From the Upper School
A message from Victoria Harrison, Head of Upper School
It has been fantastic to welcome our Year 9 students back on campus this week following the conclusion of their Term 3 Residential Program at Vision Valley. Despite a very wet program, the girls embraced the challenges, grew through the experience and finished their time away with a meaningful, student-led Honouring Ceremony last Friday.
We hope that this week’s reintegration workshop has further supported the girls in their transition back to school as they settle into life after the Year 9 Residential Program.
Service at Vision Valley – Pymble and St Edmund’s College
Thank you to Annabelle Sutton and Lulu Li (Year 9) for providing this reflection.
At Vision Valley, the Term 3 girls worked hard to prepare for a day visit from St Edmund’s College, a Year 5-12 school for students with a wide range of disabilities. The Pymble girls were excited and nervous as this would be a new experience. Prior to the day, all the girls were allocated jobs such as leading activities, being buddies, making lunch and running icebreaker games. We also spent time making social stories, which used simple instructions paired with images to explain parts of the day. The aim of these was to help the students feel more comfortable in the new environment. On the day, all the St Edmund’s students participated in activities such as crate stack, sugar glider and archery. After the activities, the girls organised a BBQ lunch for everyone. During lunch, the St Edmund’s students started playing a game of football with the Pymble girls which helped everyone connect with each other. Overall, it was a great day for everyone!
Year10 2026 Leadership Applications
We wanted parents to be aware that the launch of leadership for Year 10 2026 has been presented to our current Year 9 cohort. Any students who would like to be considered for a Year 10 leadership position for next year will be invited to submit a hand-written application during MBS on Friday, 29 August. Following a workshop on resume-writing earlier this week, students are asked to upload a CV onto the VC by Monday 1 September in addition to their application.
RYDA Excursion
Each year we support our Year 10 students by providing a workshop with RYDA – a Road Safety organisation which provides the tools and understanding young drivers need to see themselves as active, responsible road citizens.
Below is a reflection by Year 10 student, Meredith Au, on this important program.
This Wednesday, Year 10 attended the RYDA Excursion at the Quay Centre and Cricket Centre in Homebush. As many in our year are about to obtain their learner licences to drive, we participated in a number of activities and information sessions to better understand the dangers on the road and how to mitigate risk of injury. Each session was run by a variety of presenters, including driving instructors, the school police officer and a car crash survivor. I found the presentations very informative on key ways to avoid injuries and accidents on the road while being a driver or passenger. The Crash Investigator Session run by Fiona, the crash survivor, stood out to me the most. It covered different aspects which could affect the outcome of a crash (including the people, vehicle and the road) and how investigators look at these to work out how crashes occur. As Fiona described her story about her crash and how it affected her life and family, I began to truly understand how disregarding such small, yet important safety features can risk life. All in our year appreciated her kindness in sharing her terrible experiences in hopes of reducing the number of crashes that occur each year.
Overall, I found the excursion very informative and the sessions provided useful strategies and small things we could do to reduce risk of accidents.
To further support their learning from the day, RYDA has provided access to a range of resources for our girls to review their learning. The online program includes seven specially designed lessons covering seatbelts, fatigue, alcohol/ drugs and medications, distractions and speeding. To access these resources, parents and students can click here: https://rse.org.au/dashboard/?invite=d67fa96cdc1d754fb50b23f0a6e3d741
Tobias Madden – Author Visit for Year 10 last Friday
Reflection by Audrey Lin (Year 10)
On Friday, the Year 10 cohort had the privilege of hearing from Tobias Madden, an award-winning Australian author, talk about his journey of turning his passion for writing into a career. We learnt about his journey of transitioning from a theatre actor to an author and how we should never give up even after facing initial rejections as there are many other opportunities we can create ourselves as long as we are resilient. Tobias also offered many valuable insights into the publishing industry and what a book’s publishing journey is like, which is something most of us learnt for the first time. Overall, Tobias’ talk provided us with writing tips, experience in the publishing industry and how dreams are achievable if you never give up.
After the talk, Tobias hosted a writing workshop where he offered more tips and insights into creative writing. Activities were prepared for us which allowed us to practice what we learnt and made the whole session extremely fun and interactive. We learnt the importance of writing about what we know and love and how to extend our imaginations from our experiences which would be the foundation for a novel or a piece of creative writing. At the end, we were also able to ask specific questions about writing and his tips about being an author. This session was extremely helpful in terms of improving our writing skills and how to start an exciting and complex idea from our everyday life experiences, making writing seem a lot less intimidating and more enjoyable.
UNICEF Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) 2025
Last week, we were very proud to see Imogen Kee (Year 10) organise and run a student-led UNICEF Local Conference of Youth at Pymble. Imogen has kindly shared her experience below:
Following my recent trip to Adelaide for the United Nations Youth National Conference, I was deeply inspired by the incredible work UNICEF does to empower young people. Motivated to bring that same sense of purpose and action to our school community, I recently had the privilege of organising and hosting a Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) at Pymble in partnership with UNICEF Australia. The event brought together over 45 passionate Pymble students to connect, collaborate, and have meaningful conversations about the issues that matter most to us, especially climate change. LCOY is a global initiative run under the umbrella of YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the UNFCCC, and aims to gather youth voices into a National Children and Youth Statement, which contributes to the Global Youth Climate Statement presented at the Conference of the parties in Brazil this year. It was a powerful opportunity to elevate youth voices, foster leadership, and inspire positive change within our school and beyond. A special thank you to everyone who was involved!
Student Achievements
We are very proud of all the accomplishments that Year 9 and 10 students achieve each week. Congratulations to the following Upper School students on their recent co-curricular achievements
- State Interschools Snowsport Championships held last week in Perisher. Well done to Allegra Taubenschlag, Auora Zhang, Elizabeth Lien, Elisa Cui, Rebecca Mak, Erika Zhao and Siri Taubenschlag. Best wishes to Allegra and Siri for the Nationals competition later in the season.
- igsa Athletics. Well done to the Pymble Athletics team for their efforts in winning the 100th Igsa Athletics Championships. A huge effort to the Upper School girls who were part of this team. Well done to Anabella Legge-Hughes, Phoebe Pockley, Isabelle Shorter, Heidi Ferriera, Ainsley Alexander, Amalia Bond, Naomi Krajanic, Avie Russell, Bethany Carruthers and Aniela Knight
- Gemma Dixon battled through the cold and muddy conditions to achieve 30th in Australia in the U15 4km race at the Australian Cross Country Championships held in Ballarat last weekend. Congratulations Gemma.
Key Dates for Term 3
Garden Party – Saturday 20 September