From the Principal
Our Year 12 students are currently receiving early offers to study university courses of their choice – how exciting! To date, Pymble students have reported offers from Australian National University, Macquarie University, University of Wollongong, University of Tasmania, La Trobe University and Charles Sturt University, with many more likely to follow. Last year, 86 per cent of our 2022 cohort received at least one early offer before they sat for their first HSC examination.
The value of an early offer is different for each student but, in summary, reflects the sum of their achievements prior to receiving an ATAR, including Stage 6 results, leadership roles, volunteer work, and other successes achieved prior to the HSC exams. This year, top universities such as the University of NSW started accepting portfolio work as additional documentation to support a students’ application for early entry. Another great reason for all students to keep those Pymble Passports current and well-maintained!
It is an exciting time for our soon-to-be graduates and their families as future pathways start to take shape and the realities of the end of schooling draw nearer. Our Futures department, led by Mrs Kim Maksimovic and supported by Futures Advisors, Katrina O’Kelly and Fiona D’Souza, walk this journey with our students, constantly supporting and guiding. Of course, students and parents in all year groups are always welcome to contact our Futures team for support with any advice required to make decisions about careers, pathways and next steps.
Building partnerships for real-world learning
For our younger students, exciting partnership opportunities are emerging to help them to discover their own future pathways. Careers education starts in the early years at Pymble. We love that our parents get on board in the Junior School and support the JS Careers Festival by coming along and showcasing their area of work, as well as volunteering as guest speakers in the Secondary School.
Partnerships at Pymble take shape when initiatives are developed in collaboration with individuals and organisations to provide innovative and immersive experiences for students to deepen their learning. These initiatives aim to expose students to industry sectors that are underrepresented by women – one of the many ways we hope to inspire our students to ‘change the world’ and increase diversity and equity within workplaces.
In his role as GBE Partnerships Lead, Mr Liam Hume, with the support of the GBE department, has worked closely with the Futures team to pave career development pathways for students. These include our partnership with Celestino, which provides students with authentic learning opportunities and stepping stones to STEM-related fields. So far, more than 400 Pymble students have participated and we look forward to seeing many more students be inspired by this real-world learning experience in the future.
Another exciting partnership is about to launch with the Women in TESLA Work Experience program. A first of its kind in Australia, this pilot program is being introduced next week, with our first set of students venturing on a week-long work experience program hosted at the TESLA offices at North Sydney, Chatswood and Alexandria.
The learning and research from this partnership will help Pymble continue to work with TESLA to design a scalable work experience program in 2024. It is hoped this program will be expanded and offered to girls from other schools in the next phase and become a key initiative of the Women in TESLA initiative to engage more young women in STEM.
Another key area of our focus is the construction industry. Careers in the construction industry are booming, and it is predicted that 300,000 more construction workers will be needed across Australia over the next decade. However, women currently only make up 13 per cent of the construction workforce.
As we continue our Master Plan works, our girls are involved in every step of the construction process on site, from donning hard hats to being involved in the Junior School administration building, supervising the concrete pour, learning from our Project Director – Master Planning, Greg Hastie, and travelling into the city to the offices of our architects to discuss building plans.
In the Secondary School, Pymble continues to champion Women in Construction and Engineering as a career development pathway. We currently have 30 students from Years 9 to 11 enrolled in a six-month work experience program with a global construction firm.
We will continue to capitalise on the construction of world-class facilities that is taking place at our College during the next five years to develop hands-on learning sites for students to visit and to deliver mentoring sessions, interactive workshops, panel discussions and more.
Of course, working in the construction industry is not all about hard hats and safety boots, and our aim is to provide students with a holistic view of the industry that includes architecture, engineering and project management. We are partnering with a leading engineering firm to offer a week-long intensive work experience placement which will involve visiting five areas within the company, collaborating with the staff to research and solve a complex problem, and pitching the results to the senior leadership team.
There are many other exciting initiatives in the pipeline, which we look forward to sharing as details are confirmed. In the meantime, we invite members of our Pymble community to reach out to our Director of Futures and Partnerships, Mrs Kim Maksimovic, to start a conversation about potential partnerships with the College – these could be work experience programs, internship hosts, guest presenters, mock interviewers, graduate pipelines or any other opportunities you can dream of to help our girls identify and build pathways to their future workplaces and careers.
Say hello to our HOLAs
All of this talk of STEM pathways neatly segues to our HOLA of the Week, Mrs Catrina Kerr, Head of Learning Area – Mathematics.
Mrs Kerr started at Pymble in February 2001 as a casual relief teacher before being employed on a full-time basis in 2002. She took on the HOLA role in 2018, and teaches Mathematics at all levels, lately with a special focus on Stage 6 Calculus courses.
Catrina, what was the ‘aha’ moment that led you into teaching?
“I am not sure I had one of those. I always liked working with children. I was a Guide Leader and did quite a bit of volunteer work with disabled children when I was young.”
What is the most rewarding aspect of the work you do here?
“I love watching students thrive. When this happens and I know that I have played even a small part in this, it gives me such a sense of accomplishment.”
What are you most proud of achieving as a Pymble HOLA?
“Leading a cohesive team that has a high degree of diversity, a brilliant sense of fun, and a keen sense of professionalism and care for their students, and each other, often makes me feel very proud.”
Work aside, tell us a fun fact about you…
I was once the lead story in Column 8 in the Sydney Morning Herald for having fostered the first flying fox baby of the season. I called him Lord Sebastian Flight, because I thought this was funny.
Finish this sentence: If I could impart one life lesson to our students, it would be…
“Carpe diem. Whilst it may not seem so at the time, life really is short. Don’t be afraid to try things – it doesn’t matter what, just whatever gives you joy.”
Mrs Kerr is pictured below, in full SpongeBob SquarePants costume, as requested by her table of students at the recent Year 12 Trivia Night. The costume took her three days to make and is currently being used as a toy by her cats!
