Academic Learning Captains’ Report

This year at Pymble Ladies’ College, our goal was to further encourage students to approach Academic Learning with an enthusiastic and open mindset and enhance learning processes and performance alongside students and staff within the school. While the year of 2020 posed many challenges, Academic Learning at Pymble effectively adapted to a changing world to foster a love of learning within all students.

To facilitate a more open approach to Academic Learning this year, we devised the 'New Academic Mindset’, a series of six factors to foster a healthy approach to learning: 1. Strive for your highest – everyone naturally works at different paces, so strive for your personal best 2. Break it down – make a plan and take small steps to get there 3. Support each other – learning is an individual journey as much as it is a collective one 4. Have time for rest, hobbies, friends, family and physical activity 5. It’s about the process, not the performance 6. Be open minded Each facet was workshopped with the Heads of Learning Areas and delivered through Assembly messages. The messages placed an emphasis on the processes of learning to encourage all students, regardless of academic ability, to take a sustainable and productive approach towards learning, and help them to maintain a wellrounded and healthy lifestyle.

This year posed a number of challenges, which prompted many new ideas and solutions within the space of Academic Learning at Pymble. In the interest of the safety of its staff and students, Pymble was one of the first schools in NSW to shift to online learning, with all classes from Kindergarten to Year 12 being taught through Microsoft Teams. Through our online platforms, we were able to maintain the connectedness of the Pymble community, as well as continue engaging students through a variety of individual and group work activities. The massive undertaking was made possible thanks to the immense efforts of our dedicated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) team, who facilitated the seamless transition to Pymble Online.

Amelie Yee and Akina Li, Year 12

In January, a number of staff and students attended the Pymble Academic Staff/Student Workshop at the Novotel Sydney Manly Pacific at which they were prompted to consider ways in which learning will evolve in the future, and devise dynamic solutions to the new challenges and exciting opportunities facilitated by changing technologies. Through engaging with the guest speaker, futurist Michael McQueen, as well as panel discussions and team problem solving activities, students and staff worked together to envision the skills and values they would like to instil in future students and educators. Together, they worked towards a vision of a hypothetical school in 2033, placing a great emphasis on developing self-efficacy within students. The insights gathered from this workshop were applied to the development of the New Academic Mindset, to encompass the range of skills students need in a rapidly changing world.

Big History is an interdisciplinary course developed by Macquarie University, Bill Gates and historian David Christian, offered to Year 10 students at Pymble. It encourages extended thinking through extensive discussion and an examination of the past from the Big Bang to the present day, thus nurturing complex thought and a love of learning within Pymble students.

The purpose of the HPL program at Pymble is to extend learning and critical thinking processes beyond the traditional classroom, through a range of individual and group-oriented activities. The HPL program provides an open environment to nurture girls at all levels of challenge.

The Sokratis program is designed to extend girls’ thinking through independent or group research into an area of personal interest, to produce final projects ranging from research papers, to artworks, to songs. Through a rigorous research and composition process developed alongside a staff mentor, students undertake a Sokratis project to develop their lateral thinking and problem solving skills and learn to approach new challenges. For the first time, Year 11 student mentors were also involved in the Sokratis program, in which they could share their own experiences in the program and help guide their younger peers. In 2020, the final Sokratis Showcase moved to an online format to accommodate social distancing requirements, while further contributing to the students’ digital literacy.

Challenge Café consists of lunchtime clubs open to all girls in Years 7 to 10, where they engage in extensive discussion and project work across a broad range of disciplines. For example, Year 7 studied the Classical Greek epic The Odyssey and developed individual or group projects inspired by the myth, while Years 8 and 9 partook in debate clubs that discussed topics ranging from international politics to ethics and philosophy.

We would like to say a big thank you to our mentor, Mr Raymond, for all his support, encouragement and guidance throughout the year. We really appreciated it! We would also like to extend a thank you to our Principal, Dr Hadwen, and all staff who helped nurture the wonderful learning environment at Pymble Ladies’ College, especially through the challenges posed by the year of 2020.

Amelie Yee and Akina Li, Captains of Academic Learning

Ella Liu, Teresa Sun and Annie Luo, Year 7