It is hard to believe the year is nearly over, and for the Year 9 students the end is approaching very quickly. As parents of teenagers, sometimes we are not always informed of what is happening, but I hope I can paint the picture of the remaining weeks for your daughters.

The examinations commence on Tuesday 19 November and conclude Thursday 21 November. The exam timetable will be distributed to the students once finalised.

With the Melbourne Cup long weekend, there are nine teaching days remaining until the exams. During this time there will be no excursions for the Year 9 students.

On Tuesday 12 November, there is the Celebration of Learning evening to which all students and their parents are warmly invited. More details about this evening will be communicated with you from Melanie Marsh. This is the final day of the BRIDGES program for 2024.

Following the exams, Friday 22 November is a student free day so assessments can be marked and reports can be written. Students have been advised to use this day to get organised for the following two weeks known as ‘Headstart’.

From Monday 25 November to Thursday 5 December, the Year 9 students will attend their Year 10 classes. The day will begin with Homeroom as it is for 2024, that is in their Year 9 Homerooms. Students will have the same Homeroom class, Homeroom teacher and locker during this fortnight. After Homeroom, the students will move to their Year 10 classrooms and commence their Year 10 subjects. The students have been told not to leave anything in the rooms of the Kildare Centre as the Year 8 students of 2024 will commence their Year 9 subjects.

It is both an exciting and nervous time for the students. Exciting for they are about to study the subjects they have chosen, meet new people in their classes and be taught by new teachers. Equally, it is a nervous time for there is change, there is the unknown, and there are the ‘what ifs?’. What if I do not know anyone? What if I do not understand the work? What if I do not know where the room is? There are all reasonable questions, for which there is an answer. If your daughter has any concerns, she just needs to reach out to her current Homeroom teacher or to myself. We are still here to support the students as they commence their transition to Year 10.

The students have been encouraged to give their chosen subjects a go during Headstart. There were valid reasons for selecting those subjects at the time of subject selection. In the event that your daughter wants to change a subject for a legitimate reason, then the Change of Subject form will be released on SIMON on Wednesday 27 November. Any Change of Subject form must be submitted by 3:30pm on Friday 29 November. The students have been made aware that changes may not be possible. The timetable is based on students’ subject selections across all the year levels. This is a major reason why students need to select their subjects wisely initially. The timetable may not allow the change to happen or the class for the subject may be at capacity already. Carole Downie and Melanie Marsh will do their best to accommodate all requests, but students need to be very aware that any change may not be possible.

Textbooks are not required for Headstart. Any material which is required will be produced for the students either in hardcopy or in digital copy. Students are expected to bring the appropriate stationery with them to each class as they have all year. Students will need to bring their laptop with them as well and if anything else is required, the subject teacher will inform the students.

Year 9 students will need to return their laptops, as BYO devices are used from Year 10. The return of the laptops will be as late into Headstart as possible. The date for the return of the laptops will be published on SIMON in due course.

On Friday 6 December, the students will gather for the final time as Year 9 students. We shall celebrate Mass as a school community and finish with the traditional Christmas Concert. All students will be dismissed at 1.00pm on this day.

It is hard to believe that we are almost there. I apologise to you for this being an information-delivering article, but from the teenage world we are not always shared all the information. To the parents who have an older daughter and have been through this already, I apologise for telling you what you already know, but for the parents for whom their daughter is the first to complete Year 9 at Kilbreda, I hope this gives you the information you require about the final weeks of Year 9.

Please know that I am, along with your daughter’s Homeroom teachers, always here for your daughter and for you. Should you have any questions about any of the information I have shared with you, please contact me.

As I write this article, I find it hard to believe that the time has almost come to “hand over” the care of your daughters to someone else. As a teacher it is a privilege to work with the youth of today; as a Level Leader it is a joy to work with the students and to watch their growth and development and, either by osmosis, circumstances, or a need, a bond is created, and it is time for me “to let them go”. Easier said than done! For like all things, when the time comes to say goodbye, it is then that you realise how precious this time has been.

This is not farewell, yet.

To quote from “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse” – and I know I have used this one before – but I think it is important to remind ourselves of this, and even more so, our young ones who are faced with such mixed messages on social media.

“Always remember you matter, you’re important and you are loved, and you bring to this world things no one else can.”

And because of what they bring, the bond is created; the bond is to be cherished; and the bond is what I am most grateful for.

Student Reflections

Duke of Edinburgh Practise Hike

On Thursday 12 September, 40 Year 9 students including myself, embarked on our Duke of Edinburgh practice hike. We all met at school on the Thursday morning with our bags packed, excited for the day ahead. Our first stop was Anderson, where we did the Bass Coast Rail Trail to Kilcunda walk. There we stopped for morning tea, where we sat at the park with our friends and peers to enjoy the weather and each other’s company. We then set off on the George Bass Coastal Walk to Punchbowl Road. On this walk, we played games, sang and chatted as we took in the beautiful views. We aimed to make our way towards the pink house in the distance, which just seemed to keep getting further and further away from us! We were all thrilled when we finally arrived at the pink house, proud of our efforts.

After our walk, we set up our tents and cooked our delicious dinners together on our Trangia stoves. My friend and I made some delectable pesto pasta! After we had eaten and cleaned up, a few people went to bed early to prepare for the next day ahead, whilst others, including myself, stayed up a little longer to play board games and braid each other’s hair ready for the next day.

