From the Upper School

A message from Mr Riley, Head of Upper School

It has been a busy start to our second week of the term, with more exchange student arrivals, a fabulous NAIDOC week assembly on Tuesday, and an exciting Mind Body Spirit Day for our Year 9 students.

Our First Nations students spoke beautifully in assembly, with praise for Latiah McMillan in Year 10 who wowed the 2000 plus people in the audience with her rendition of Jessica Mauboy’s song. Latiah spoke authentically about her experiences at Pymble, her strong connection to her First Nations family here, and the journey she has taken. It was incredibly moving and powerful.

Year 9 enjoyed an action-packed Mind Body Spirit Day on Tuesday, with Nikki Davis from Enlighten Education joining us for the morning to deliver their Butterfly Effect workshop, before a sport round-robin to conclude the day. Please enjoy our student reflections below:

“We are feminists because we like music too much to walk home with only one earpiece in.”

That was a line some friends and I came up with when asked to create a slogan on why we are feminists. This line relates to the fact that, as girls, we have all been told by our parents to walk around with only one earpiece in, so that we can be aware of our surroundings and stay safe from attack. While we walk around anxiously eyeing all the men in our general vicinity, we see boys walking around absent-mindedly, with both earpieces in.

Today Year 9 participated in a four-hour workshop with Nikki Davis from Enlighten Education, to help us develop self-confidence and use our voices to speak up for ourselves.

I (like most of my friends) walked into the lecture theatre stressing about how I would sit still for such a long time, but four hours later I emerged, ecstatic. The time flew by. She was a captivating presenter – very funny – and spoke about things that related to all of us. She explained how the image of stereotypical beauty has changed and evolved over time, and that our own sense of self and self-worth is more important than stereotypes. She also explained that sometimes the toughest and cruelest mean girl is the one in our heads.

We all have bad days; we need to be kind – to ourselves and to each other.

We all walked away from today with something new. Whether that be a kinder lens through which we see ourselves, or a funny story that she told us; we all gained something special from her talk. I know it will be one to remember.

Written by Annie Liebmann

A massive congratulations to Hayley Cheung in Year 9 who won First Place in the South Australian Figure Skating Championships in Adelaide over the weekend!

Later in Term 3, all students will be invited to participate in an MMG Student Wellbeing Survey. The questionnaire is confidential and is an important part of our continuous improvement process.