From the Upper School
A message from Victoria Harrison, Head of Upper School
And just like that, another year wraps up! It’s been a whirlwind year in Upper School, and we’re incredibly proud of how Year 9 and 10 have embraced the opportunities awaiting them in 2024. From diverse learning and co-curricular activities at Pymble, Vision Valley, across Sydney, interstate and even internationally, our outstanding students have kept busy. As the festive season approaches, please encourage your daughters to genuinely unwind, spend quality time with family and friends and recharge for the year ahead.
We warmly wish our Year 10s the very best as they embark on new adventures and challenges in the Senior School. Like proud parents, we’ll be cheering them on from afar and look forward to their visits. Meanwhile, our Year 9s are stepping up as stewards of the Upper School. We’re eager to see them grow into the remarkable leaders we know they will become, as we all continue to grow and learn from our experiences.
A sincere thank you to all Upper School families for entrusting your daughters to our care. We often remind our students that being a parent is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Navigating Year 9 and Year 10 can be challenging as students mature, form new friendships, explore new subjects, and question the world around them. We know that learning from mistakes is part of the process. Thank you for partnering with us to support your daughter during this crucial period of growing up.
All the fabulous activities the girls participate in wouldn’t be possible without our wonderful Upper School team. Thank you to Mrs. Sally Seymour, Mrs. Sabine Watts, and Mrs. Anthea Deschamps for managing the administrative details behind the scenes and for the genuine care you show to the girls every day. A sincere thank you to the Heads of Year 9 and 10, Mr. Peter Fathers, Mrs. Stephanie Attley, Mrs. Felicity Gray, and Ms. Myvanwy Carr, for their dedication and support in guiding our students throughout the past year. Their commitment has significantly impacted our students’ lives.
Have a happy, safe, and relaxing summer holiday.
Student Reflections
Year 10 Future You Festival – Written by Yuyin Luo
“Futures week has been a fantastic opportunity to immerse ourselves in different industries and look at life after Pymble.” – Ayana Chandra
On day one of the three-day event, we began with an inspirational visit from Vithyaa Thavapalan who shared how she took charge in her career journey through creating two way give and take partnerships (instead of give or take) and showing initiative in creating opportunities to learn in the industry. Monika Huang took away “always put yourself in a position where luck will hit you.”
We also further extended our knowledge on our personal Clifton Strengths, which we found out from a quiz last year, by looking into the flip side of our strengths. For example, as someone who has positivity as one of my strengths, I need to remember to touch base with reality when I am in my happy bubble of denial. We also took part in two workshops of our choosing out of Balancing the Busyness, Authentically You: Building Your Personal Brand, Preparing for the Perfect Interview, The Science of Wellbeing: Understanding Happiness, Moving Up the Ladder: From Junior to Senior Roles, Developing Your Portfolio: Work and Overseas Experiences and Using AI effectively when promoting yourself in applications. These provided us with tips and knowledge for our future aspirations, such as learning negotiation strategies that gives you an “that’s right” response.
The next day we continued with a visit from Samantha D’souza who showed us how keeping an open mind led her to a robust and non-linear career pathway. Sasha Chan “really liked learning how each individual speaker detailed the importance of how their career came about through diversifying and keeping open-minded to new opportunities.” Drawing upon how Samantha transferred her skills across various industries/workplaces, used our career cluster results to explore how we can use the skills of our cluster in any industry. We also had career conversations in small rotating groups to give us a wider insight into the variety and pathways of careers. Then, we ended off with either yoga, pilates, pickleball, zumba or breathwork to refresh for a while after taking in a day’s worth of words.
