Pembroke’s Golden Anniversary
2024 was a momentous chapter in the Pembroke story marking our 50th Anniversary as a leader in quality, inclusive co-education, alongside the Centenary of our co-founding school King’s College.
Passionate Pembroke, King’s and Girton community members united in strength throughout 2024 to celebrate our past, present and future together.
→ Video: The Story of Us – 50 Years of Pembroke
→ Video: Highlights of 2024 at Pembroke
The year started by recognising the incredible combined achievements of our Class of 2023 across the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) and International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). Highlights included:
As we wished our newest old scholars all the very best for their future endeavours as Pembroke graduates, our attention soon turned to the 2024 school year and readying the campus in earnest for the return of our boarding and day students. Always action-packed as the longest stretch of the school calendar, Term 1 did not disappoint and was in fact in overdrive as we kicked off celebrations for our milestone year.
Our Commencement of Year Ceremony was one of the most significant occasions in the School’s history, celebrating 50 years of Pembroke and 100 years of King’s, our Class of 2023 high achievers and our 2024 student leaders. The event also featured the launch of Pembroke’s Strategic Plan 2030: Together, a visionary document underpinned by our commitment to quality, inclusive learning and caring in a proudly co-educational community. Another launch also generated much excitement with the activation of Pembroke’s dedicated Instagram account aimed at sharing our stories of student success and growth like never before: www.instagram.com/pembroke_school
Pembroke
Magical memories were also shared across a colourful spectrum of events and activities in Term 1, including:
• Our inaugural Pembroke Club Parent Welcome Cocktail Evening featuring delicious food, lawn games and live entertainment led by some exceptionally talented old scholars… Stay tuned for the 2025 event which promises to be just as fabulous!
• Camping adventures galore as our Outdoor Education Program fired up for 2024 with Year 5 explorers leading the way at Willow Creek near Victor Harbor, to our Middle School students converging on Old Watulunga in droves.
• Field Days and a community gathering in the South East marking the start of a full suite of 2024 engagement events around the state, country, and overseas in South East Asia and the UK as we reconnect with community members locally and globally.
• Another Head of the River to be proud of as our Rowing crews demonstrated true Pembroke grit and spirit, claiming a swag of podium finishes and representing the School with distinction.
• Our Senior School students dressed to impress and grateful to be in each other’s fine company at their glittering formal
• Pembroke’s Unreel Film Festival celebrating its 16th year with impressive works by our 2023 students watched on by special guests including award-winning artist, filmmaker and photographer Matthew Thorne (2011) and acclaimed Yankunytjatjara dancer, actor, singer and filmmaker Derik Lynch.
• Healthy House competition at our swimming carnivals where participation and teamwork are always the true winners.
• Our ELC students embarking upon a sustainability drive as they work to shape a hopeful future together.
• The Jazz Cabaret taking Burnside Ballroom by storm as our Big Bands, Ensembles and Jazz Choir performed magnificently with superb support from old scholar Ben Gurton (1992).
• The launch of our 50th Anniversary commemorative book, Stronger Together: 50 Years of Pembroke.
• A landmark Old Scholars’ Week overflowing with events including tours of the Home of Archives, creative workshops, reunion dinners, lawn bowls, the always enjoyable Old Scholars vs Students Debate, and a remarkable night of music and entertainment with cabaret icon and old scholar Michael Griffiths (1991).
• Our beloved Pembroke Pet Show Day providing the ‘purrfect’ finale to a bustling Term 1 celebrating our community’s furry, fluffy and feathered friends!
After a much-needed holiday break for some and holiday adventures for others, batteries were nonetheless recharged for Term 2. While the nine weeks flew by, there were countless moments to savour:
• Pembroke’s three Big Bands and Jazz Combo 1 hitting high notes at the annual Generations in Jazz Festival in Mount Gambier.
• The latest offering in our Pembroke & Parents’ series with a special presentation by acclaimed youth advocates Melinda Tankard Reist and Daniel Principe on raising happy, healthy and resilient young people.
• 2024 Middle School Artists-in-Residence Giuseppe Pappalardo and old scholar Sally Pfitzner (1992) canvassing painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics and more with our Visual Art students.
• Another round of unforgettable experiential learning ranging from our Year 9 Kaurna Camp on Fleurieu Peninsula to our intrepid Year 6 cohort conquering the nation’s capital, and offshore highlights including our epic UK Cricket Tour and our inaugural Campbell Whalley Geographical Expedition to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador.
• The Parents’ and Friends’ Association hosting another sensational Pembroke Mother’s Day Lunch full of spectacular colour, vibrant hospitality and unmissable company at Adelaide Oval.
• Touching scenes during the Pembroke Indigenous Round Yunupingu Cup matches leading into National Reconciliation Week, harnessing the power of sport and togetherness to reflect our deep respect for and connection with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
• Our Year 12 SACE Drama students captivating audiences with powerful performances of Nick Enright’s social drama Blackrock
• More than 150 students rubbing shoulders with almost 70 old scholar and parent mentors at our annual Careers Breakfast.
• Prizes aplenty at the 2024 da Vinci Decathlon including overall 1st place for our Year 7 team, overall 2nd place for our Year 9 entrants and three subject prizes for our Year 5/6 team.