The following morning we were all a bit tired, but still very excited for the day ahead.  We made our breakfast, packed up camp and set off for the final hike of our practice journey, the Cape Woolamai Coastal Walk. It was a spectacular, but blowy walk across the beach, then up around the coast.

The morning also brought rain, so the Japara jackets came into use, but that did not detract from the beautiful views of the beach as we did our final walk. We had to trudge to the top of an extremely steep hill, before we stopped for morning tea. The views were out over the water and we watched rain rolling in, which was pretty cool.

Once we finally finished our hike, we were all so proud of what we had achieved together. As we ate our lunch on the last bit of our journey, we talked about our favourite parts of the trip – like hanging out before bed, the best parts of each walk and how excited we were for our qualifying hike in a few weeks. Once we arrived back at school, we were all exhausted, but so grateful for the opportunity provided to us by our amazing teachers and the memories made. We can’t wait for the qualifying hike in October!

Matilda De Jong

Year 9

Duke of Ed Qualifying Journey

On Wednesday 23 October, 37 Year 9 Duke of Ed students embarked on their qualifying journey to Wilson’s Prom. We left school at around 8:30am and travelled three hours to the Prom, with a short stop for morning tea at Leongatha. We arrived at Tidal River at around midday.

The first activity was surfing at Norman Bay, where we were expertly guided by surfing instructors from the Mornington Peninsula Surf School. They supplied us with wetsuits and taught us the fundamentals of how to surf, such as popping up, paddling and water safety. In the cold, windy conditions, we paddled out and tried our best to ride the nicely sized waves. We had a very enjoyable time out in the water.

After surfing, we returned to our campsite for a hot shower and to set up our tents. We were all ravenous after surfing, so we set up the Trangia stoves and began cooking dinner. It was a clear and sunny yet windy evening, with countless numbers of birds flocking around our campsite and stealing our food. Many students cooked pasta or noodles, and we all enjoyed having a laugh and cleaning up together.

After dinner, we returned to the buses and drove to Squeaky Beach, where we watched the sunset on the rocks. However, when we returned to our campsite, the wind was blowing a gale, and Derek hurriedly nailed extra pegs to our guy-ropes to ensure our tents stayed on the ground. Most of us were exhausted, so we were all in our tents and ready for bed by 9.00pm.

On the morning of our second day, we were woken at 7.00am by Mrs Clark. We ate breakfast and packed our hiking packs, before boarding the buses to Telegraph Saddle, where we began our 17km hike around Little Oberon Bay. Many of us had not slept very well, but the sun was shining, the wind had eased and we couldn’t complain about much, given the breath-taking scenery. We began the hike at around 8:45am in the morning, and we stopped every thirty minutes for a water and food break. The terrain was rocky and sandy but the views were amazing, and all of us felt very alive and lucky to be in this beautiful part of the world. After almost 10km of walking, we reached a magnificent beach. The wind was howling but our lunch destination was finally in sight, encouraging us to walk with speed to the end of the beach. After lunch, we began walking along the most difficult terrain of the hike – it was steep and rocky as we made our way around the headland. We made our way along the sand of another bay, before embarking on the final 5km of the hike around the headland of Little Oberon – Norman Beach. We were starting to feel fatigued by now, and we were ready to have a break. After walking for almost six hours, we finally reached our campsite again. We were all very relieved and tired – most of us went straight to our tents, where we had a nap or chatted with our friends for a couple of hours. We began cooking dinner on the Trangias again at about 5.00pm. Afterwards for those who wanted to, we drove again to Telegraph Saddle, where we began the hike up Mount Oberon for the sunset. With Mrs Clark, Dr Avitable, Miss Rogers and Campbell, we began the ascent of Oberon at about 6:15pm. We reached the top at about 7.00pm, where we sat and took in the panoramic view over the Prom and the surrounding waters. It was extremely windy, but the sunset was very nice. However, a very heavy cloud of rain was heading straight towards us over the water, so we made the unwilling decision to begin the hike back down the mountain. We got caught in the thick of the rain cloud, and many of us found our only warm clothes were soaking wet by the time we reached the bottom. Once we returned to camp, it was dark, windy and raining. We were exhausted and more than ready for bed as we climbed into our sleeping bags and turned our torches off.

On our third and final day at the Prom, we were woken at 7.00am, and almost immediately began packing up our camp site. We were on the buses ready to leave by about 9.00am  in the morning. It was a bittersweet moment for some wanting to stay longer in the beautiful area, but many were ready for a hot shower and a home cooked meal in the luxuries of home. By about 1.30pm, we finally arrived back at school. We then had to work as a team to set all of the tents back up again in the hall, as they were wet from the rough weather we endured at the Prom! We returned our hiking packs, sleeping mats and Japaras and were then ready to go home. It was a memorable two nights camping at Wilsons Prom, and we had an amazing time camping in a very special part of the world. Mrs Clark said that it was probably the worst wind and weather she had ever encountered at the Prom overnight.  We were very proud of ourselves for enduring the harsh conditions and enjoying ourselves regardless.

Matilda Harrison

Year 9

Jane Cowan

Level Leader: Year 9