From the Principal
Welcome back to Pymble for Term 2. But first, what are you doing for dinner?
Tonight, as part of our Autumn Family Festival, we have several food trucks on campus from 4.30pm until 7.45pm – which means there’s still time for locals to pop down, grab a bite to eat, and enjoy the displays in the gymnasium. This inaugural event is the perfect introduction to our Term 2 focus on Respect in relation to Diversity and Inclusion, specifically leaning into the richness of our culturally diverse community.
Throughout the term, there will be many more opportunities to celebrate and learn about our cultural, religious, neurological and physical differences, our aim of course being to build deeper levels of mutual respect and understanding within our Pymble family. Thank you to all our students, staff and families who have contributed to this event – and others coming up – with such passion and pride in sharing aspects of their lives that make them who they are today. Special thanks to Dr Sarah Loch, Director of our Pymble Institute and the powerhouse behind the festival. I love that Dr Loch is ‘walking the talk’ about cultural diversity and inclusion in many ways, including as a learner of Indian dancing for the past two years. She is a wonderful role model for our girls.
Bringing history to life
Another very special event this week was our annual Anzac Day Ceremony marking the 110th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Many of our students were involved in Tuesday’s assembly to pay our respects to the men and women from Australia and New Zealand who fought and served in wartime, military operations and peacekeeping efforts since WW1. Thank you to our History Captains, Kitty He and Katherine Pan in Year 11, who did a great job reflecting on the significance of Anzac Day and explaining the ceremonial components of this important Australian tradition. Our Cadets represented the armed services and Pymble so respectfully as did Josephine Green (Year 12) with her flawless rendition of the Last Post and Reveille on the bugle.
It was an honour to share the assembly with four very special guests, all Pymble Alumni with deep connections to the College spanning many generations. At 91 years young, Beth Kannegieter (Tierney, 1950) was joined by her daughter Cathy Lisle (Kannegieter, 1976) and granddaughter Anna Lisle-Turner (Lisle, 2005) and watched on fondly by her great-granddaughter Harriet, one of our delightful Year 9 Boarders.
We also had the great joy of meeting Jean Poole-Williamson (Newling, 1940) and her daughter Linda Milne (Poole, 1973). At 102 years young – I know, amazing! – Jean was delighted to have the opportunity to sit with her daughter, front and centre at assembly, and reflect on her time as a student at Pymble and working in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) based at the signal station at Nowra in WWII. Our students showed genuine respect for all our guests and their contribution to our community. They were also amazed to hear one of our former Principals, Ms Dorothy Knox, was a trained air warden certified by the National Emergency Services in 1941 and that our Boarders in 1942 were the first to use the Pymble bomb shelter that still exists under the Colonnade today.
As every teacher will tell you, there’s nothing like bringing history to life for young people. We hope this week’s Anzac Day Ceremony and Autumn Family Festival spark some meaningful conversations around the dinner table about your own family’s history and culture.
Congratulations to our amazing students
We start Term 2 celebrating many great co-curricular achievements of our students during the break. You can read about all the finer details in the co-curricular section of this newsletter, but for now, I’d like to say a huge congratulations to:
- Our Knox-Pymble Swimming team who placed first in both the Multiclass and Age divisions at the 2025 Australian Age Swimming Championships in Brisbane – an outstanding achievement from our team, especially given that the last time we won was in 1988!
- Our Divers who also had great success at the 2025 Australian Age Diving Championships at the Gold Coast, including our Coach, Mr Kurtis Matthews, receiving the award for Emerging Coach of the Year.
- Our Robotics students who competed at the World Robotics Championships in Houston. The scale of this competition is unbelievable, and our girls and their coaches were mesmerising to watch as they coded, repaired, drove, reflected, scouted, strategized and formed alliances with other teams over three days and nights, always giving their best and with their values and Pymble Pride shining through.
- Our Cattle Club who were sensational in action at the Royal Easter Show.
- Our Athletes – and Pymble Alumni – for earning a swag of medals and PBs at the 2025 Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Perth.
- And last but by no means least, Mika Naito in Year 12 and Millie Cullinane in Year 11 who have been selected to represent Australia at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Lithuania later this year. What an incredible way to cap off a great rowing season; well done, girls.
Congratulations to our amazing staff
It is also a great joy – and a sign of my enormous respect – to share some outstanding academic achievements from our awe-inspiring staff, who also dedicate many hours outside of term-time to pursuing their passions with excellence.
Please join me in congratulating:
- History teacher, Dr Joshua McDermott, who was awarded his PhD in 2024 (Doctor of Philosophy – Classics and Ancient History) for his thesis: Praise and Parrhēsia in Hellenistic Court Geography.
- History teacher, Mr Ryan Stewart, who has submitted his thesis to the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, on the topic of First Nations histories in the Central Coast area.
- Reverand Cass Blake, who has submitted her PhD thesis to the University of Theology, Sydney, with the title: Seeking the Father in the Crucified Son, A study on the Trinity and the Atonement through the lens of the Johannine Mutual Indwelling Motif and Temple Symbolism.
- Deputy Head of Upper School, Ms Mariel Lombard, who has submitted her thesis to School of Education, Western Sydney University, with the title: Prevalence and correlates of compassion fatigue among Year Coordinators in Australian secondary schools. It’s wonderful to see the team already referring to Mariel’s work.
Our girls are blessed to have so many teachers who role model the value of life-long learning, and we look forward to celebrating the achievements of other staff at Pymble who are currently part-way through their studies.
For now, please enjoy this insight into the character of our student learners from our Director of the Centre of Excellence, Mrs Debbie Tarrant, who shared this feedback with me earlier this week.
“I just wanted to let you know that Evelyn Zhu, Olivia Xu and Sophia Chang in Year 12 all attended our da Vinci Training Day for the younger students to mark papers.
“I was so impressed that they gave up a day of their holidays to help me and the students in this way.
“Some of them even waited around to spend time with the students, explaining the feedback.
“I was completely ‘blown away’ by their dedication. Some of the papers were lengthy and they spent hours poring over the marking criteria and providing detailed feedback.
“These students all went through da Vinci themselves and clearly understand the honour it is to be selected. They told me they wanted to ‘give back’ to the other students.
“The Yr 11 team (Kiki Chen, Rosa Kim, Katherine Pan, Amber Li, Jenny Xu, Grace Beck, Jessica Xu and Elysia Sun) ran the Training Day, even writing their own da Vinci papers for the occasion!
“They were in the room from 7.45am to 3.30pm with 40-plus students on their last day of holidays!
“It’s such a special thing – da Vinci! I’ve never experienced anything quite like it!
What a wonderful example of compassionate and influential young women. Thank you, girls, for making us all so Pymble Proud.
