From the Upper School

A message from Mrs Victoria Harrison, Head of Upper School

It’s been another busy week at Pymble, with students actively participating in various co-curricular activities and supporting one another. This week, Aria Wallbank reflects on her experience as a Peer Support Leader. Our Year 10 Peer Support Leaders regularly meet with Year 7 Compass groups to build strong relationships, empower students and nurture a sense of belonging.

Peer Support Reflection

This week in peer support our focus was on friendships and how to overcome any friendship issues we may experience while going through high school. We first started by sitting in a big group and played the snowball game. We each wrote down a fun fact about ourselves, scrunched it up and threw it in the middle, we then anonymously picked one out and had to try guess who this fact was about. This activity helped everyone find out more about each other and brought alive some conversation starters for the future.

We then broke off into smaller groups and shared a challenge we may face with friendship issues in the future. Breaking off into smaller groups helped everyone feel more confident as it was a smaller environment, and we were able to share more. As being the Year 10 in one of these groups I was able to reassure the girls that friends will change over time and it’s completely normal to branch off and get to know more people.

Our final activity was a booklet where the students were placed into groups they wouldn’t normally be with, they then had to work together as a team to see which group would win first place. Peer support has been a wonderful experience for me over the past semester because I have been able to connect with girls from other year groups, share experiences of my own that they can relate to and help them navigate through their first year of high school.

Written by Aria Wallbank (Year 10)

Congratulations

Congratulations to the Upper School students who recently participated in the da Vinci Decathlon hosted by Knox Grammar. Our Year 9 team placed second in Code-Breaking and Cartography, and third in Art & Poetry and Ideation. Overall, our Year 9 team came third in the state.

The Year 10 team placed first in Science and Engineering, second in English and Legacy, and third in Codebreaking. Overall, the Year 10 team came first in the state and are the state champions. They will proceed to nationals in the next holidays.

It was wonderful to see the talent on display at the Performing Arts Competition over the last few weeks. Well done to all girls who participated and well done to Emily Mah and Caitlin Kim on achieving third place in the Best of PAC event on Tuesday during MBS.

Ms Mariel Lombard and I had the opportunity to learn more about the passion projects from Year 9 and 10 students involved in the Pymble Institute Student Research Conference. With the theme of “Research for Good” it was insightful to hear about the students’ understanding of topics such as philosophy, aspirations, psychology, human connection, and cultural exchange.

Days for Girls

It has been a real pleasure over the past two terms spending time with many of our girls over lunchtime as they volunteer to take part in our Days for Girls workshops. Days for Girls is a global non-profit organisation which works to eliminate the stigma associated with menstruation for women and girls, and improve health, education and livelihood for women around the world.

Excitingly, in Week 8 of this term (Wednesday 19 June) we are extending the invitation to our Upper School mums, grandmas, aunts and carers to join our lunch time workshop. This is an opportunity to see the work that our girls are doing and spend time with your daughters. Please register your interest if you are available to attend.

Athletics Carnival – Wednesday 29 May

The Secondary School Athletics Carnival will be held on Wednesday 29 May on Main Oval at Pymble. The carnival will begin at 8.15am. Students are required to wear their house sports uniform and are permitted to wear this to and from the College.

The Athletics Carnival is a compulsory school event that aims to promote house spirit and participation. In the event your daughter is unable to participate due to injury, her attendance at the carnival is still expected. We look forward to all Upper School girls being actively involved.

A reminder regarding Leave Applications

Leave is only granted for illness, bereavement, elite sport or work experience. Vacations should be restricted to the prescribed holiday periods. Where possible, leave to attend medical appointments should be minimised. Students are expected to participate in whole-school activities and should avoid making appointments on these occasions.

Applications for special leave should be completed on the ‘Exemption from Attendance’ form found on MyPymble and signed by a parent or carer. Forms are to be sent to the school office as soon as possible or at least fourteen days before the intended leave period.

Year 9 Food Technology Excursion

On Tuesday 14 May Year 9 Food Technology embarked on an excursion to learn more about foods in Australia. We started at Native Food Ways, where we learned about the background of opening an Indigenous bakery and tasted delicious pies and pastries made with bush foods, including a pie with kangaroo meat!

Next, we visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, where we saw and tasted different bush foods, including Kakadu plums straight from the trees. We also learned how Aboriginal people found and used these plants in the past. Overall, I loved spending time with my friends and learning about and tasting delicious Indigenous Australian Bush foods. Thank you to all our teachers for such an amazing day.

Written by Rain To (Year 9)

ySafe Parent Webinar

A reminder that all parents are invited to join online this event on Monday 30 May at 6.30pm to learn how to protect your children in today’s digital world. Please click here to join the webinar.

Key Dates

Wednesday May 29 Year 7 to 12 Pymble Athletics Carnival onsite

Thursday May 30 YSafe Talk to Parents at 6.30pm

Saturday June 1 Indigenous Round of Sport

Wednesday June 5 Year 9 Residential Program Group 3 Parent/Student Info Night

Friday June 7 Boarders’ Travel Day

Monday June 10 King’s Birthday Public Holiday

Wednesday June 12 Year 10 into Year 11 Subject Selection Event (Parents/Students)

Tuesday June 25 Secondary School Ensemble Concert

Friday June 28 Boarders’ Travel Day & last day of Term 2