• STEM success as a group of Year 9 and 10 students took out top honours at the hotly contested Science and Engineering Challenge Day.
• Welcoming back our Girton old scholars for their annual lunch including a beautiful rendition of their beloved Girton Hymn sung by our Junior School choir.
In reflecting upon Term 3 at Pembroke, it is in part with a heavy heart given the student behaviour matter that impacted our community. To say it was a challenging period would be an understatement. There is still much healing, learning and work to be done, but the manner in which our community more generally pulled together served as a powerful beacon that has and will continue to light our way forwards.
This includes interventions such as the Pembroke Sport - Gender, Respect and Responsible Behaviour Taskforce and next year’s Respectful Relationships Student Symposium, and we look forward to working in partnership with our families to be part of the solution in shaping change at Pembroke and beyond. While this matter was a troubling time for the School, it bore a silver lining in making us even more grateful for the many positives we enjoy together as a proud community. As such, we give thanks for these and other highlights from Term 3:
• A landmark chapter in the School’s ongoing campus renewal with the opening of the transformed John Moody Centre. This amazing project has given rise to the John Moody Dining Room for boarders and other guests, the King’s Café for Middle School students and staff, and Yellow Submarine Too – a social enterprise café open to the public. It is community-centric to the core, from being supported by the P&F and other generous donors, to its very nature in being a central hub where our community can connect.
• Pembroke’s 50th Anniversary Black Tie Dinner jointly organised by the School, the P&F and the Pembroke Old Scholars Association – a truly sparkling occasion celebrating five decades of strength and unity as a community, as well as those who blazed our trail through King’s and Girton.
• Winter interschool sporting carnivals with Scotch and Westminster, the latter of which we hosted with pride and collegiality.
• Our phenomenal students taking centre stage including many overcoming adversity such as illness for sensational performances of the Year 5 Musical – Shrek JR
• An awe-inspiring Pembroke Music Showcase that left audiences astounded by the talent and teamwork within our marvellous Music Program.
• Our Middle School Art Exhibition once again blowing away our community through its breadth and depth of creative endeavour.
• An extraordinary Addams Family Middle School Musical that left us spooked, spellbound and in stitches!
• Culture and connection on Pembroke’s legendary Marree Trip where students from Years 7 to 10 embarked upon dreamtime discoveries.
• Our Year 6 students on a mission at their exhibition to share their deep learnings within the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP), presenting global issues close to their hearts.
Before we knew it, Term 4 had arrived with its familiar blink-and-you’llmiss-it flourish of annual events and rites of passage, and this by no means is an exhaustive list of highlights:
• Farewelling our Class of 2024 , a remarkable group of young people –diverse in talents, unique in character, humorous yet kind, and generous in their support of one another. It was an honour to witness the Leavers’ Week events including a special Assembly, Chapel Service and Boarders’ Farewell Dinner, culminating in a very moving Valedictory Ceremony and Dinner. We cannot wait to see what lies ahead for this graduating cohort as they find their place in the wider world. We congratulate them and we sincerely thank their teachers and their families for walking alongside them throughout their schooling journey.
• Leavers’ Week also coincided with our annual House Athletics Day for Middle and Senior School students who once again raised the bar not only in their sporting pursuits but also in their electric House spirit.
• Always a family favourite in the calendar, our Junior School Grandfriends’ Day was a delightful occasion as our youngest learners proudly welcomed their grandparents and other treasured figures into their learning environments.
• The precious opportunity to say a special thanks to our teachers and our professional services staff for their tireless commitment to nurturing young hearts and minds as we marked World Teachers’ Day
• More phenomenal Arts events including Spring Fling, Chamber Music Soiree, Year 11-12 SACE/IB Art Exhibition, Year 11 Drama Production, Year 2 Musical and Middle School rock!
• Our youngest athletes showing what they’re made of at the ELC - Year 6 Sports Day where participation and teamwork were once again the name of the game.
• Two truly iconic Pembroke Middle School events in Year 8 Medieval Day and the Year 7 Line Dance.
• The adoption of the new School Constitution by Members of the Association in late November – just one aspect of the School Board’s strategic focus on fostering a best practice governance model to support the emerging needs of the School.
• Uniting in festive cheer and giving thanks as hundreds of families gathered for Carols in the Quad
• Rounding out the school year with a most joyful Year 6 Graduation followed by a pulsating Year 6 Disco, congratulating our Year 10s on completing Middle School at Pembroke, and celebrating high achievers, budding leaders and service-minded individuals at various recognition ceremonies.
• The unveiling of our School Mascot – the Pembroke Phoenix. The idea was proposed by a student who identified the phoenix as embodying the spirit of our School – symbolising strength, immortality and renewal as well as determination, unity and courage. We look forward to seeing the Pembroke Phoenix flying high in 2025!
Our milestone year was a period of reflection, growth and gratitude, and one that galvanised our Motto in that we are indeed stronger together. We take this opportunity to pay tribute to our amazing students, dedicated staff and devoted families for all that you do to uphold the Pembroke legacy. Here’s to the next 50 years and beyond…
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