From the Junior School

From the Head of Junior School

Welcome to Science Week!

Our Junior School scientists have been honing their observational skills, firing up their curiosity and pondering over some tricky questions as they immerse themselves in practical experiments across the Junior School. Our girls are fortunate to have teachers who are themselves passionate about Science and who model questioning and exploring possible answers alongside the girls.

A highlight for me this week was being in Year 3 classrooms and listening to Mrs Alice Murphy and Mrs Michele Wilson lead rigorous scientific discussion with the girls about the movement of the Earth and the connection of Earth’s rotations to the seasons. The girls had so many questions and our fabulous teachers didn’t provide the answers but guided the girls to build connections on their prior knowledge and then work together to investigate possible answers.

I am so proud of the way our teachers empower the girls to think independently and challenge and then extend their thinking.

Some of our Science Week experiments led by our Head of STEM, Mr Brown, Digitial Learning Leader, Mr Jake Turnbull and some of our amazing teachers (Mrs Jo Avraam, Ms Tommy Buchner, Ms Sarah McGeoch, Ms Jacqui Ng, Ms Rosie Prince and Mrs Linda Tysoe) include:

Year 1 – Looking at the diffusion of colour through liquid

Year 3 – Discovering the properties of gravity through gravity defying paper clips

Year 4 – Investigating the magic of static electricity

Year 5 – Launching tea bag rockets

Each lunchtime we have led experiments with the girls to further ignite their scientific wondering including creating rainbow jars (to explore the density of different liquids) and learning how to conduct electricity to light a lightbulb through fruit and vegetables.

I want to give a special shout out to our exceptional STEM Captains, Olivia Chan and Sophia Wong who have worked together with Audrey Wyldhill (Year 6) and Mr Brown to plan all the experiments for our Junior School Science week.

Throughout the term we have been encouraging the girls to sit and observe nature around different parts of the College. Here are some of their phenomenal questions:

Why do spiders and ants look similar?

How do spiders spin such strong webs?

Why can’t we feel the Earth moving?

How do birds fly?

Why do some trees have smooth trunks and others are rough?

Are tree roots longer than the height of the tree to help anchor them?

Our amazing Year 1 and 2s reach for the stars!

Thank you to our Year 1 and 2 girls who delighted us all with a journey into space last week. Huge thanks to their teachers and particularly Ms Tiffany Farlow who wrote the script and led this production with support from Mrs Julie Hare and Mr Kurt Schweinberger. Huge thank you to all our parents who gave up their time to help with costumes, hair and makeup.

Our girls dazzled on stage dancing with enthusiasm and huge smiles, and they skipped off the stage with justifiable pride.

Through their space voyage, the girls reminded us that we have to take risks, calm our thoughts when faced with a challenge, keep trying and remember that if we all work together, we can always find a solution. With their determination to look after our home planet, their willingness to explore new friendships and their curiosity for adventure, our Pymble girls are definitely what the world needs!

Next week is Book Week; Read, Grow, Inspire

Please remember that Monday is the launch of our Book Week and the girls can come in their book character costume on Monday. Girls may remain in their costumes all day.

Year 2 Shadow Judging led by Mrs Josephine Laretive, K-2 Teacher Librarian

During Term 2 and 3, Year 2 participated in the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Shadow Judging program. During their library lessons each class read and reviewed the six CBCA Early Childhood shortlist picture books. Responses for each book were recorded in a special booklet, scores were tallied, column graphs created and the winning book Lionel and Me by Corinne Fenton was submitted to the Shadow Judging program. The program encourages children to experience and participate in discussing and judging books, the Shadowers’ Choice Awards is announced at the end of Book Week. In addition, each class is also involved in creating dioramas for the six shortlist books.

Huge success in our Pymble Reading Challenge led by Mrs Martha Itzcovitz and Mrs Sarah Colquhoun, Years 3-6 Teacher Librarians

I am excited to announce that 88% of our girls across Years 3 to 6 completed the Pymble Reading Challenge this year. A special shout out to Years 3 and 4 who had 100 per cent completion. This is a phenomenal result and testament to the love of literature our amazing teacher librarians inspire across our Junior School. Thank you, parents, for your support in encouraging your daughter to read daily and from an increasingly wide range of genres.

