From the Principal

From the Principal

It was the most glorious of Summer Nights – and yes, that was the theme – for our Icebreaker last Friday. After years of restricted events, to see 530 parents and staff socialising in full flow on Gloucester Lawn was such a joy. The background music was just perfect, thanks to our talented musicians in the Senior School Jazz Band and our amazing Head of Learning for Performing Arts and Bands, Marcus Stafford, and Head of Co-curricular Music, Sarah Turner. The delicious cocktail food was served so graciously by our Year 12 Prefects, and our fabulous PPA parent convenors Sunny Hres and Julie Xie did a stellar job working with our Community Engagement team to organise many of the details of the night. A huge thank you also goes to our Chair of the Board, James Hunter, and College Board members, Rev Dr Chris Goringe and Suzy Nicoletti, as well as our Pymble Foundation Board of Simon Rothery, Alison Rothery, Rebecca Sullivan, Melinda Graham, Li-Enn Koo, Yehan Koo and Jessica Shirvington for coming along to spend the evening among friends and family in our community.

With such a great turnout and welcoming vibe, it’s no wonder we were all reluctant to leave. Certainly, it was a #PymbleProud kind of night; thank you to all those who contributed to making our event so special.

An insight into strategic priorities for 2023

Of course, this week marks the end of summer as well as the halfway point of Term 1, which is a great time to share an overview of the strategic objectives we are focussing on in 2023. For our newer families and those who joined Pymble this year, each of these objectives sits under one of four focus areas that provide the framework of our Strategic Direction 2021-2030, Watch Us Change the World. These focus areas are referred to as Academic Intelligence; Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence; and Digital Intelligence, and objectives are mapped out in three trienniums. As 2023 is the final year of our first triennium, we will review our progress at the end of the year before setting our next three-year plan, which will begin in 2024.

In the meantime, here are our top three strategic objectives for each pillar in 2023.

Academic Intelligence

  1. Now in its third year, our HSC Improvement Program in 2023 includes more HSC subject intensives, expansion of our study support program and the introduction of a study skills continuum.
  2. We are reviewing, developing and refining new courses, experiences, electives and pathways to achieve Future-focused Academic Excellence.
  3. Growing Learning Leaders involves developing a shared understanding of leadership excellence and goals that positively impact student learning.

Emotional Intelligence

  1. We continue to focus on building House Spirit and Belonging by establishing House zones for students participating in lunchtime activities on campus, diversifying the range of House activities and launching an Arts Festival.
  2. Being of service remains a priority as we develop a K-12 service continuum and engage students and staff in action and reflection to achieve community objectives and a ‘giving back’ disposition.  
  3. Our acknowledgement and awards systems for students will evolve to include new structures for Recognising and Honouring Diversity of Achievement and Effort.

Social Intelligence

  1. We continue to Celebrate Diversity and Inclusion and use data and demographics-driven planning to inform the development of a framework for intercultural activities for students as well as recruitment strategies for staff.
  2. A focus on Skill-building for Belonging and Connectedness involves creating a communications toolkit, continuing to offer professional learning resources and expanding the curriculum to promote greater intercultural awareness and inclusion.
  3. In our quest Towards Zero Emissions 2030, we are evaluating our current emissions, confirming our target for 2030 and assembling the working committee and processes to implement actions.

Digital Intelligence

  1. New Digital Festivals aim to amplify the arts through STEM, with students participating in an international digital Shakespeare festival and STEM-focused dance performances. The Junior School STEM Festival will be extended to include an inter-house Robotics competition.
  2. The Pymble Passport will be introduced to students in Years 3, 4, 7 and 8 and become a tool in Compass Learning discussions to promote reflection, celebration of growth and progress in learning.
  3. Our focus on the Digital Curriculum for K to 12 includes growing STEM opportunities and participation in 7 to12, integrating digital experiences across different learning contexts in K to 6, and training staff to teach wise use of AI.

Hopefully, this gives you a broad overview of the strategy guiding your daughter’s learning at Pymble this year. What you can’t see in the summary above is the hours and hours of research and planning that sits behind each objective, or the multiple layers, interconnections, and complexities of our strategy, which ultimately aims to build the strengths, skills and attributes in each student that will allow her to thrive and be her best self in all aspects of life. It’s such an exciting time to be a student at Pymble, and we are so proud of our executive and academic teams who are leading the delivery of theses intents and playing such a formative role in your daughter’s educational journey. It really does feel like we are changing the world, together.

A sneak peek at next week’s IWD celebrations

Speaking of changing the world, next week is a huge week for the College. Australia celebrates International Women’s Day on Wednesday, and I am beyond excited to share that we have partnered with the Australian Financial Review to produce a bespoke IWD magazine celebrating women who are using their incredible gifts and talents to make their mark in business, sport, politics, science and many other fields. Best of all, many of these women are former Pymble girls, and the magazine also features opinion pieces from some of our current students.

In addition, we have partnered with Women on Boards to encourage corporate Australia to take one small but important step to advance gender equality, which is of course the aim of IWD. There will be IWD activities for students to take part in, plus the launch of a new series of podcasts featuring stories of Pymble alumni who are, without a doubt, making the world a better place through the work they do.

We can’t wait to tell you more when all is revealed next week!

Dr Kate Hadwen, Principal