From the Upper School

A message from Mrs Victoria Harrison, Head of Upper School

As we approach the end of term, students are busy completing their assessments. This is when it can become apparent if your daughter’s homework and study habits are working effectively. Students in Year 9 and 10 receive an explicit study lesson once a term during Mind Body Spirt. The focus of these lessons for Term 1 and 2 are listed below.

	Term 1	Term 2
Year 9	Engaging in Active Study methods rather than Passive Study. E.g. Study that requires active recall such as flash cards, teaching a friend, brain dumps, mind maps and practice questions.	Time Management – Students learnt different ways to use their diaries so they are effective at planning out their study time. E.g. The use of Active To-Do lists and creating a weekly schedule.
Year 10	The importance of monotasking rather than multitasking. When you multitask, you are really just task switching which is less efficient. Students can set a timer, remove distractions and complete one task at a time.	Spaced Repetition – breaking study into smaller chunks and revising regularly so that concepts can have time to move into students’ long-term memory. Engaging in Active Study methods rather than Passive Study. E.g. Study that requires active recall such as flash cards, teaching a friend, brain dumps, mind maps and practice questions

The girls also have access to great resources thorough the Study Skills Handbook. If you think your daughter needs help with time management or improving her study habits, please encourage them to check in with their Compass teacher. You can also find helpful tips on Reach Out.

Subject Selection

It is exciting for our Year 10s to have started their subject selection process. It was wonderful to see and hear the buzz of excitement at the recent student sessions led by the Curriculum team and teachers. We hope that Wednesday night’s parent information session was helpful and started great conversations at home about your daughter’s senior subjects. I encourage students and families to explore the well resourced Pymble subject selection website as they consider their future and subjects choices, due at the end of Week 3 Term 3.

Student Achievements

Congratulations to Eloise Stewart (Year 9) who has been selected to represent the NSW All Schools AFL team at the School Sport Australia AFL Championships on the Gold Coast from Friday 26 July until Saturday 3 August. We wish Eloise the very best in preparing for and competing in this event.

It has been a busy few weeks for Athletics and Cross Country competitors. Well done to those Upper School students who competed in the Pymble Championship Athletics Carnival this week at Homebush. Congratulations to Ellie Pointon, Harriet Murphy, Indianna Vale, Layla Abdel-Mageed and Grace Beck who represented Pymble and igsa at CIS Cross Country last week.

This week Zara Cooke of Year 10 has departed for Turkey to represent Australia in the World Aquatics Women’s U16 Water Polo Championships. We wish Zara the very best for her final training camp and the tournament.

Another straightforward way that families can support women and girls is to buy some undies over the weekend to donate as part of our support for Days for Girls. The undies are included in the menstruation kits for women around the world; a small gesture that makes an enormous difference. Thank you in advance for your support of this great initiative.

Key Dates

Tuesday June 25 Secondary School Ensemble Concert

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