Return to Campus Booklet - Term 3 2023

Term 3!

Dear girls and families, welcome back to Pymble for Term 3.

Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quote is a fitting mantra for the halfway point of the school year, which, in turn, is a great place for our students to stop and reflect. How did the first half of the year go for you? What do you hope to achieve by the end of the year? “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

By now, most families will be familiar with our pre-term e-book. We send this prior to a term starting when there is new or important information students and their carers need to know ahead of the first day back on campus. In Term 3, this includes:

• Key staff news, including the commencement of our new Deputy Principal – Academics (K-12) and Assistant Chaplain. (See page 4.)

• Our campus cafés going cashless, from Tuesday 18 July. This applies to all student, staff and visitor

Welcome to Term 3

purchases from Archies Café and Jacaranda Café. (See page 5.)

• Key dates for Co-curricular commitments, including commencement of classes, Saturday sports, Performing Arts programs and major events. (See page 6.)

• Pymble Gives Back update, including a summary of achievements in Term 2, and an overview of ways our entire College will continue to be of service to others in Term 3. (See page 8.)

• Details of our inaugural Pymble Foundation Ball, which will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023 – but hurry, tickets are limited! (See page opposite.)

Of course, it wouldn’t be a back-to-school e-book without a reminder for all students to uphold our high expectations for wearing correct uniform – this includes hat, natural hair colour (if hair is dyed), hair tied back neatly, and the absence of all make-up, nail polish, false eyelashes and jewellery

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

other than one stud in each earlobe. We appreciate your support and partnership in maintaining our high standards in everything we do and how we show up each day at the College.

I’m excited about the Semester ahead of us, and hope our students are, too. To quote another legendary Roosevelt, who also happens to be one of my all-time favourite heroes, the human rights advocate, Eleanor Roosevelt, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

I believe we will have a wonderful second half of the year.

Big hugs from

DR KATE HADWEN PRINCIPAL

What’s new in Term 3

WELCOME TO…

Deputy Principal – Academic, Mrs Christine Kenny

Earlier this year, we announced the appointment of Mrs Christine Kenny as our new Deputy Principal – Academic (K-12). We are delighted to officially welcome Mrs Kenny to her new role at Pymble in Term 3. Mrs Kenny joins us from Meriden School in Strathfield where her many achievements include contributing to the development of the school’s Teaching and Learning Framework, improving academic performance in NAPLAN and the HSC, developing external partnerships with universities and industry to support student learning, and introducing the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) in Stage 5.

Mrs Kenny is excited by the opportunity to contribute to the existing culture of academic excellence at the College and we are excited to welcome her to our Pymble family.

Assistant Chaplain Michaela Antill-Cassie

Please also join us in welcoming Michaela Antill-Cassie, who will be supporting Reverend Punam Bent and Assistant Chaplain, Mrs Edwina O’Brien, for the rest of this year in their Chaplaincy work. Michaela is a licensed Pastor of the Uniting Church, with 15 years of ministry experience at Roseville UCA, and we are thrilled to have her on board from Term 3.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

The Junior School Administration Building will be completed during Term 3, with the proposed relocation of Junior School staff to take place in the Term 3 break. We will keep you advised of relevant staff and office relocations.

Work associated with the Grey House Precinct is programmed to commence towards the end of Term 3, starting with site fencing and preparatory work, and followed by excavation works commencing in the Term 4 break.

COVID-19 MANAGEMENT

All School Offices will be issued with Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits at the start of Term 3. Students are welcome to request a kit if required, but please note supplies are limited.

We remind all parents to keep children at home if unwell, administer a RAT if necessary and follow the usual absentee procedures. Students can return to school once they are free of acute symptoms.

WEARING WINTER UNIFORM WITH PRIDE

Thank you to the many students and families who worked hard to uphold our high expectations regarding uniforms in Term 2. We will continue to monitor correct uniform wearing in Term 3 and remind Secondary students that, should standards slip, the same consequences apply as per Term 2:

• Students will be issued with a Tuesday detention for incorrect uniform.

