Year 8

‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house'.                                                                                           

Matthew 5.14 -15

The quote above from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew comes after the Beatitudes, where Jesus tells his followers all that they should do to be blessed in the eyes of God. As we know, almost everything that Jesus tells his followers to do is the opposite of what they would expect. In many ways this sums up the role of a teacher: to challenge students to do things that they would not otherwise choose to do, and to provide the boundaries to make sure they do them.

In the last fortnight we reached the business end of the Year 8 Netball season. The Grand Final was won by the team representing Room 51. Several months ago the season began under the leadership of Alicia Henry (Room 47), who organised the teams, prepared the roster and umpired all the matches. Alicia showed real leadership and organisational ability and she deserves congratulations for her initiative and her ability to remain calm under pressure.

She deserves special acknowledgement for her patience in explaining some of the rules of netball to me that have always been somewhat of a mystery. For all the competitors, well done, and to the premiers, congratulations. Here is a picture of the 2019 Champions basking in the glory of victory!

I was privileged last week on the Year 8 Camp to see our girls continually overcome difficulties and do things they thought they couldn’t. Notwithstanding that all the activities were perfectly safe, they were still pretty scary! Whether it was abseiling down a 30 foot high wall, letting go on a sheer drop slide, or climbing a high pole, letting go and then trusting that the harness would hold them, everything was scary and everything was hard. All the Year 8 girls should be really proud of themselves.

For the girls who found everything easy, I can only say well done. For those girls who found everything hard, but had a go and completed the challenges, you should be very proud of yourselves. Next time you face a challenge and every time thereafter, remember the Year 8  Camp; the camp that showed you what you were capable of, and showed that what you thought previously were limitations, were in fact opportunities to challenge yourself and achieve success that you didn’t know you were capable of. Never hide your light under a bushel again!

The success of the Year 8 Camp is due primarily to the wonderful college staff that looked after the girls:

Camp 1: Kylie Carrol, Maree Clark, Sue Grima, Sonya Hood, Lucia Liberatore, Julia Smith and Marlene Webberruss

Camp 2: Elaine Bracciale, Adam Cavanagh, Penny Golding, Tony Grosso, Breanna Neighbour, Felicity O’Malley, Sue Radford and Julia Smith

We congratulate and thank Sonya Hood, Learning Leader:Creative Arts and Carolyn Callaghan, Learning Leader: Humanities for organising the other two days of Triple E Week, which made the whole week so successful for all the girls this year.

We hope that at the end of Triple E Week all the Year 8 girls can look back and say that they embraced all the opportunities that they were given, and they’ve had a real adventure. So much of an adventure that they’ll become used to their light being on a lamp stand, because that’s where it belongs.

Bill Fitzsimons

Level Leader: Year 8