Academic Excellence – Mrs Lara Bird, Deputy Head of Junior School Academics

Embracing Challenge through Academic Competitions

Speech and Drama

This week we continue to celebrate the fabulous achievement of our Junior School girls who participated in the Ryde Eisteddfod. Thank you to our wonderful Speech and Drama Teachers, Mrs Victoria Clancy and Miss Pip Dracakis for supporting our girls.

Congratulations to the following talented performers who participated in the Eisteddfod: Abby Su (Year 2), Ella Jang (Year 2), Victoria Gao (Year 3), Avril Huang (Year 3), Alex Xiao (Year 3), Lareina Liu (Year 3), Annabel Zhang (Year 3), Aurora Lin (Year 4) and Sophia Wang (Year 4).

Outstanding Solo performances were given in the recent Ryde Eisteddfod by the following students.

Poetry Performance events

Isabel Khattar (Year 4) 1^st Place

Emerald Liu (Year 3) 2^nd Place

Aimee Qiu (Year 3) 3^rd Place

Sarayah Wijesuriya (Year 2) 3^rd Place

Candice Li (Year 4) Highly Commended

Isabel Liu (Year 4) Highly Commended

Miranda Liu (Year 3) Highly Commended

Rose Wang (Year 3) Highly Commended

Cecilia Cao (Year 3) Highly Commended

Isabella Chang (Year 2) Highly Commended

Year 1 and Year 2 Windows into Learning – New Date

The date for Windows into Learning for Year 1 and Year 2 has changed. Year 1 Windows into Learning will now be held on Thursday 7 September at 8.30am and Year 2 Windows into Learning will be held on Thursday 7 September at 10.45am. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility. This change is due to the large number of students who are participating in the ballet performance.

Academic Learning Discussions – Monday 18 September

Parents will soon receive a portal notice to book an Academic Learning Discussion via Edval. These discussions will take place online with your daughter’s Compass Teacher.

Please note that all Co-Curricular activities will run as normal on this day.

Cardboard food packaging needed

In the coming weeks, we have several activities that require recycled cardboard. The Junior School is hosting a Northside Gifted and Talented Workshop that requires cardboard food packaging (no egg cartons) as part of a STEM activity. The largest size needed would be equivalent to a cereal box and the smallest equivalent to a box containing tea bags. Cylinders such as kitchen paper towel rolls (no toilet rolls) are also required. If you are able to donate these items, please ask your daughter to drop it to either the K-2 administration office or Years 3-6 administration office. Thank you for your support.

Diversity as a path to unity – Nerissa Davey – Deputy Head of Junior School – Operations

Last week a group of Year 5 students travelled 1600km with Mrs Cindy Anderson and Miss Sarah McGeoch to Dubbo and Goodooga to connect with schools and participate in the Goodooga Indigenous Games. We know they have come back to our Junior School with a richer understanding of our nation’s history and the proud sense of community that is so evident in our rural schools. They have shared their journey with us:

In Week 3, we embarked on an adventure to the Indigenous Games in Goodooga (meaning ‘yam’), a remote town on the border of Queensland with a population of just 200 people. In the heart of this community sits Goodooga Central School, a dynamic, warm, passionate learning hub which students, teachers, and community members all share. To begin our long journey, we explored The Three Sisters in Katoomba, discovered the delights of Mudgee before settling at Dubbo for the evening.

En route to Goodooga, we explored friendly country towns like Gilgandra and Gulargambone and were impressed by the beautiful murals on the buildings and silos. We were also fascinated by the Black Opal town of Lightning Ridge. Our girls were surprised to see a house made entirely from bottles and rocks and a home in the design of a medieval castle complete with thrones outside and stocks. Much to our surprise as we were leaving the friendly country town, a kind resident helped us to try our luck at mining for opals in the ground. Sadly, luck was not on our side but we did find some potch and we were pretty happy with that! Arriving in Goodooga, stepping onto Muruwari and Kamilaroi Country, we were mesmerised by the vastness of the landscape and the warmth of the community who welcomed us in. On our first evening the girls were fascinated by the local bore baths which are natural hot springs at around 42 degrees Celsius. Everyone embraced this spa-like experience, and we were all humbled by the breathtaking sunset and then the clear night sky.

