From the Upper School

A message from Mr Riley, Head of Upper School

As you may have noticed, this term I am hoping to include more student stories in our newsletter submissions each week. If you have a great story to share, and particularly if it highlights the diversity of talent in the Upper School, please get in touch with your daughter’s Head of Year. Whilst we will not be able to share every story, it is a great opportunity for students to write about their experiences.

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with two amazing young women who have recently learnt that their submissions to the Young Archies competition have been selected as finalists! When considering there were over 3400 applicants, to have 2 finalists in the Upper School from 70 in total is truly unbelievable!

In chatting with Jasmine Economou (JE) in Year 10 and Jocelyn Ying (JY) in Year 9, they shared the following.

What made you decide to enter the Young Archie?

JE – The Young Archie competition is a motivating way for me to exercise my artistic skill. I am very passionate about painting, and I always have a lot of fun preparing my entry. This year I was encouraged by supportive friends, family, and art teachers to enter. The Young Archie is a great way for younger artists like me to display their work publicly and gain more experience in artmaking.

JY – I decided to enter the Young Archie because I thought it was a good opportunity to practice painting portraits as well as also trying to challenge myself because I have never tried before.

2. Why did you choose this picture/image for your portrait?

JE – I chose an image of my dad for the portrait because I wanted to express my appreciation for him. I loved the vibrant colours, quality of light and raw emotion within the photo I took of him at the dog park and thought it accurately represented his personality. By choosing to include our dog in the image, I challenged myself with depicting the texture of his fur to improve my oil painting skills.

JY – I chose this picture for my portrait because I thought it would be different to capture a surprised and smiling expression for a portrait, not only that this was also the best photo I found that we have taken in the past year.

3. How did you feel when you heard you had been shortlisted as a finalist?

JE – I was super excited when I heard I got short listed as finalist. It’s very rewarding to see the hours I put into the work being recognised and my own improvement in painting over the last couple of years of entering. It is especially exciting this year since COVID lockdowns hopefully won’t get in the way of visits to the art gallery and the chance to meet the judges and other finalists.

JY – I was really surprised, happy and excited because I wasn’t expecting it.

4. What do you love about art and/or painting?

JE – I love painting because it allows me to relax and have time for myself. Visual arts allows me to express myself and increase my observational and creative skills. My passion for visual arts has given me so many opportunities and connections and it is definitely something I want to keep doing in the future.

JY – something I really love about art is that there are no limitations on what you could create you can make whatever you want, I also love how there are many millions of ways you can draw the same thing and each one of them will be unique and represents an own individual emotion.

Late last week, I had the pleasure of joining Jacaranda for their second Residential Program expedition and got the opportunity to sleep in a cave and climb Mount Wondabyne! Whilst the walk was challenging, it was great to see the girls and boys (from Riverview) becoming good friends and the students rising to conquer the hills.

It has also been great to get out and see our Big Sister Little Sister Program in action. Each lunchtime our Year 9 girls head down to kindergarten to play with their little sisters. From what I saw, it was a very rewarding but pretty tiring time for our girls!

Arnhem Immersion Information Night

The information night for the 2023 Arnhem Immersion will be held on Wednesday 17 May from 6.00pm to 7.00pm in the David Macfarlane Centre (DMC) (near Marden Lawn, opposite the Boarding House) for Year 10 and 11 parents and students who have expressed an interest in this trip.

Justin Porter, the CEO of Culture College Arnhem Land, will be presenting and answering questions. Lamia Rockwell and Kate Howie (Indigenous Education Leader), as well as students who were involved in the 2022 immersion, will also be in attendance.

If you have you have not previously expressed an interest but would like to do so, please contact Allison Chambers (achambers@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au) for further information.