From the Junior School

From the Head of Junior School

On Monday, Mrs Nerissa Davey led our Spring into Leadership day for our Year 5 girls so they could gain an insight into leading our Junior School next year and start reflecting on the strengths they bring and the specific areas they want to lead.

As a College grounded in our values, we asked our girls to consider which value resonates most deeply with them and how they would like to see this value displayed in our Junior school. Some of the amazing examples they came up with on the day include:

Courage: asking questions, having a go, not giving up, making new friends and standing up for others

Respect: listening to each other, being kind, treating everyone equally and not judging one another

Responsibility: being reliable, being a positive role model and making sensible choices

Care: looking after after ourselves and our friends so we can be our best selves and being kind to the environment we see and use

Integrity: being honest, doing the right thing, being your best self, setting a good example and standing up for what you believe in.

Tian Xue – I discovered that not all leaders are loud or outspoken, and some are quiet and shy. Throughout our activities, I felt relaxed and calm with my peers around me.

Chloe Morrison – I really enjoyed learning about what LEADER stands for. I will endeavour to practise good leadership attributes to becoming a good leader in the future, starting with courage.

Diya Dhanpal – The activities included group discussions, team-building exercises, and problem-solving tasks that helped us to develop our leadership skills. We had a fantastic time and learnt a lot from the experience.

Lily Zhang – Spring into Leadership was a truly one-of-a-kind experience that, with the voices of our three Junior School leaders, Mrs Brown, Mrs Davey, and Mrs Bird, who unveiled the mechanics of leadership and unified Year 5.

Indie Leon-Searle – Spring into Leadership showed me how to apply effective leadership and sportsmanship qualities by treating all my peers equally as friends. I learned ways to demonstrate our school values. For example, we learned how to be courageous by standing up for others in situations where our peers don’t have a voice or are experiencing hardship. The program also inspired me to want to be a school leader.

Mandy Zhou – on the day I learnt that a good leader knows how to communicate with other people, and are respected by their peers.

Leadership opportunities for 2024

In the coming weeks, our Year 5 girls will have the opportunity to apply for one of these leadership opportunities for 2024:

Kindness Captains – 4 positions

House Captains – 4 positions per House

Student Representative Council Captains– 4 positions

STEM Captains – 4 positions

Sustainability Captains – 4 positions

Chapel Captains – 4 positions; 2 per semester

More information on the leadership process will come next week.

Year 4 at Webb’s Creek

This week the first group of our intrepid Year 4 girls are enjoying their Outdoor Education program in Webb’s Creek. The girls have explored the area and had the opportunity to participate in abseiling, canoeing, campfire cooking, an obstacle course, frisbee golf and an ecology walk.

Languages Day

This week all our Kindergarten to Year 6 girls enjoyed celebrating the culture of Italy and France as part of our Languages Day. We had Years 3 and 4 learning about Degas and ballet, Years 5 and 6 learning about Marcel Marceau and his power of mime ultimately creating their own mask. Year 4 also became architects and engineers designing and making their own Eiffel Tower. Our K-2 girls explored the story of Pinocchio and engineered a boat for Pinocchio. They also learnt about harlequins and how they got their colourful costumes. As the sun shone all day the girls also enjoyed the appetising delights of a sorbet or gelato, practicing their French as they chose their flavour. Congratulazioni and félicitations to our teachers for such a wonderful celebration of culture and language

A message from Nerissa Davey – Deputy Head of Junior School – Operations

This term our girls continue to share in various service activities. These activities have allowed the girls to share their time, creativity and gifts with others. Mrs Alise Engelen has been instrumental in giving our Year 5 girls the opportunity to become pen pals

Our College has partnered with East Meru Community School (EMCS) in Tanzania for many years, and this year, the students at EMCS sought an opportunity to connect with our Junior School girls. Eager to improve their writing skills, 61 Year 5 and 6 students at EMCS each wrote a letter, and our Year 5 girls eagerly responded with a personal, engaging and thoughtful reply over the July School holidays, and have also spent time at lunch creating cards and bracelets to send back to the students at EMCS.

The letters and gifts are now all packed up in envelopes, ready to make the journey to Tanzania with our Year 11 girls in September who will distribute them to the students at EMCS. 7 of our beautiful plush Heidi Hedgehogs have also been gifted to the 7 classes at EMCS as a little piece of our Community of Kindness to be enjoyed by the students. Our Year 5 girls are to be commended for volunteering to be part of this exciting opportunity and for the time and effort they have put in to connecting with a student at EMCS. They can look forward to receiving a reply letter in Term 4!

Let’s Get Creative Day – Thursday 16 November

At our Arts Festival day we will be creating a market place for our girls in Year 3-6 to sell items they have created. All proceeds from the sale of their items will go to the College charities – Wayside Chapel, Dignity and The Smith Family. There has been a lot of interest from the girls and as such a sign up form has been created for expressions of interest. This form will close on the last day of term – Friday 22 September.

Academic Learning Discussions – Monday 18 September

A portal notice has been sent out to K-6 parents 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.

Kindness Message for the week – from our Kindness Captains; Jessamy Facer and Amna Syed

You may stop to stop to smell the roses but please pick up the rubbish as well!

Kindness Poem by Batool Rangwala (3K)

Kindness.

Kindness is in our heart. Kindness is everywhere too.

Some people don’t know they have kindness in their heart. So, you should be the one who sprouts the kindness in them .Kindness grows bigger and bigger every day when you spread it.

Kindness. Change the world to a kinder place.

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.

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

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 only enter ONCE as either a soloist or as part of a small group.

Please see updated information and links on how to enter on MyPymble.

Around the Grounds

Lost Property

All K-6 lost property has been relocated to the K-2 Upper PA Room. Items on display have no clear name and could not be returned to the individual student. Please assist us in reducing the quantity of lost property in our Junior School by labelling all clothing, lunch boxes, umbrella and alike clearly.

Year 4 Family Camp at Vision Valley – Registrations open tomorrow!

Year 4 Parents and their daughters are invited to attend the PPA Family Camp at Vision Valley on Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 October 2023.

This camp is open to one or both parents and their Year 4 daughter only (other siblings are not permitted to attend).

Parents will have the opportunity to meet other families and spend quality time with their daughters camping in the great outdoors at our beautiful bushland campus.

Places are limited and all parents must provide a valid WWCC to Vision Valley prior to attending.

Bookings open tomorrow morning at 6.00am. Click here to book.