• Jewellery will be confiscated by teachers and kept in the relevant School Office until the end of term. A second infringement will result in the student being issued with a Tuesday detention.

• For security and Work, Health and Safety purposes, school bags must be stored in allocated lockers during the day. Should a student take her bag to class, a detention will be issued, unless the bag is necessary for a practical PDHPE lesson.

• A student who has received three detentions will then be issued an end-of-term Friday detention, and a parent meeting will take place prior to the end of term to discuss what might be causing the reccurrence of this behaviour and what support is required moving forward.

Please refer to your school diary for full details of the correct uniform:

• Secondary Student Diary – pages 28 and 29

• Junior Student Diary – pages 32 and 33.

Our on-campus cafés go cashless

While the College Uniform Shop is closed during the school holidays, our online College Uniform Shop is open all year round. Uniform orders made online during the Winter holidays can be collected from the College Uniform Shop on Monday 17 July

TRAVELLING AND PARKING SAFELY

At the beginning of the year, all parents received the Pymble Traffic Safety Brochure outlining the rules of parking and traffic management within the College and its surrounds.

Before the commencement of Term 3, we ask that you take a moment to re-read the brochure and refamiliarise yourselves (and your daughter if she is a driver) with these rules.

Please note: student P-plate and learner drivers are not allowed to drive on roadways within the College at any time.

Does your daughter catch the Pymble Bus?

Please click here for an important safety update from CDC Charter, Pymble’s coach service provider. This update will also be emailed to all families who use this service.

In Term 3, Archie’s Café and the Jacaranda Café will move to a cashless payment system to cater to the evolving needs of students and parents. This shift reflects the growing trend towards digital transactions and provides a more convenient and secure payment experience for all.

Students in Years 5 to 12 will be able to make purchases using their student ID cards (which can be topped up via Flexischools) or personal debit cards. Students will be able to check the balance of their accounts at Archie’s.

For Kindergarten to Year 4 students, the normal process of placing Flexischool orders on the Flexischool app before 8.00am each day remains the same.

Please note that due to nationwide food price increases, our food and beverage supplier Chartwells has made some minimal price increases to a number of items in our food outlets and Flexischool orders. The updated menu for the College’s food outlets has been uploaded to the MyPymble parent portal and the Flexischools app.

Co-curricular Sports, activities and Performing Arts

KEY DATES FOR CO-CURRICULAR IN TERM 3

Term 3 co-curricular classes will commence on the first day of Term 3, Tuesday 18 July, and finish on the last day of term, Friday 22 September.

Please remember to make your daughter’s Term 4 Saturday sport selections before the registration system closes on Friday 4 August at midday. Click here to make your selections

Registrations for Term 4 programs and Term 1 2024 Saturday sports will open at midday on Wednesday 6 September.

Term 3 Saturday sport commences on Saturday 22 July and concludes on Saturday 16 September. The Saturday sports running in Term 3 are:

• Secondary School: Hockey, Netball and Rugby Sevens.

• Junior School: Touch Football and AFL.

Please note the dates of major co-curricular events in Term 3:

JULY Sport

CIS Basketball Champion School Play Offs

NSW All Schools Cross Country Championships

Performing Arts

Ryde Eisteddfod – Dance and Drama

Sydney Eisteddfod – Dance

Archdale Debating

Winter MUN Conference

Wednesday 19 July

Friday 21 July

AUGUST

Sport

IGSA Track and Field Championships

IPSHA Athletics Championships

NSW Interschool Snowsport Championships

Performing Arts

Pymble Devise-Off – Drama

Music Scholars Concert

IGSA Choral Festival – Music

Ryde Eisteddfod – Drama

Hills Dance Spectacular – Dance

DanceLife Unite – Dance

Year 7 and 8 Co-curricular Drama Showcase ‘Roshambo’

SEPTEMBER

Performing Arts

Ballet Production – Dance

Macquarie Debating Cup

Year 6 Musical Performances

Australian Dance Festival – Dance

Elective Music Night

Saturday 22 and Saturday 29

July (drama only)

