From the Upper School

A message from Mr. Riley, Head of Upper School

It has been wonderful to see the return of the Upper School exchange program this year. This week students have departed for Argentina and New Zealand. Mr Tom Riley has accompanied the girls to New Zealand this week to help the girls settle in and to visit potential Exchange schools. We look forward to seeing this program continue to grow and provide this wonderful opportunity for more students. Madeline Arrage who is currently in South Africa at St Anne’s College has shared a reflection.

Year 10 Exchange Reflection – South Africa

Written by Madeline Arrage

After a 14-hour flight, we landed at Johannesburg International Airport, where we boarded our connecting flight to Pietermaritzburg, and then finally arrived at St. Anne’s Diocesan College in Hilton.

We were met and very warmly welcomed by all the St. Anne’s students in our boarding houses.

So far, we have really enthralled ourselves with the boarding experience, and to our surprise, absolutely loving it (each night we sing and dance together as a house). The energy, spirit, love and encouragement from the girls at St. Anne’s is like no other and has profoundly impacted both of us in ways we can’t explain. Our amazing new friendships and connections, and the positivity of the girls will be something we will greatly miss. Support is also provided from the warm-hearted, friendly and approachable boarding house ‘Mothers’, who make our daily lives much easier.

In just 3 weeks we have already had so many fantastic experiences and adventures and have been able to immerse ourselves in everything St. Anne’s has to offer. We have both joined the water polo and squash teams, we are learning new school subjects (including Afrikaans and Zulu), and we are participating in St. Anne’s amazing volunteer Education Partnership Program called STEPP. STEPP facilitates the development of under-resourced schools, teachers, and learners in South Africa, focusing on issues such as social justice to facilitate meaningful change.

We’ve also watched numerous inter-school basketball and netball games. There, the entire school performs war cries with such passion and enthusiasm, creating a surreal atmosphere. During one of the netball matches (between the St. Anne’s team and a team from the U.K.), the lights suddenly went out. Everyone turned on their flashlights and continued performing their war cries. We both believed it was an intentional act, but we later learned that load shedding, when the Government shuts off the electricity, was the cause of the blackout.

We have also had the privilege of attending an International Exchange dinner organized at Hilton College with many other exchange students attending schools in South Africa from around the world, including Australian students from Sydney and Orange.

Over the weekend, we were lucky enough to have been flown to Cape Town for the Netball World Cup. The games between South Africa vs Uganda and Australia vs Jamaica were definitely notable. The games were very tense and the energy inside the stadium was incredible. In addition, we went on a bus tour and enjoyed a Seal Island Cruise before visiting an aquarium and taking a gondola (cable car) to the top of Table Mountain, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. While in Cape Town we also had the pleasure of trying many cultural foods for the first time, such as biltong, pap, chakalaka, koeksisters, and going to a braai.

Additionally, on the 9th of August, St. Anne’s celebrated Women’s Day. Msaki, a South African singer, musician, and songwriter, visited the school. She described her path of reshaping herself, emphasizing that identity is more than just our physical casing. Following this, traditional Zulu dances were performed by Zulu girls at St. Anne’s, which was such a beautiful moment to be part of.

St. Anne’s apparently has many additional cultural events and opportunities in store, but which they have kept secret as they like to surprise us.

During the mid-term break we head to Johannesburg and next week, we are going shark cage-diving before having a day out to see the famous Drakensberg Boys Choir perform. We are then off on a 2-day safari adventure to the Nambiti private Game Reserve where we will get to see the BIG 5 up close in the wild. We then will attend the St. Anne’s yearly Grade 10 camp to the Babanango Valley, to gain valuable knowledge of the Zulu history and culture, before heading home to Australia.

Overall, we can agree that this experience has been the best thing we have ever done. We are so incredibly fortunate and forever grateful that we have been given this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience and to have the opportunity to create memories and friendships that will last forever.

Also, off campus this week is the Snowsports team who are representing Pymble at the State Interschools Championships in Perisher. We look forward to celebrating their results next week along with those of our athletes who are competing at the igsa Athletics Championships on Friday. Good luck to all involved.

On campus this week the girls have been busy enjoying the activities of Book Week and Languages week. We appreciate the efforts of Harriet Lewis and Lily Still in helping to create displays in the Conde Library. Well done girls.

Year 9 Pymble Gives Back Service Days

It was wonderful to see Year 9 embrace the activities that formed our Year 9 Pymble Gives Back Service days last week. We are immensely proud of the girl’s involvement in these activities which allow Year 9 to donate 250 nutritious meals to Dignity, along with 50 care packs and homemade granola. This along with preparing 5000 liners or 250 kits for Days for Girls and helping clean up the local streets has helped make a difference in a positive way. Please enjoy the student reflections from each day.

Written by Carrie Wilson

We started the day with banana muffins and fruit for morning tea and talked to some Vision Valley leaders. My group then moved on to painting a range of signs for Vision Valley by the pond while we watched the other groups try and catch carp; I painted a sign for the Echidna Lodge. Next, we moved on to the high ropes course, where we encouraged our peers to climb up the tall ladders and build teamwork skills as we did the crate stacks. This part of the day was my favourite because I listened and watched students cheer on others they had never met. Finishing off the day with a delicious sausage sizzle while sitting and enjoying the breathtaking environment was a highlight. Saying goodbye to our group leaders and resident dog Rusty, we got on the bus and talked about how much we loved the day.

