Giving Our Girls Permission to Grow

In the life of a school, there are beautifully distilled moments when learning, confidence, creativity and belonging come together. They may occur on a stage, around a table, behind a market stall or in the quiet decision to use one’s voice. These moments give our girls permission to grow – to take a risk, discover a strength, persist through uncertainty and recognise more fully who they are becoming.

Over recent weeks, many of our Year 11 students participated in the process to appoint our 2027 Year 12 Student Leadership Team. They prepared thoughtful applications, delivered speeches and articulated their hopes for Kilbreda’s future. Their contributions reflected a deep affection for the College and a genuine desire to serve its community.

Some students received the position for which they had hoped, while others experienced understandable disappointment. Yet the courage to step forward is itself worthy of recognition. A badge may formally recognise leadership, but it does not create it. Leadership is revealed in the everyday choices to include another, challenge what is unkind, persist when something is difficult and use one’s influence in service of others. We are immensely proud of every student who participated and look forward to walking alongside our newly appointed leaders as they continue to grow.

The excitement surrounding our recent VCE Vocational Major Market offered another expression of growth. The space was alive with conversation, colour and entrepreneurial energy as students proudly presented their products. From original artwork and stickers to cookies, slime and lollipop bouquets, each stall represented far more than something to purchase. Behind every product were ideas tested, challenges addressed, responsibilities shared and the persistence required to bring a concept to life.

Our Year 9 Café Culture High-Teas similarly brought together creativity, collaboration and hospitality. Students planned, prepared and served an impressive array of food, welcoming their guests with warmth and pride. Around beautifully arranged tables, practical learning became an experience of connection. Our students were not simply demonstrating culinary skills; they were learning to communicate, manage their time, contribute to a team and create a sense of welcome for others.

Across the College, many other opportunities have invited students to discover and share their gifts. Our musicians continue to enrich College life through the beauty, discipline and joy of their performances. Book Week brought extraordinary cake creations inspired by much-loved stories and characters, while the Write a Book in a Day competition challenged students to think creatively, work collaboratively and complete an original work within a demanding timeframe.

Our aerobics teams continue to demonstrate the commitment and teamwork behind every polished performance. Students participating in the SEGAP Teen Chef Competition have also embraced the opportunity to extend their skills, respond to feedback and test themselves in a new setting. While each experience is different, all contribute to the dispositions we seek in a Kilbreda graduate: critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, courage, grit and persistence.

These opportunities help students develop their capabilities. Importantly, they also invite them to consider how those capabilities might be used in service of others and in response to the world around them.

At our College Assembly this week, we heard the insight and wisdom of students reflecting on social justice and what it means to recognise that we belong to one human family. Their contributions reminded us that education must prepare young people not only to succeed, but also to notice, question and respond.

In my address, I reflected on our College value for 2026: Justice – Making the needs of the vulnerable paramount. Recent public conversations about the treatment of women in sporting culture provided an important context for considering the cultures we collectively create and the behaviours we may become willing to overlook when those involved are talented, powerful or admired.

Justice asks us to look first towards the person who has been diminished or harmed. It asks: Whose voice is being ignored? Who holds power? Who needs another person to stand beside them?

Culture is shaped in everyday moments, through what we celebrate, what we laugh at, what we overlook and what we are prepared to challenge. Every student can contribute to a culture in which women are respected, vulnerability is met with compassion, and no person is left to stand alone.

This is the legacy our students inherit from St Brigid and the Brigidine Sisters, whose commitment to the education of young women was itself an act of justice. They believed that women’s minds, voices and contributions mattered and their courage opened possibilities for generations of young women, including those we are privileged to educate today.

Our motto, Fortiter et Suaviter – Strength and Kindliness, continues to offer a powerful guide. Strength gives us the courage to name what is wrong and to act. Kindliness keeps us attentive to the dignity of every person and ensures that our response seeks growth and transformation rather than humiliation. Justice requires both.

As winter draws to a close, change is beginning quietly around us. The daylight lingers a little longer and new growth is forming, often before it can be seen. The growth of a young person can happen in much the same way. It begins in a moment of encouragement, an opportunity to contribute, the courage to try again or the experience of being genuinely seen and valued.

These moments do not occur by accident. They are made possible through the expertise and generosity of our staff, the encouragement of families and the willingness of our students to step forward. Together, we create the conditions in which our girls can exercise their agency, find their voices and grow into young women of courage, compassion and hope.

May we continue to give them the space, encouragement and confidence to do so.

Stephanie Smyth

Principal