Sunday 30 July

Tuesday 25 July, Tuesday 1

August

Friday 28 July

Thursday 24 and Friday 25

August

Wednesday 30 August

Monday 21 to Friday 25

August

Tuesday 15 August

Wednesday 16 August

Sunday 13 August

Saturday 26 August

Sunday 27 August

Sunday 27 August

Wednesday 30 August

Friday 1 and Saturday 2

September

Monday 4 September

Thursday 14 and Friday 15

September

Friday 15 and Saturday 16

September

Tuesday 19 September

From the Community Engagement team

UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS

Friday 21 July 2023 Cultural Festival – Dragon Boat Dinner

Wednesday 26 July Build-a-Bear (Kindergarten to Year 3)

Friday 28 July TASFest

Friday 4 August Jeans for Genes Sausage Sizzle (Kindergarten to Year 6)

Saturday 5 August Parent Daughter Dance (Kindergarten to Year 2)

Saturday 19 August Parent Daughter Dance (Years 3 to 5)

Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 August Dads and Daughters Camp (Year 6)

Friday 1 September Father’s Day Celebration

Friday 8 September Let’s Get Creative Festival

Saturday 16 September Garden Party

Thursday 21 September Year 12 Speech Day Year 12 Final Assembly Year 12 Final Chapel Service and Morning Tea Year 12 Valedictory Dinner

Sunday 8 October Year 10 Mothers and Daughters Lunch at Vision Valley

Saturday 14 October Pymble Foundation Ball

COMMUNICATIONS FROM PYMBLE

A reminder that the main source of information for our community is the MyPymble app which holds current notifications as well as the College calendar, the weekly e-newsletter and your daughter’s learning information. Check the tabs at the bottom of the app for the primary functions.

THE PYMBLE MENTOR GROUP

We are delighted to announce the Pymble Mentor Group, through which members of our community are invited to support our most recent Pymble graduates as they make their way in the working world.

Pymble Mentor Group and 2024 Networking Event

The Pymble Mentors will attend our Alumni Networking event to share their own experience, answer questions and demonstrate the importance of networking and the strength of the Pymble community.

For more information on how you can take part in this initiative, please click here. Thank you for considering how you can give back to others by supporting our Pymble graduates through their career journeys.

2023 PYMBLE GIVES BACK COOKBOOK

As part of the College’s Pymble Gives Back initiative, the 2023 Food Technology captains are creating a cookbook of recipes from the Pymble community, with all proceeds donated to Dignity. Dignity is one of the three chosen Pymble Gives Back not-forprofit charities for 2023.

A sample of the finished cookbook, The Pymble Pantry, will be available for viewing at TASFest on Friday 28 July. Preorders can be made on the night for those keen to secure their own copy of this limited edition publication.

If you have any questions about Pymble Gives Back, please contact:

JUNIOR SCHOOL

Mrs Nerissa Davey, ndavey@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au

SECONDARY SCHOOL

Mrs Michelle Hunt, mhunt@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au

A warm thank you for continuing to give back

At the end of Term 2, our three collection bins were overflowing with donated clothing, shoes, towels and books, thanks to the generosity of our Pymble family.

The Salvation Army was grateful to collect 150 bags of items sorted by our wonderful student volunteers. Thank you to all who have supported Pymble Gives Back to date. This truly has been a whole-school collaboration, which we look forward to continuing in the second half of the year.

WINTER CLOTHING APPEAL IN TERM 3!

As we move into the second half of a cold winter, the Salvation Army and Wayside Chapel still have need for donations of the following items to help support their clients:

• blankets

• warm winter clothing

- hoodies

- jumpers

- skivvies

- jeans

- tracksuits.

*We thank you in advance for ensuring all pre-loved clothing and blankets are washed and in good condition before placing them in our Pymble Gives Back bins in Term 3.

Pymble Gives Back in the Junior School

GREAT WORK IN TERM 2

Our Junior School girls continue to lead with kindness and, as part of their Term 2 focus on Kindness to Others, they achieved an outstanding 3,800 acts of service in their homes and local communities. These included making their beds, unpacking the dishwasher at home without being asked, picking up rubbish around the College campus and in their local parks, building bee hotels and encouraging others in their families to find ways to be of service.