Back at the school that evening, we danced ourselves into a frenzy at the high energy disco and then we settled in for the night sleeping together on the classroom floor! Sunrise the next day was glorious and then the Games commenced with a smoking ceremony and a traditional welcome dance by the school children in the school’s cultural garden. Our girls enjoyed meeting new children throughout the Games and they were phenomenal in their openness to embrace each activity and their courage in connecting with others and making friends.

Throughout the day the teams participated in a range of traditional games designed to teach children how to be independent on country, source food through hunting and gathering and connect as a community. We were so honoured to have been invited to join in the games and our teachers were thrilled to each bring home a trophy for showing spirit and encouragement to all participating teams.

The girls have learnt so much from this adventure and have made memories that will last a lifetime. Amongst the many highlights of the trip, the teachers were very proud to witness how our Year 5 girls came together and formed a tight friendship through shared experiences and memories. The girls do not come from the same friendship group yet are going home as close friends. This is the power of sharing stories and sharing experiences.

Student Health & Wellbeing Parent Survey – Kate Giles- Lead Coordinator K-3 and Jayne Mercer- Lead Coordinator 4-6

We are going to be holding ongoing parent sessions next term on a variety of different topics. These small group sessions will be an opportunity for you to hear the current research and evidence around student health and wellbeing and how to best support your daughter. This will also be an opportunity to connect with other parents within our school community.

To best tailor our sessions to be valuable to you, we would love to hear from you about your parenting questions, your concerns or your curiosities about your daughter’s health and wellbeing. Please respond to the survey using this link.

Kindness to our Environment- a note from our Sustainability Captains; Oriana Fenton and Richielynne Xiong

As a part of our focus on kindness to the environment and our determination to reduce, reuse and recycle, we are encouraging all girls from K-6 to create artworks (sculptures, pictures or other artworks) using recycled materials. Please bring artworks into the JS offices by the end of this term.

This week we met with Sally Eriksen, the Sustainability Education Officer from Ku-ring-gai Council. We talked about some new initiatives we could do at school and in our community to make our environment more environmentally friendly and be more sustainable. We are really excited to be sharing these initiatives with you over coming weeks.

Kindness thought for the week – a note from our Kindness Captains; Jessamy Facer and Amna Syed

“Never be so busy as not to think of others.” – Mother Teresa.

Our lives are so busy, yet we hope each of us can take the time to smile and compliment someone this week! The kindness boomerang will work its magic, and the world will be a better place. Imagine the difference we can make…together!

Over the next two weeks, our Term 3 Kindness Captains from Years 1 to 6 are working together to create marine creatures out of recycled materials to raise awareness of the dangers faced by these creatures with our rubbish ending up in their ocean.

A message from Kurt Schweinberger – Deputy Director of Co-curricular Performing Arts (K-6)

Calling all musicians, dancers and entertainers, the Junior School PJ factor is back, and we are looking forward to seeing students in Years 3 to 6 create exciting and entertaining performances that are focused on the theme of being CREATIVE!

“Creativity is defined as the ability to create something new through the use of your imagination, mind and experiences”

As part of the Junior School “Let’s Get Creative Festival” (Thursday 16 November), we will be selecting a group of students from each house to perform at the festival. Reflecting on the above image, we are encouraging students to think outside the box and create a performance that extends their individual talents, to create something new and imaginative.

Students may enter as a soloist or as part of a small group.

Heats will commence Wednesday 11 October (Term 4 Week 1). See below the day for each house.

Heat 1: Wednesday 11 October – Marden
Heat 2: Thursday 12 October – Lang
Heat 3: Friday 13 October – Ingleholme
Heat 4: Monday 16 October – Wylie
Heat 5: Tuesday 17 October – Hammond
Heat 6: Wednesday 18 October – Goodlet
Heat 7: Thursday 19 October – Bennet
Heat 8: Friday 20 October – Thomas

Following the heats, a group of students from each house, who demonstrate creativity and originality in their performance, will be selected to perform at the Let’s Get Creative Festival.

When preparing their performance, students need to consider the following points:

I have taken my talent and created something different and original
My performance does not exceed 2 min
My performance is appropriate for my age (parents need to work with their daughter to create a performance that is indicative of their respective age)

Student sign-up sheets will be communicated in the Week 7 Newsletter.

If you have any questions, please speak with Mr Schweinberger.