The Joy of Friendship

The joy of friendship was certainly evident at the Year 12 Formal last Friday night. The shrill of excitement that our Year 12 students displayed as they lovingly admired the glitz and glamour of their friends was heartwarming to observe.  After two years of social isolation, it was wonderful that we could gather as a school community to celebrate this significant rite of passage and appreciate the lifelong bonds of friendship that Kilbreda College has nurtured.

Recently, I came across a fantastic article by Linda Stade, an educator, writer, speaker and consultant, entitled “Friendship lessons from a fishbowl”.  Linda writes about the seven key lessons in friendship that all young people should learn early in life to enable building healthy relationships in the school setting.  She asserts that “a fish belongs to a school of lots of other fish”.  I thought that this was a timely reminder for our students as they navigate friendships in the social context of today, that no one friend can be all things to you.  We all need lots of friends, each having unique connections and experiences with us, and that we also need to allow our friends to have other friends.  Linda makes an excellent point that we should “swim in more than one fishbowl” and that diversity in our friendships is so important.  Our lives are always enriched when we have friends in other contexts and settings.

Throughout 2022, it has been a privilege to observe our students authentically connect with each other and College staff.  This has assisted us to re-establish the thriving community we know and love.  Some examples of our community flourishing over the past fortnight include:

• The Peer Support breakfast which our Year 10 and Year 11 students hosted for our Year 7 students.  It was fantastic to witness all students dancing in the Hall to “What makes you beautiful” by One Direction.
• Our successful cross-country team. Whilst down on numbers due to exams, our cross-country team united and overcame adversity along with torrential rain to come 2^nd at the Division 1 SCSA Cross Country Championship.
• The 80 plus students who assembled in the Library on their student-free day on Tuesday to complete the annual ‘Write a Book in a Day’ competition.  This was the largest number of students we have ever had participating with all 11 teams working collaboratively to create original stories to be shared with children and their families as part of the ‘Kids Cancer Project.’

The last week of term will be another great chance for our students to relish the joy of friendship as the finishing touches are made to the College production of ‘High School Musical JR’ and our Year 8 students embark on Triple E week, our Year 10 students discover future pathway options as part of ‘Future’s Week’ and our Year 11 students venture to Central Australia and connect with our First Nation People and share their stories.  These experiences, and life in general, will continue to challenge each of us in many ways, it will be important for us to “just keep swimming”.

Dr Jodi Richardson

As our students have returned to the classroom this year and full-time face-to-face school, the Student Wellbeing Team and many of you may have observed that some have found the reintegration process more challenging than others.  Social anxiety has become a sticking point for some, with students finding it difficult to speak and perform before classmates after two years of remote learning.  We have also observed increased levels of emotional distress with some students finding it difficult to regulate their emotions.  As anxiety is the biggest barrier to learning, we are exploring ways that we can work with you, our parent community, to strengthen our students’ social and emotional skills so that they can feel happier, resilient, and optimistic about the future.

It was evident from the high parent attendance at our parent seminar last week that you, too, are witnessing some of this behaviour in the home environment, and like us, trying to understand what may be driving it and what strategies you can adopt to support your children to develop a more resilient mindset.

Year 7 to 9 Celebration of Achievement Assembly

Today we hosted an assembly to acknowledge student achievement and to reflect on the year to date.  

Here is a link to the assembly:  https://vimeo.com/718170118/01dd325081

Stephanie Smyth
Assistant Principal: Wellbeing and Engagement