From the Principal
Leadership announcement week is always a time of great excitement – and a range of other emotions, too. This includes a sense of loss for many of our staff as we acknowledge that our current Year 12 cohort will be leaving very soon. One of the great joys of working in education is getting to know our students as they grow and flourish into young adults, and these goodbyes always feel bittersweet, not to mention a little too soon.
Our current Head Prefects, Emily Abadee and Ang-Ya Koo, along with our Boarding Head Prefects, Sophie Laing and Celeste McDermott, are to be congratulated for being exemplars of our College Values, and for always leading with belonging and inclusion at front of mind. A huge thank you to the entire Executive Prefects team and non-executive Prefects for upholding your roles with Care, Courage, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility – not to mention a great deal of passion and energy. You have certainly Come Alive in 2025.
Now it’s time to celebrate our incoming leaders for 2025/2026. Congratulations to:
- Head Prefects Grace Beck and Jenny Xu
- Boarding Head Prefects Rose Kirkby and Phoebe Roberts
You have earned these positions for being who you are and how you show up each day, and we have every confidence you will make your own marks on the College when we officially handover leadership to you in Term 3.
Holding space for each other
In this week’s announcement assembly, I shared the above photo with the girls to put the range of emotions associated with leadership roles into perspective. It was taken one weekend when I was flying home and just descending into the Ballina Byron Airport. The sunshine, rivers, light clouds and gloomy clouds struck me as the perfect metaphor for life.
Sometimes, when everything is going right for you, it feels like you are basking in warm sunshine – but that’s just one part of life’s landscape. There are also times when you feel like you are wading through a river, only to find, when you get out from the other side, that there is still more water ahead to get through. On some days, we might be up in the light and bright clouds, and we can see that sunshine is within reach. On others, we might feel bogged down in the weight of the grey.
What I respect most about our Pymble family is how we rally around one another through the good times and the struggles. It’s the one thing that always makes me feel incredibly proud of being a member of this amazing community.
Recognising that this week’s announcements are cause for celebration for some and disappointment for others, I encourage all our students to hold space for one other in your thoughts, words and actions. Leadership is not just about a badge. It’s about what you give to others, how you’re available for them, and how you influence, care for, and positively impact on their lives. We all have the capacity to find that space, no matter where we are on our own personal journey.
