‘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 passage 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 encapsulates 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 safely.

I was privileged to have the opportunity to do just that in the final week of Term 2 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 very scary! Whether it was zooming down a flying fox 70 feet high, letting go on a sheer drop slide, or cooking over an open fire, 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 very 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 exultant! 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 2025 Year 8 Camp is due primarily to the wonderful Kilbreda staff that looked after the girls:

• Camp 1: Carmel Fraser, Tony Grosso, Daniel Kelly, Emma Robinson, Felicity O’Malley, Laura Ridley, Jacob Solomonsz, Emma Stevens, Kyle Turnbull and Fiona Vella

• Camp 2: Louise Brogan, Jodie Chapman, Adrienne Donoghue, Sue Grima, Sonya Hood, Claire Robinson, Joel Savage, Louisa Tanner and Grace Van Rossen

We hope that throughout 2025, every Year 8 girl can look back on Triple E Week and say that they embraced all the opportunities that they were given, and feel like they’ve had a real adventure. So much of an adventure that they’ll become used to their light being on a lampstand, because that’s where it belongs.

Bill Fitzsimons

Level Leader: Year 8