On day three we began with our “first Senior School assembly” which introduced us to exciting opportunities to look forward to such as GAP, prefect positions, Sony Camp and the Knox-Pymble connections group. Then we moved to the three industry workshops such as To Aviation and Beyond…A Communication Story (UNSW), Are you thinking about being an Entrepreneur? (UTS) and Power, Rights, and Rules: Exploring Australian Constitutional Law in the 21st Century (Macquarie University), which we chose out of 20 options. One of the workshops I chose was Fashion Design and Illustration, which taught me techniques designers use to convey textures such as denim, lace and gathers. Then, we celebrated the end of the Future You Festival with a barbecue, gelato and our final Year 10 assembly of the year.
Overall, Stella Boyle loved, “exploring different career pathways, hearing from people with experience. I also loved learning about my personality and strengths when it comes to the workplace.” Oldina Xia’s key takeaway in one word was “passion!”
Year 10 Outdoor Education Program
Murramarang – Written by Jaidy Samuelsson
In Term 4, Week 6, I went on Pymble’s Outdoor Education Progam (OEP) to Murramarang, a national park on the South Coast of NSW. Throughout the five-day program, we travelled and explored many spectacular beaches like Pretty Beach, Pebbly Beach, and Depot Beach – to name only a few. Each beach was individual in its own way and breathtaking every time. Moreover, we had beautiful views on our bus trips and picture-worthy sunrises and sunsets from our campsites.
Our camp groups were mixed up, allowing us to make new connections and friendships with others we hadn’t created a strong bond with before the OEP. One challenge we had was our 13-kilometre hike from Merry to Depot Beach, which took five hours as we had to wait for the high tide to recede.
During the hike, we had to apply our teamwork by motivating one another and ensuring we were all safe and happy. A memorable time for me would be snorkelling. Snorkelling beforehand was an activity that most girls and I were nervous about, as were some of the staff like Mrs Gray, our Head of Year. We overcame our fears and left our comfort zone to swim in the sea. While snorkelling, we saw manta rays and fish. After the OEP, I feel more appreciative of the natural world and I am glad I’ve created new friendships, as I immersed myself in the many activities, I now know I enjoy.
Snowy River – Written by Sofia Altorf
On the 16 November, 30 Year 10 girls, including me, set off on an early morning bus ride to Victoria for an unforgettable adventure in the Snowy River. After a long day of travel, we finally arrived at our accommodation for the night. We were about to go to bed, but then the night took an unexpected and hilarious turn when a bat flew into our room.
Although it was terrifying at the time, it quickly turned into laughter by the next morning. After the bat encounter, we all went to bed and woke up bright and early to get onto the river. We met our camp instructors and split into groups of three. After getting a safety debrief and a tutorial on how to pack the raft with our gear we got straight onto the river.
I was pretty nervous to get onto the water but as soon as I did all my fears went away. The first day had gone by so quickly, we were all pumped with energy. We had paddled over 20 kilometres and had gone down lots of rapids and got absolutely soaked. We were nearing the end of the first day and our instructor had yelled “get left,” and Emma, one of my friends in the raft, had been very eager about getting left and had accidentally pushed me out of the raft. This was one of my funniest memories from camp because we couldn’t stop laughing about it.
All the days had their differences, some had lots of rapids, and it was easy to paddle and some days it was just 27 kilometres of flat paddling, these were the days where our teamwork really took over and we had to make sure we were staying positive. With the beautiful scenery like the gorges and mountains it made it all worth our while.
After returning from this trip, I didn’t think I would miss it, but if I was given the opportunity to go again I would, because the scenery and friendship that came from this camp was like nothing you could get from day-to-day life.
Namadji – Written by Addison Seeto
On the 16th of November, 50 Pymble girls and I set off on our long-awaited adventure to hike across the Victorian High country for nine days! We started the journey off at Vision Valley where we prepared and planned with our hiking groups all that was to come. Then we hopped on a bus for a nine-hour bus ride to Victoria where we either got off at Harrietville Caravan Park or Mountain Creek campsite.
