From the Junior School
From our Head of Junior School
This week, we wish a happy Diwali to all our Hindi families. We were lucky enough on Monday lunchtime to have a celebration in our Junior School Hall led by some Year 7 students and some families for our Year 4 to 6 girls and those girls in Kindergarten to Year 2 who celebrate Diwali.
Pymble Proud
Whilst I sat watching our Year 5 and Year 6 girls play basketball on Saturday morning and some of our Year 5 girls play tennis, I reflected on the power of getting involved, having a go and being an active part of our community. Our girls played with heart and team spirit and whilst the games were challenging, they stayed focused, kept going and came off at the end with huge smiles on their faces. Some of these girls were playing for only the second time, but they played with fierce courage and commitment. Some of our basketball girls raced from their match to join their teammates in the STEM room to finalise their robots ready for the upcoming VEX IQ competition! This spirit is something that energises me daily and makes my heart so proud of our Pymble girls.
Just as our girls get involved in our Junior School community, I encourage you to get involved too. Our amazing Junior School Parent Group (JSPG) are looking for volunteers to help next year in a number of different roles. If you are interested please reach out to Meredith Coleman at mcoleman@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au or myself at kbrown@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au. We are seeking nominations in readiness for the JSPG meeting on Thursday 3 November at 8.45am.
I am pleased to say we already have two Kindergarten 2023 parents who are keen to connect and help by volunteering as Class Parents! They have done this as they could feel the strong sense of community in our Kindergarten girls as their girls spent time with our existing Kindergarten girls last week. Thank you, Kindergarten, for helping showcase the kindness in our community!
Thank you to our JSP
A huge and heartfelt thank you to all our JSPG parents who came on Friday and worked so hard to prepare and serve such a wonderful lunch for all teachers to celebrate World Teachers’ Day. It’s so kind of you to give up your time in this way and we feel very valued and cared for by you all. Archie was delighted to have his own special treat as well and is very happy to continue as a key member of our team in the Junior School!
Thanking our staff
As champions of kindness, our girls wanted to do something to thank the teachers too. So, the Kindness Club and the Student Representative Committee joined forces to give up their time to design and make cards, write a poem and add a little bit of personalised happiness and love in an envelope to each teacher. Our staff were very moved by the kindness shown by our girls.
LINKS Day
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.” – Robin Sharman
Tomorrow, we welcome new girls to our Junior School and all our girls step into their new grade for 2023. Whilst change is exciting for many of our girls, it’s equally daunting for others. Please be assured that we will do all we can to ensure all our girls feel calm and prepared for the adventures that await them in their new grade in 2023. This time of year is an opportunity for the girls to develop resilience and forge new relationships. It can feel like slight uncertainty, as well as excitement for new adventures and all of the feelings in between.
One of the key skills identified within successful leaders is adaptability and the beauty of changing year groups and classes is that the girls get to practise these skills in a controlled and supportive environment. Something that we speak to the girls about often is that nerves and excitement are actually similar emotions. What lives between these two emotions is a slight shift of the mind. When we learn to lean into the excitement side of our nerves, we are able to face change and challenge with a greater level of enthusiasm.
The teachers the girls are with tomorrow are the current teachers on that grade and may not be the teachers they will have in 2023. Our teachers work closely together across the Junior School throughout this term and over the summer holidays to ensure a smooth and kind start to the new school year for our girls and to settle them quickly into their new classes.
Robotics Competition season begins!
Our FIRST Lego League girls (Year 5 –6) have been working hard throughout the term and over the holidays and are looking forward to their competition next weekend at Macquarie University. Good luck girls!
From Nerissa Davey – Deputy Head of Junior School – Operations
“Your voice can change the world.” – Barack Obama
This term sees the culmination of initiatives that our girls have been so proud to lead across the school. Student voice is a vital part of ensuring our girls have the ability to feel heard, the power to make change and see their ideas come into being.
This week, assembly of this fabulous initiative began. We are very grateful to Matthew, Patrick and Shane from Dependabuild, who have volunteered their time and donated the materials for this artwork. We are very excited that the artwork designed by Zeta James-Taylor in Year 5 has been selected. Our fabulous Visual Arts teacher Mrs Clutterham will draw the design on the board and then the mammoth task of adding 8000 bottlecaps will begin. We look forward to showing you the progress over the coming weeks.
‘Zhuzhing’ up our bathrooms
Thanks to our fabulous SRC, some much needed colour and brightness is being added to our bathrooms. This week some decals arrived and we began to ‘zhuzh’ or decorate these areas. The girls were delighted with the outcome!
Kind to our environment – Scrunchable plastic bins
As a joint initiative with the SRC and Sustainability Club, the girls have asked for bins to collect scrunchable plastics. These have been decorated beautifully so the girls know what bins to use. To help our girls to add in the correct waste photos of plastics have been added too. Well done girls!
From Kimberley Tyson – Deputy Head of Junior School – Students
Walk for a Kinder World
A big thank you to all the students and families who have been involved in the first part of our Walk for a Kinder World mission. The Junior School completed 11,948km for kindness last week. What an effort! Congratulations to all the girls in Thomas, as you won House Spirit last week with your contribution of kilometres. Well done Year 4, you were the grade that completed the greatest number of kilometres over the course of the week. A special shout-out goes to Mrs Davenport, for being the Teacher of the Week in your contribution to kindness. Special mention to Miss Prince and Mrs Brown for their efforts, as they were not far behind.