Led by our Term 2 Kindness Captains, students devoted two lunchtimes to design and write kindness cards to send to refugees around the world, raising an impressive $8200 through the Bezos Foundation to support aid agencies working with global refugees. Throughout the term, students also wrote personal journals, reflecting on their feelings as they completed their chosen service, and building an understanding of the joy of being of service to others.

On 14 June, all Junior School girls and staff immersed themselves in a day of service and kindness activities, including planting sunflowers for the elderly residents at Uniting Bowden Brae Gardens, making button art cards for people in hospital, writing and illustrating their own stories as part of the UpSchool global literacy project, knitting squares for the charity Wrap with Love and sewing felt hearts as part of the 1000 Hearts project to support mental health in young people.

Our Junior School Kindness Captains also hosted our second Children’s Kindness Convention, bringing together 102 Year 5 students from 19 schools across Greater Sydney to brainstorm ways to raise awareness and find possible solutions for social and environmental problems in our world.

Pymble Gives Back in the Junior School

COMING UP IN TERM 3

Our Term 3 focus is on Kindness to the Environment and, through our weekly assemblies and Compass lessons, the girls will focus on four facts:

1. I can reduce, reuse and recycle.

2. I can bring nude food to school.

3. I can pick up litter.

4. I can use less water.

One of our Year 5 students, Maddie Burns, has worked hard to raise money to fund the purchase of a worm farm for our Years 5 and 6 playground area to enhance our capacity to compost food waste. Our Sustainability Captains have been working with our College caterers to find ways to reduce food waste across the Junior School by reducing portion sizes for our youngest students and continuing to look at ways we can have a greater focus on nude food across our school.

Our Semester 2 STEM Captains, Olivia Chan and Sophia Wong, are continuing the Return and Earn initiative led by our Semester 1 Sustainability Captains, Charlotte Pang and Georgia Friedel. Our goal is to earn money on our plastic recyclables and apply that money to fund a charitable project such as the Solar Buddy project

A group of Year 3 children who are passionate environmentalists are working with our Head of Junior School to plant more flowers around the Junior School to attract and protect our essential pollinators.

A group of Year 5 students will continue to partner with children with learning disabilities at St Lucy’s School, Wahroonga, to teach them basic robotics skills through shared play.

A group of Year 6 students will continue to visit elderly residents with dementia at Uniting Bowden Brae Gardens and share stories, music and a collaborative art project with these residents. Whilst an act of extended service, our girls are clearly getting as much joy out of this experience as they are giving to these elders in our community.

During Term 3, our Junior School Librarians will be leading the Great Book Swap donation to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation where the girls will swap a favourite book in exchange for a gold coin.

Our Junior School teachers have been busy rummaging through their wardrobes in preparation for a teachers’ clothing swap early in Term 3 to encourage recycling and to help reduce the amount of landfill waste of textiles in Australia.

Pymble Gives Back in the Secondary School

GREAT WORK IN TERM 2

We are proud of our Secondary students who chose to be involved in a range of initiatives in Term 2 with a focus on: women’s health, the environment, international communities, and First Nations communities.

The girls organised and contributed to several successful events, activities, donations and fundraisers, including:

• Year 11 Red Shield Appeal – $1770

• Syria and Turkey Earthquake gozleme lunch – $1500

• Tanzania tour: face painting and hair braiding, GBE milk shakes – $1500

• House Bake Sale (Days for Girls and The Barbara May Foundation) – $1100

• Mother’s Day Morning Tea supporting Wayside Chapel and Costumes for Cancer – $4830

It has been wonderful to see our students embracing the Pymble Gives Back continuum and their recommended hours of service, which they have been recording on their Record of Attendance.

Middle School

GREAT WORK IN TERM 2

During Term 2, students in Years 7 and 8 continued their participation in Compass Clean Ups, which involve two Compass groups per week dedicating a portion of Compass time on Monday to cleaning the College. These sessions will continue into Semester 2.

