From the Junior School
From the Head of Junior School
Celebrating our Dads!
We are excited to welcome dads, stepdads, uncles, grandpas and father figures to our Junior School tomorrow morning for their belated Father’s Day breakfast and play session. The girls always love seeing family members at school and we’re grateful that so many of you are able to come along. As a working parent myself (although my children are now young adults) I appreciate how tricky it is to change work schedules, and how often it’s just not possible, so thank you to those of you who have managed to juggle schedules to come and spend time at school during the day.
Windows into Learning
This week we’ve enjoyed Windows into Learning for Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 3. It’s wonderful to see so many parents at these learning opportunities and on behalf of the teaching team, I thank you for your willingness to get involved in the learning alongside your daughter. I am sure you will agree that your girls are deeply engaged with their learning and so willing to have a go, embrace challenges and share their thinking.
Learning about Leadership
Our Year 5 girls explored aspects of leadership last week with their Spring into Leadership workshop. Building their understanding of the qualities of a positive and strong leader, the girls worked collaboratively to brainstorm and plan initiatives they would like to lead next year aligned with our College values. I hope many of them are now inspired to nominate themselves for leadership portfolios next year. Whilst not all girls can be given a specific leadership portfolio, we work hard to create leadership opportunities throughout the year for all girls who are keen.
What was particularly impressive was the way all the girls’ ideas centred around wanting to interact with the College values to bring more energy to the way we live our values every day. I’m already excited for the initiatives I will be able to help them bring to life next year. Some of their ideas include:
- Courage jars for each class with challenges to encourage girls to step outside their comfort zone and try something new.
- A fortnightly courage newsletter containing challenges and stories of examples where girls have shown courage in their learning.
- A Junior School wellbeing diary to encourage each girl to show more care and kindness to herself.
- Each girl being given responsibility for a seed to plant and grow throughout the year, developing her sense of responsibility by connecting with nature.
- Ivy the integrity bunny who could be hidden around the Junior School with the finder receiving a small message.
- A poem about respect that all the Junior School girls could learn to heighten awareness for the need for respect within our community.
Social action in the community
Yesterday Mrs Bird and I had the privilege of attending the 2024 Junior Social Action Expo at The King’s School with our 2024 Kindness Leaders Safina Burgess, Melody Chen, Ria Iyer and Chloe Morrison together with Candice Li, Evie Cho, Jasmine Smith and Ellie Rose Ruiz del Portal Greene. The girls shared their kindness leadership and service journey and learnt from other schools about the initiatives they have led to advocate for positive change. There was a powerful buzz of energy as these young change makers came together and shared their determination to change the world.
Kindness Champion of the week
This week I want to give a well deserved shout out to Arianna Lee who has been giving her time to support an environmental initiative at Flat Rock Gully where a project group are working to grow food for sick, injured and orphaned native animals. The activity is free, and Arianna’s parents advise that there is an engaging educational talk about snakes and owls on offer too. Please click here if you are interested in more information.
A message from Dan Brown, Head of STEM K-6
Robotics
Five Pymble teams competed at Knox Grammar School last week with 6510U Velocity winning the Design Award, an award for a team’s robot design, capability and documentation. 6510U also finished second in the tournament component of the competition. Another Pymble team 6510V 24 Quackers finished third.
All teams who competed are to be congratulated on their ‘have-a-go’ approach and having a robot completed so early in the season. These budding engineers have worked very hard for this year’s competition. This exciting challenge encourages students to work as a team to design, build, and program robots capable of completing a series of dynamic tasks, which focus this year on collecting a ball and shooting them into different height targets. The competition tests not only the girls’ technical skills but also their collaboration, strategy and problem-solving abilities.
We look forward to seeing how this successful start develops as the season progresses.
A message from Stephen Robinson – Deputy Head of Junior School – Operations
OSHC Registrations
Please note that ALL Junior School students need to be registered at OSHC (through the Kidsoft Website) in order to enrol in new or additional co-curricular offerings, including swimming and tennis. If your daughter is not registered with OSHC she will not be able to be enrolled in any co-curricular activities from Term 4 2024.
Water bottles
With the temperature increasing, a reminder to ensure you daughter has a water bottle with her at school. Water bottle filling stations and water bubblers are available throughout the Junior School.
A message from Mrs Lara Bird – Deputy Head of Junior School – Academic
Speech and Drama
The Eisteddfod season has ended but what remains are the memories of the 88 solo performances given by Junior School girls in the Ryde and Sydney Eisteddfods. They gained valuable experience by preparing creative, meaningful performances and by developing their talent and skill in collaborative ways with their peers. Miss Pip Dracakis and Mrs Victoria Clancy congratulate each and every performer.
