Let mutual love continue. 

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,

for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13:1-2

Kilbreda College’s 2025 theme of Hospitality: Welcoming All gives us the opportunity to reflect on the words of St Paul about welcoming strangers. It is worthwhile reflecting on how important hospitality is for a Year 8 student at the beginning of this year. For most students, Year 8 is the most difficult year of secondary school to start – far more difficult that starting Year 7. In Year 7 our girls built a wide range of new friendships and strong relationships with their teachers. This was hard work but was richly rewarded with a special year of new beginnings. Then of course, they start all over again in a new Homeroom in Year 8, new teachers and they are called upon to develop new relationships and build new connections. For many, this can be very difficult and can cause understandable anxiety.

On their first day of 2025, I spoke to the year level about one of my favourite children’s books: John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, which is the tale of an elderly widow named Rose whose friend and companion is a dog, named John Brown. John Brown is a loyal friend and caretaker for Rose, looking out for her as best he can. One night, Rose thinks she hears a cat out in the garden. John Brown assures her that it is not a cat. When Rose goes to bed, he goes outside and confronts the noisemaker, who really is a cat. John Brown, jealous at the thought of someone else receiving Rose’s attention, tells the cat to stay away. John Brown was far from hospitable!

When Rose realises that there is indeed a cat outdoors, she cares for it by leaving a bowl of milk outside the front door. Each night a jealous John Brown tips the milk bowl over. One morning, Rose does not get out of bed. She feels ill and tells John Brown that she will not be getting up. John Brown worries about Rose all day. Finally, he enters her room and asks if the cat would make her feel better. When Rose replies, “Oh, yes!” John Brown brings the cat in. The end of the story finds a contented Rose, John Brown and the eponymous Midnight Cat relaxing and enjoying the quiet in front of the fire – and one another’s company!

John Brown is just like a Year 7 girl at the end of the year who is feeling worried about what might happen in 2025 and doesn’t want to share the friends she has made in Year 7. She wants to stay in the same Homeroom; she is happy and safe there and she doesn’t want this to change. She is around her friends, and she likes being in a comfortable, happy classroom with teachers that she feels safe with. But, if she doesn’t change and accept new people and welcome new experiences, she’ll never fully become the person that God is calling her to be.

Once John Brown accepted the Midnight Cat and made her welcome, he became contented and happy. He also made a new friend and developed a new and better relationship with Rose. So not only did he still have Rose, but he also had a new friend in the Midnight Cat.

My challenge to the Year 8 girls at the beginning of this year is not to think as John Brown did when he first saw the Midnight Cat. Instead of being afraid of the changes that will come in Year 8, welcome and embrace them.

Congratulations to the Year 8 girls for the bright and enthusiastic way in which they have welcomed the challenge of the new school year and have radiated the theme of Hospitality. Congratulations in particular to the following girls who were commissioned in leadership roles for 2025 on Tuesday 24 February:

Also, the following girls who were elected by the members of their Homeroom to be Homeroom Captains for semester one:

With the grace of God to guide them, their families, the Year 8 Homeroom teachers and other the staff of Kilbreda College, everyone in Year 8 can look forward to an exciting and successful year ahead.

Bill Fitzsimons

Level Leader: Year 8