This week I took a special boxed lunch and visited one of my school\u2019s longest-serving teachers. She taught drama at the school from 1959 until 2002, and in many ways is one of the most impactful and memorable teachers from our school.<\/p>\n
Miss Keown (whose age it would be impolite to reveal) can remember almost every student she taught; their maiden and married names, their professions, often even the names of their children. Over finger sandwiches, I learnt more in two hours about some of the amazing women who have been through our school than I ever would through LinkedIn or our yearbooks.<\/p>\n
Traditions and events that have kept our oldest alumni and community members connected physically to the school have been interrupted. Many are still not on email or social media. These alumni (and past teachers like Miss Keown) have such valuable contribution to give to our engagement programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The knowledge that such teachers have takes time to learn and understand, but can bring depth to our work and, in particular, bring greater understanding of our communities, the milestones and major events that shape the histories of our schools, and the experiences of our students. In particular, it can help us find the gold\u2014the stories of the impact that an \u2019insert XYZ school\u2019 education can have upon a life.<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, letters, Christmas cards, birthday cards, personal notes, phone calls, and when possible, visits like my lunch with Miss Keown, have been vital in ensuring that we don\u2019t forget those members of our community who aren\u2019t visible in our online-age. This has happened in partnership with our Ex-Students\u2019 Union.\u00a0 It\u2019s time consuming, and yes, often expensive, but so very worthwhile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An example of the power of this connection is our Pen Pal Project. In 2020, Year 5 and 6 students were given the first name of an ex-student. They were asked to write a letter about their experiences as a student, what their favourite subjects are, what House they are in and then ask their Pen Pal to write back, answering the same questions.\u00a0 We then wrote to our ex-students, many of our oldest and most dedicated ex-students, and invited them to join in the project. The response was overwhelming.<\/p>\n
For months, letters were exchanged back and forth. The power of the shared experience of alumni\u2014despite 30, 60 or more years between them\u2014became visible on the page. Our ex-students were thrilled (and often helpful with their constructive criticism on modern penmanship!), and our students learned how to write a letter and experience the joy of receiving mail.<\/p>\n
In these letters, our ex-students shared anecdotes and stories about their time a school\u2014their trips on the train, the uniform, their favourite subjects, who they have kept in touch with. Information about their history as \u2018PLC Sydney\u2019 girls that can\u2019t be learnt any other way.<\/p>\n
The project was then extended to our Junior School at the end of Term 4, with each student creating a Christmas card with a special message for an ex-student, and they were sent out.\u00a0 These were a particular hit!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yesterday, almost two years on from when we launched the project, I received letters from ex-student pen pals for students who are now in Years 7 and 8.\u00a0 In time the girls will stop writing back, and that\u2019s a part of life as we grow and move into the next chapter of our lives.<\/p>\n
But the power that this traditional form of communication still holds shouldn\u2019t be disregarded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the even better news: the Junior SRC has specifically requested to repeat the project this year\u2014a new tradition has begun!<\/p>\n
Philippa Zingales<\/strong><\/p>\n Director of Alumni Relations, PLC Sydney and member of the NSW\/ACT Chapter<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week I took a special boxed lunch and visited one of my school\u2019s longest-serving teachers. She taught drama at the school from 1959 until 2002, and in many ways is one of the most impactful and memorable teachers from our school. Miss Keown (whose age it would be impolite to reveal) can remember almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-912","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nsw-act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nsw-act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nsw-act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nsw-act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nsw-act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nsw-act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}