Middle School students also met twice each week to create Happy Boxes of felt animals, origami hearts and cranes, cards and handmade scrunchies for First Nations girls in remote communities. A competition was held to create a range of designs to print on tote bags, which will be sold, along with excess scrunchies, to fund postage of our Happy Boxes

COMING UP IN TERM 3

The Happy Box initiative will continue into Semester 2 with the addition of sessions to create felt hearts and woven macrame items.

Students will then pack Happy Boxes with their handmade gifts and purchased sanitary essentials and send these off to First Nations communities. So far, we have had more than 70 students attending sessions at one time. The girls’ support and passion for this service initiative has been outstanding.

Upper School

GREAT WORK IN TERM 2

Upper School students engaged in a range of service opportunities both on campus, at Vision Valley and in individual capacity as part of their Duke of Edinburgh commitments.

In Term 1, Year 9 students relaunched our Big Sister, Little Sister program with the Junior School. This involved a group of 20 Upper School students visiting the Kindergarten students each lunchtime to organise and play games, including skipping, tip and Jenga, or to play with the girls in the sandpit and mud kitchens. It has been a great way to help the girls build positive connections across the school, and the time given by Year 9 has been warmly received by our Kindy girls.

Lunchtime sessions were held each week for the girls to create reusable menstruation products to support Days for Girls in tackling period poverty. To complement this project, Years 9 and 10 students have also been donating underpants, which will be packaged along with the menstrual products on our upcoming Year 10 Pymble Gives Back days in Term 4.

COMING UP IN TERM 3

In Term 3, we will continue these projects along with giving the girls the opportunity to learn to knit and/ or crochet to create blankets to donate to the Hamlin Fistula Foundation We are hopeful that this exposure to a range of service opportunities will help the students identify ways that they can give back to the community in their own time.

Our Year 9 Pymble Gives Back Day will be held in early August. The girls will cook meals for Dignity in the TAS kitchens and also complete environmental service in Sheldon Forest and the streets surrounding Pymble

Senior School

GREAT WORK IN TERM 2

Our Senior School students engaged in a variety of fundraising and service opportunities throughout Term 2, with notable mentions including:

• Annual Year 12 Trivia Night. The night is run as a fundraiser for Taldumande Youth Services, a notfor-profit organisation that supports vulnerable and homeless children and young people aged 12 to 24 years, and their families. Funds raised: $2100

• Year 11 Bake Sale for Red Shield Appeal. The Red Shield Appeal began with our Year 11 Boarders collecting funds at Pymble Station and was followed by a bake sale. Funds raised: $1770

• KNIT-IN for Wrap With Love. While we held our annual KNIT-IN in Week 9, Seniors will continue knitting until the end of Week 8 in Term 3.

• Team Tanzania (16 x Year 11 students and three staff) continued to meet weekly to plan fundraising for East Meru Community School, The School of St Jude and Maternity Africa Kivulini, three of the places we will visit in Arusha, Tanzania. Students from the School of St Jude wrote letters to our Year 5 students and they are looking forward to receiving their replies in Term 3.

COMING UP IN TERM 3

Term 3 is a very busy academic term for our Seniors who are sitting for HSC trial examinations and End of Preliminary examinations, but we will still have opportunities for service, including:

• Wrap With Love to reach our target of 1000 squares. We are well on our way!

• Sony Camp fundraising and training will begin in preparation for participants from both Pymble and Shore. Sony Camp provides a fun camp for 25 schoolaged children ranging from Years 2 and above, who have a physical, mental or developmental disability.

• Our students on the Tanzania Tour will continue to raise awareness and fundraise until Term 4.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TANZANIA

If you are interested to learn more about the organisations we are supporting during the Tanzania Service Tour, we recommend:

• The School That Hope Built: The Inspirational Australian Woman Using Education to Fight Poverty in Africa, by Madeleine Kelly

• A Doctor in Africa, by Dr Andrew Browning (who will be visiting the College in July to speak during Chapel).

Contacts

More contact details can be found online at pymblelc.nsw.edu.au, in your 2023 Student Diary and in the 2023 Parent Handbook.

ABSENTEE PROTOCOL

Absentees can be submitted via MyPymble or by calling the relevant School Office, listed above.