Ryde Eisteddfod recent results
Poetry Performance
Cecilia Zhang (Year 6) – 1st Place
Ria Iyer (Year 5) – 2nd Place
Selena Rezaei (Year 3) – 2nd Place
Kaymi Madugalle Wijeratne (Year 3) – 3rd Place
Misaki Nakakjoli (Year 6) – Highly Commended
Prose Speaking
Hailey Zhang (Year 4) – 1st Place
Chloe Zhang (Year 4) – 2nd Place
Charmaine Li (Year 4) – 3rd Place
Tanvi Raniga (Year 6) – Highly Commended
Talented performers
Year 4: Rachel Shi, Olivia Yu, Adela Wu and Olivia Guo
Year 6: Katelyn Hsu and Alice Wu
Thank you to Mrs Victoria Clancy, Speech and Drama Instructor for preparing the girls for the competition.
Wellbeing Weekly – Kate Giles, Head of Wellbeing K-6
Next term we will be holding our final two sessions in our Wellbeing Series for the year. The first will be a session for Years 5 and 6 parents on technology and AI in preparation for Middle School held on 17 October and the second will be for Kindergarten to Year 6 parents on supporting your daughter with anxiety and change on 31 October. Both sessions will be held in the 3-6 Library at 8.45am and a sign-up form will be shared shortly.
As we prepare for 2025, I would love some feedback regarding these sessions and any other sessions you would like to see as a part of the series. Please use this link to provide your feedback.
Get your tickets for Seussical – The Musical
“Oh, the thinks you can think” when Dr. Seuss’ best-loved characters collide and cavort in an unforgettable musical caper!
I hope you are excited for the upcoming Year 6 production of Seussical – The Musical. Please note that tickets are on sale via the GMCPA Box Office. Click here to purchase your tickets.
Performance Dates: Thursday 19 and Friday 20 September commencing at 7.00pm.
Ticket Price: $22
Confirming the production will run for approximately two hours (with a 20-minute interval).
We look forward to seeing you at the theatre!
Junior School Digital News
From the Junior School Parent Group (JSPG)
Garden Party – Saturday 21 September
Year 3 Ping Pong Bounce & Lollipop Stall
Year 3 Families, the Garden Party is fast approaching! Here is the sign up sheet for volunteers to help on the stall on the day. It’s an easy, fun stall to run! We would greatly appreciate your help.
An enormous thank you to everyone who has already donated money to help us buy prizes to the stall!! If anyone would like to donate there is still time to donate here. We’ll close off the link next week. Any small amount helps. We will use all the money to buy prizes; all funds from the stall go to the school’s Garden Party charities.
Years 5 & 6 Lucky Prize Stall
Year 5 and 6 Families, please assist us at the Garden Party by either donating prizes, making a donation to allow us to purchase prizes for the stall or volunteering your time on the stall. Please contact your parent Year Coordinators with any questions. Thank you in advance for your donations and support.
You can donate via our GroupTogether here and / or sign up to volunteer on the stall here.
Cake Stall
You can help in two ways by:
- Baking delicious cakes, biscuits, slices and treats for sale.
- Assisting on the stall during the day.
The cakes and baked goods can be dropped off at the stall in the foyer of the Gillian Moore Centre for Performing Arts (GMCPA) on the day of the Garden Party from 7.30am.
We also need volunteers to work on the stall and sell the delicious treats throughout the day. If you can help at the stall for an hour, please register here.
Thank you as always for your support.
Please contact us with any questions at pymblelcjspg@gmail.com
- JSPG Movie Night – Saturday 19 October
Please save the date for the JSPG Movie Night, rescheduled after the wet weather in April. More details to come via MyPymble soon.
Thank you as always for your support.
Please contact us with any questions at pymblelcjspg@gmail.com
Term 3 2024 Key Dates – Weeks 7 and 8
Friday 6 September Father’s Day Barbecue Breakfast 7.00am to 8.15am
Friday 6 September Kindergarten Outdoor Education Program
Friday 6 September IPSHA Debating (Queenwood)
Saturday 6 September IPSHA Saturday Sport
Monday 9 September Year 5 OEP Group 1 – Vision Valley
Tuesday 10 September Year 5 OEP Group 1 – Vision Valley
Wednesday 11 September Year 5 OEP Group 1 return from Vision Valley
Wednesday 11 September Year 5 OEP Group 2 – Vision Valley
Wednesday 11 September Parent Event: Sleep 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Thursday 12 September Year 5 OEP Group 2 – Vision Valley
Friday 13 September Year 5 OEP Group 2 return from Vision Valley
Friday 13 September Year 5 Public Speaking Competition at Ravenswood
Saturday 14 September IPSHA Saturday Sport
Kate Brown
Head of Junior School