When Jesus was at the table with them,

he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him,

and he vanished from their sight. 

They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us 

while he was talking to us on the road,

while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 

Luke 24:30-32

The extract above from the Sunday gospel two weeks ago is a profound insight into the places and spaces where we find the sacred. Just as the Apostles who walked with Jesus found God in the breaking of bread, so do we at Kilbreda have many moments where we encounter the presence of God. The giftedness of our Year 8 students is redolent of the sacred – in their respectful relationships with each other and with staff, in their preparedness to challenge themselves and in their willingness to lead and flourish.

In final Pastoral lesson for Term 1, on Tuesday 24 March, the Year 8s were blessed to have a guest presenter, Angelica Pupillo, from This is Your Body. She spoke to the students about positive body image, developing a healthy relationship with food, and explored the malignant impact of social media on their sense of the world, and most importantly, on their sense of self.

Student Reflection

On Tuesday 24 March we were visited by Ms Angelica Pupillo who founded This is Your Body. Gel talked to us about her journey to where she is today and how the TV shows and movies we watched growing up have fed us information about how we are supposed to look and how we’re supposed to be. We can’t be too skinny, but we can be too big, we can’t be too perfect, but we can’t be flawed.

She told us about how she had trouble growing up doing things she loved due to the flawed image that we think of as the standard of how we should look for different activities. Gel told us about how she thought she should always be perfect and do what others expected of her. She said she went to law school and went to America for a rare opportunity to study there and started to realise that she didn’t want to do law anymore, but that she also didn’t want to disappoint her family.

She started not eating properly and harming her body in ways she didn’t realise. Her mother and sister told her that she didn’t look well after a while, but she brushed them off. She realised how serious it was after her father brought it up. She soon realised that she had an eating disorder and Gel told us how she got through her troubles and how she now eats healthier and lives a healthier lifestyle today.

She talked to us about the stereotypes that we grow up with and how it makes us dislike the way our bodies are shaped and what we weigh. She gave us different activities on how we view ourselves and how we could help others if they were in a situation of disliking themselves.

Juno S

Year 8

Year 8 Student Leaders

Congratulations to the Year 8 girls for the bright and enthusiastic way in which they welcomed the challenge of the new school year and have radiated the 2026 College theme of Justice throughout Term 1. Congratulations in particular to the girls listed below who were commissioned in leadership roles for 2026 on Friday 27 March 2026.

Health and Wellbeing	Living Justice	SRC	Community Action	Environmental Action
Leni C Harper M Deanna P	Alexandra D Vasiliki M	Bella K Hayley O	Yumi L Kiara W	Tayah D Isobel M

Also, the students listed below were elected by the members of their Homeroom to be Homeroom Captains for Semester 1.

8-45	Eliza B	Eliza L
8-46	Lily G	Imogen W
8-47	Lillian B	Zoe H
8-48	Tayah D	Annabel E
8-49	Deanna P	Hazel S
8-51	Sally E	Maeve M
8-52	Evy F	Amelie G	Suki H

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