed, so much will she love the adventure of living in another country. May she and her family travel safely and may the blessing of God and St Brigid go with her.
Bill Fitzsimons
Level Leader: Year 8