English

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Cicero

To say this year was unusual might be an understatement! Nonetheless, the girls continued to read and write in various forms, channelling their creativity. Despite the challenges, the English Department was hard at work to ensure every student had the opportunity to explore her love of reading and writing throughout the year.

For the first time, Pymble held a Quarantine Writing Competition, featuring more than 40 entries from girls in Years 7 to 12. Each entrant was asked to write a piece up to 1,500 words on her personal experience in quarantine. Points were awarded based upon creativity, control of language and mastery of form. We received entry upon entry of beautifully written pieces ranging from short stories and poems to diary entries and discursive pieces. Congratulations to the winning entrants! We were also incredibly excited to be putting together an anthology of all the entries which will be placed in the Library. The writing we received perfectly captured the students’ lives during such a strange and uncertain period in our history, and we hope this collection will be able to immortalise that time for future students.

This year the English Department also created a Literary Society, which met weekly. The aim of the society was to bring lovers of literature together to discuss writing, books and poems. In addition, we also offered help and mentoring in English assessments, tasks and general classwork. The Literary Society was a great success, and we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to come together with like-minded girls to chat about all things English!

The challenges of this year also granted us a number of amazing opportunities. One such opportunity was the chance to read picture books to the Preparatory School girls. We filmed a series of videos to be sent to the Preparatory students, to make sure they were able to enjoy their love of reading while they were at home.

Back Row: Nea Shingler, Year 10, Victoria Pattison, Year 10, Ella Gibietis, Year 10, Olivia Clifford, Year 8, Natalia Antalfy, Year 8, Anna Ward, Year 8, Georgia Bicego, Year 8, Maiya Foster, Year 8 Front Row: Rachel Johnstone, Anika Perera, Roshan Neekan, Jessica Needham, Year 10

The English Department was also excited about the return of the College’s Literary Magazine, which featured pieces composed by our Secondary School students. The Literary Magazine was a way to acknowledge the incredible work of the student body in all forms of writing, including short stories, poetry, essays and discursive. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to relaunch this initiative.

Finally, with a heavy heart, and on behalf of the English Department, we would like to farewell the Year 12 students whose contributions to English have been countless. A special shout out to the Extension 2 girls, whose Major Works we cannot wait to read as soon as we can! Best of luck to Year 12 2020 – we know you will all do incredible things.

Alison Cook and Emma Peters, Captains of English