Community Week at Pymble
Pymble’s inaugural Community Week was celebrated from the middle of Week 4 to the end of Week 5, with workshops and events put on throughout the week by our team of wonderful prefects. The purpose of this week was to encourage and showcase our sense of unity, diversity and connection as a community.
We aimed for students to understand Pymble as a place outside of the microcosm of learning. We are extremely fortunate to be a part of this fantastic community which fosters opportunities to make life-long friendships, try new things, and challenge personal comfort zones.
Through promoting the spirit of 2024’s Pymble Pulse and the theme ‘Hear Us Roar’ we engaged with the concepts such as the ‘Circle of Community’ and ‘Jungle of Community’ to emphasise Pymble’s relationship with family circles, friendship circles, teacher circles and the wider community. We are extremely proud of the leadership, friendship and sense of community which was displayed throughout the week.
Yarning Circle Plant-Out
To begin our first Community Week, Carrie and I collaborated as Outdoor Education and Environment Prefects to run a lunchtime activity on 22 May, that allowed students to connect outside and get their hands dirty at the same time. We chose to freshen up the Pymble Yarning Circle which opened in 2022 as we noticed it needed some TLC.
Yarning Circles are traditionally used as a place to talk, discuss and share ideas without judgement and they have been used for thousands of years by the Indigenous Australians. Our Yarning Circle is located behind Avonmoore and is in the shape of an emu. The emu holds cultural and spiritual significance for Indigenous communities, where it has been an integral part of their cultural practices and beliefs for thousands of years. In many Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, the emu features prominantly as a powerful and spiritual creature, often associated with creation, life, and the land.
A group of around 30 student volunteers helped plant some native grasses, weed and remove leaf litter using rakes, spades and gloves. The gardeners helped out and educated us about proper techniques of planting and the importance of removing grubs as they are very harmful to plants.
Some of our First Nations girls also attended, starting the activity with an Acknowledgement of Country and discussing the importance of the space. Overall this was a big success and we are looking forward to continuing this type of activity in the future creating a Bush Regeneration Club which will meet monthly to continue to care for our beautiful grounds.
We also hope to further extend this into the wider community outside of Pymble. We encourage you to get involved, and invite your friends to the Bushcare group mailing list on this form. We are thinking to have a plant out towards the end of June.
Written by Anna Ward (Environment Prefect) and Carrie Luo (Outdoor Education Prefect)
Intercultural PAC
On Friday to celebrate Intercultural Day as part of community week, the intercultural committee put together the intercultural PAC, to promote the cultural diversity existing around the College. We had five cultural performances, celebrating the diverse cultures ranging from Chinese, Indian and French!
The performance began with Alice playing a chinese instrumental piece called butterfly lovers on the violin, followed by a group of three students Jessica, Jacqueline and Cynthia singing Jia Bin, a chinese song. Anarghya followed with singing an Indian song titled Agar Tum Saath Ho (If you’re with me), followed by another group of three students Jess, Maddy and Emily who sang an adapted version of the French song C’est Soirées Là. The performances ended with Nicole playing a Chinese song, Silver Cloud Chase the moon on the piano.
Written by Chloe Kim (Intercultural Prefect)
Minute to Win It Competition
On Monday, we had the teacher and student Minute to Win it competition. It involved a group of student and teacher contestants battling out some simple challenges in the amphitheatre in aims to connect the students and teachers better. It was entertaining, but also a little challenging to keep everyone engaged in the audience. We had audience members do some commentating to keep the energy high.
Next time, it would be better to do activities that involved more people or were more silly. The crowd’s favourite activity to watch was the peg shake, especially Mr Routledge taking it all out to try and shake the pegs off! Thank you to the teachers for giving their time to participate and to everyone who watched and supported.
Written by Carrie Luo (Outdoor Education Prefect) and Yu Zhou (Executive Community Prefect)
Pulse Poster Making
This year’s theme of Pymble Pulse is about encouraging students to support each other, through an infectious pulse of energy and spirit. On Thursday we celebrated with a small group of girls and made some posters which were displayed in the Kate Mason Building to remind people to share the love at this time through assessments and as Year 12 looks to trials.
Written by Charlotte Wykes (Executive Community Prefect)
PenPal Initiative Lauch
On Tuesday, we had a Penpal initiative activity, where a group of students wrote letters to some people at an aged care home.
Written by Georgia Bicego (Service Prefect)