This was where things started to get exciting! We began hiking throughout the Victorian Alpine. We climbed the top two tallest mountains in Victoria, Mount Bogong and Mount Feathertop, pushed through cold river crossings, scalded the sides of mountains on the Razorback trail and definitely encountered some crazy wildlife. My favourite moment was the unforgettable views as we climbed the summit of Mount Feathertop during sunset.
One of my highlights was definitely on the last kilometre of the entire hike. My hiking group and I linked arms and skipped our way down the hill before taking off our 18-kilogram hiking bags and safely jumping into the river. Through all the splashes of water and laughter floating around in the air, I reflected back on all the friendships created, memories made, and challenges conquered by everyone on the Namadji program. Even though the hills might have felt long in the moment and sleeping in a tent may not be my cup of tea, I can with my whole heart say I loved every moment of the 2024 Namadji camp.
Blue Mountains – Written by Phoebe Wyndham
It was a damp morning where everyone hiked up to the train station with their luggage, taking a train to Western Sydney. There, another train was boarded to the Blue Mountains, stopping at Katoomba.
In Katoomba, the winds were cold, but the sun was warm, as we met some of the camp guides, one being Greg, who ran our experience. Once our luggage was left at the main building, we took mini vans to an acknowledgement of country, where Uncle Dave told us about the land we were on and his connection through it. Uncle Dave worked to restore the land to its original state, and to become a place for people to reconnect.
We followed on making our way into an introduction to abseiling. Starting with only a few metres in height, to a fifteen-metre drop, to a thirty-metre drop. My heart was in my throat, as the mountains swooped below.
Later, we found our way to the campground to set up. It was clean and organised, surrounded by gum trees, a field of flowers sat nearby, and was accompanied by two goats to keep snakes away. Cicadas made our ears bleed, however towards the end of the camp I believe we all became quite numb to it.
Over the next few days, we completed various activities such as rock climbing up cliff faces, abseiling down waterfalls dressed in wetsuits that would descend into Serendipity Canyon. These canyons were beautiful in the sense you were surrounded with grand sandstone walls, covered with emerald moss and ferns. The waters in which we swam through filled with small creatures, every now and then, receiving a beam of light from the opening of the canyon above.
We completed bush walks that allowed us to trace the edges of mountains over the valley, and down into clear waterfalls, running with icy water.
The final day, everybody completed a course around Boars Head, abseiling through cracks in mountains and scaling the edges of cliffs, this activity being much enjoyed by many students, followed by a night nobody will forget.
In our final night we abseiled into a canyon in the darker evening, and as the final light slipped away from the walls of the canyon, head torches were turned on – we followed through in the dark, over the rocks, slipping over logs and swimming in deep dark water. When our torches were off, and all were quiet, little phosphorescent lights appeared, as the blue glowworms speckled the walls in a starry beauty. The walk out in heavy wetsuits and tired legs, was worth the effort, as more glowworms followed. Like a walk through the stars, surrounded by a million little lights.
With our thanks and our farewells to the camp guides the next morning, we returned to Pymble the next day, with new connections to each other, memories and a camp we will never forget.
Jacaranda Awards
The following students received a Jacaranda Award for Term 4 in Year 10.
Scarlett McCormick – Bennett A
Zara Cooke – Bennett B
Abigail McKinnon – Goodlet A
Amelia Brandon – Goodlet B
Sophie Lin – Hammond A
Anais McDonald – Hammond B
Naomi Cheng – Ingleholme A
Jadyn Wong – Ingleholme B
Jenny Xu – Lang A
May Zhang – Lang B
Matilda Schmidt – Marden A
Summer Phillips – Marden B
Helen Huang – Thomas A
Amy Wang – Thomas B
Charlotte Tidemann – Wylie A
Soraya Catchpole – Wylie B
Important Dates for Term 1 2025
Thursday 29 January – New students Year 7 to 11 Orientation Day
Friday 30 January – First day of Term 1
Sunday 2 February – Year 9 Residential Program Term 1 begins
Victoria Harrison
Head of Upper School