From the Principal
It’s been a highly rewarding few days for our da Vinci Decathlon competitors in Years 5 to 11 and for Jenny Xu, Year 11, who took out second place at the Inaugural Dame Enid Muriel Lyons AD, GBE Oratory Competition at the Sydney Opera House last night. This competition is open to all students from girls’ schools in NSW and the 10 grand finalists had 15 minutes to prepare and then deliver an eight-minute speech – not an easy feat!
The da Vinci Decathlon on the other hand was first established in 2002 as a local competition to celebrate the strengths of academically gifted students and has since evolved into a hotly contested national event with more than 12,000 students from Years 5 to 11 participating. All Pymble teams performed above and beyond our high expectations, with Year 8 placing first among 77 schools in the state and progressing through to the national finals in June; well done, girls!
At Pymble, we support existing academic challenges such as da Vinci Decathlon and engage in new ones like the Oratory Competition, in addition to continually monitoring global shifts, trends and the latest research to identify the emerging skills required to equip our students for success in our rapidly changing world. This evaluation often leads to the introduction of new courses and refinements to existing ones.
It is my pleasure to introduce you to a suite of exciting new future-focussed learning opportunities for Pymble students in 2025 and 2026.
Four new Secondary subjects…
- Last year we were officially registered as a Cambridge School, which means we can offer any of the 70 International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) courses for Secondary students. Our first Cambridge IGCSE course is Mathematics for Year 10 which began in Term 1 with Mr Eugene Jung. IGCSE courses are globally recognised (and highly respected) high school qualifications, which offer an established pathway to the international universities many of our students aspire to attend.
- Global Perspectives will be our second IGCSE course, commencing in 2026. Offered as a two-year elective starting in Year 9, the course encourages learners to think about and explore solutions to significant global issues from different perspectives. Students will work collaboratively and individually to develop transferable skills in research, analysis, evaluation and communication as they are tasked with constructing arguments, presenting views and reflecting on their place in a connected world.
- In line with our strategic intent to encourage more young women into STEM fields, including Construction and Engineering, this year saw the introduction of Engineering Studies as a 2-unit HSC course for students in Years 11 and 12 with Dr Glen McCarthy.
- In 2026, we will be launching a Biotechnology elective for Years 9 and 10. Dr Kim Bunny and Mrs Akenese Sargent are collaborating with the Centre for Curriculum Redesign in Boston to create this course, which will appeal to students interested in learning about and addressing global challenges in healthcare, agriculture and the environment.
…and a new Junior School diploma!
Our Junior School leadership team is currently working on the launch of our new Dream Diploma in partnership with Cambridge. Open to students in Years 5 and 6, the two-year diploma will commence in 2026 and challenge participants to:
DARE to seek out challenge and hold themselves accountable for their learning journey.
REACH as high as they can and push themselves out of their comfort zone.
EXPERIENCE a range of activities which are new, exciting or sometimes scary.
ADVOCATE for things that matter to them and take steps to be a change maker.
MASTER new skills by working tenaciously on goals they set for themselves.
Working towards a series of micro-credentials and academic outcomes, students will learn to set and achieve effective goals and develop skills that are transferable between their learning experiences at school, home and life in general. Very exciting indeed!
Signing off in great anticipation about how these new opportunities will be received by our future-focused learners and their families. In the meantime, please enjoy this glimpse into the da Vinci Decathlon from some of the students involved.