Written by Addison Seeto

On Wednesday, we had an eventful and jam-packed day of fun activities all going to a great cause! It started off with girls getting split up into four random groups, all filled with girls who recently completed their journey to Vision Valley on their long stay. In those groups there were roughly 40-50 girls already to start the day. Activities ranged from helping farmer Dave clean up the Agriculture Plot from all the mess the animals have created, to helping organisations like Dignity whip up some yummy foods to serve people in need. My personal favourite was sewing reusable pads for kids all around the world that could not have easy access to these essential items. As you can tell, this day went perfectly, really tying back to Pymble’s motto of the year Pymble Gives Back.

Written by Olivia Ayton

Our service day focused on partaking in seemingly small yet impactful activities that went towards giving back to our community. The Vision Valley residential students were sorted into groups and were assigned to complete various tasks throughout the day that supported various charities, the environment, the school, and members in our community. Some activities included knitting squares that would be sewn into woolen blankets, cooking and preparing meals for Dignity (a non-profit charity that provides those experiencing poverty), collecting rubbish scattered throughout our school and the neighbourhood, and sewing pads which are unavailable to young women across the world. Despite how some found these tasks laborious or lengthy, this invaluable experience allowed us to help those who are experiencing unimaginable hardships, whilst reminding ourselves of how we haven’t properly realised how fortunate we are. These activities allowed us to understand how the efforts of one person (or an entire year level) can leave a positive impact on our community.

Year 10 Mums and Daughters Day at Vision Valley

Year 10 students and their mothers will be given the opportunity to visit our Vision Valley campus for the the inaugural Year 10 Mother and Daughter Day on Sunday 8 October. A core part of the Outdoor Education program at Pymble, the pristine grounds of Vision Valley offer the perfect environment for a day full of light-hearted fun in the great outdoors.

Featuring a full roster of engaging group activities, a luxurious long lunch, an Amazing Race and an informative workshop titled ‘Making Formals a Breeze,’ the day promises to be an unforgettable experience for mothers and daughters alike.

Program

8.30am – Arrival and welcome beverages 

9.30am – Activity session 1 

11.00am – Morning tea 

11.30am – Activity session 2 

1.00pm – Long lunch on the balcony 

2.30pm – Workshop

3.30pm – Activity session 3   

4.30pm – Departure 

Cost: $110 per person

Tickets: Click here to purchase your tickets.

RSVP: Tuesday 19 September 

Convenors: Pamela McPherson (bruceandpam@bigpond.com) and Zoe Green (bzgreen@bigpond.net.au).  

Please see the invitation below for more details.

Notes

– Activities have been chosen to cater for all abilities and are always optional. There will be no extreme activities such as rock climbing, abseiling or mountain biking and activities are suitable for all levels of fitness.   

– A message of inclusion: If it is not possible for a mother to attend, students are welcome to attend the day’s events with another family member without gender restriction. 

– This event is designed to encourage meeting up with old friends and also discovering new ones. If you would like to nominate one or two other families to share the day with, please tell us on your booking form. 

– For Boarding families: This one-day experience is not designed as a residential stay. However, Vision Valley has agreed to make room-only accommodation available for a small fee for the nights before and after for those Boarding families who are travelling prior to the start of term. Owing to the lack of on-site supervision in the evenings, it is a requirement that there are only female attendees and no siblings.  If you are interested in this, please contact the event convenors for further information.

More information, such as what to wear and what will happen in wet weather, will be emailed to participants after numbers are finalised. For more details, please email the event convenors.

Welcome to Book Week 2023 – Read, Grow, Inspire!

Here in the Conde Library, we celebrate books and literature every day but this kicks up a notch during Book Week! Book Week provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all that is wonderful about stories and reading and gives us a pause to consider the enjoyment, enlightenment and wonder these add to our students’ lives, and our own.

So far we have held a staff and student panel discussing books that inspire, staff dress up day with students guessing characters and a second-hand book stall with proceeds going to the Kids’ Cancer Project. Students can also visit the Library to participate in book craft and book-inspired competitions.

We are also thrilled to launch the inaugural House Reading Challenge this year. This competition encourages students to read as many printed and ebook titles as they can for House points. The winning House will win the House Reading Trophy and there will also be individual prizes for students who read the most titles. Students can find out further details from the Conde Library.

Pymble has many enthusiastic readers, both staff and student. However, research tells us that the proportion of people who read books for pleasure is now at the lowest levels recorded. This is a worrying trend and has negative implications, not just for literacy, but for brain development, concentration, wellbeing and emotional intelligence. We have been looking at research on the importance of sustained reading for young people and adults and would like to share this with you in further detail in coming newsletter editions.

For now, we encourage you, your daughters and families to make time for books and reading. We understand that life is busy but the rewards that reading bring are immeasurable. Perhaps you may like to start with the prizewinners from this years Children’s Book Council of Australia awards?

From Ms Tess Zwar (Head of Library and Research Services) and Mrs Mandy Reynolds (Head of English)

From the Upper School Parent Group

Heavenly Pancakes Stall – Garden Party 2023

We are putting the call out to parents and carers who would like to assist with the Heavenly Pancakes Stall at Garden Party 2023. Please click here to register to work at the stall on the day (one-hour slots between 9.00am and 4.00pm), or if you are able, please click here to make a donation that will go towards the stall.