A reminder if you would like to add photos of your family completing kilometres for kindness please do so here on our Junior School padlet. There is also a fundraising page which can be found here.
Nude Food November
In our work to be kind to the environment, we are trying to minimise single-use plastics in the Junior School. We recently invited the girls to design a poster to promote Nude Food in November. This was a House competition, and we had some wonderful submissions across the Junior School. Thank you to the girls who spent time designing their posters to promote this worthy cause. Although it was incredibly difficult to decide on a winner the following girl’s posters stood out as they were informative, creative and thoughtful. Congratulations Divina Excell (2M) and Peaches Zhang (4D). The girls both happen to be in Marden and have earned a whopping 200 House points for their House. Keep an eye out around the grounds for these wonderful posters and remember to think nude, when it comes to food.
Swimming Carnival – Travel for girls in Kindergarten to year 4
As per the portal notice girls in Kindergarten to Year 4 will be dismissed at Mollie Dive Field. Please click here to indicate your daughter’s plans for the afternoon.
Celebrations of Learning – Kindergarten to Year 2
Term 4 will end for Kindergarten to Year 2 students after their Celebration of Learning on Thursday 1 December. Kindergarten to Year 2 girls are not required to attend school on Friday 2 December. Should your Kindergarten to Year 2 daughter need supervision at school on Friday 2 December, please complete the form by clicking here.
Junior School Parent Group (JSPG) Annual General Meeting (AGM) – Diversity as the Path to Unity in our Junior School
We look forward to our JSPG AGM on 3 November 2022 and Mrs Nerissa Davey, Deputy Head of Junior School Operations will be talking at this meeting along with two of our Year 6 leaders for Semester 2 and two girls; Clara Mudaliar and Amara Ahmed. These girls have all led initiatives in our Junior School to promote diversity and inclusion and to ensure all our girls’ voices are heard.
It’s important to me, and to the success of our Junior School that you are all involved as much as you want to be or can be (as I appreciate how busy you are), and that your voices are heard. Please therefore reach out to our Community Engagement team at: communityengagement@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au or to me directly at kbrown@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au if you are interested in getting involved in our JSPG in any way next year.
Matilda the Musical
This week, our Year 6 students performed Matilda Jr the Musical. It was an outstanding performance by all the girls, highlighting their passion, hard work and dedication. Mrs Jill King, Acting Year 3 to 6 Language Arts Co-ordinator, Miss Ellen Buckley, Performing Arts teacher together with the girls, developed the scenes, props and choreography. It was truly a wonderful performance based on the book Matilda by Roald Dahl. Thank you also to all our supportive and talented parent helpers.
Sami Bayly visits Year 2!
Sami Bayly visited Year 2 and shared insight into her newly released book Surprising Sea Creatures. Sami completed a scientific illustration degree through a bachelor of Natural History Illustration (Honours) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Sami not only shared surprising facts about sea creatures, she also guided Year 2 through a step-by-step guide to draw a deep-sea flounder. More information about Sami’s books can be found by clicking here.
Junior School Parent Group Annual General Meeting – Diversity as the path to unity in our Junior School
We look forward to our JSPG AGM on 3 November 2022. Mrs Nerissa Davey, Deputy Head of Junior School Operations will be talking at this meeting along with two of our Year 6 leaders for Semester 2 and two girls; Clara Mudaliar and Amara Ahmed. These girls have all led initiatives in our Junior School to promote diversity and inclusion and to ensure all our girls’ voices are heard.
Please click here to download the meeting agenda.
It’s important to me, and to the success of our Junior School that you are all involved as much as you want to be or can be (as I appreciate how busy you are), and that your voices are heard. Please therefore reach out to our Community Engagement team at: events@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au or to me directly at kbrown@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au if you are interested in getting involved in our JSPG in any way next year.
Our Week in Learning
Junior School Digital News
From the Junior School Parent Group (JSPG)
JSPG Annual General Meeting (AGM)
We are looking forward to hosting our JSPG AGM next Thursday 3 November from 8:45am to 9:25am in the Junior School Library and sharing the amazing year our JSPG have had. We would love to see you in person to extend our thanks for being part of our Junior School parent community, which has been so supportive this year in helping to run an enormous number of events so successfully.
Also, to our wonderful parent community: there is always a first time to help! We are always encouraging people to become involved in helping out. Being a part of our parent group is a fantastic way to learn more about Pymble, enrich your daughter’s schooling experience and make new friends! We love meeting parents and the more parents who become involved, the better our events become.
There are many events during the year for parents to convene. However, please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in taking on a year coordinator or class parent role for next year.
Please see our agenda for next week’s meeting here. Mrs Brown and Mrs Davey will both be providing us with updates and four of our Year 6 students will be speaking on ‘The Power of Student Voice’.
Swimming Carnival
Please click here to join us in participating in our Swimming Carnival Stall on 17th November.
The program of events is:
7.30am to 10.30am Championship Events
10.45am to 12.45pm Kindergarten to Year 4 (followed by lunch on Mollie Dive)
11.00am to 11.15am Diving Showcase
Noon to 12.45pm Year 5 and Year 6 lunch on Mollie Dive
12.45pm to 2.30pm Year 5 and Year 6
Please check your daughter’s schedule when you sign up to ensure you can still see her racing.
For any queries, please contact us at pymblelcjspg@gmail.com
Written by Elizabeth Toh, Aimee Birch, Stephanie Pickford and Kai Jones
Reminders from the Administration Office
AFTERNOON TRAVEL CHANGES
Please email juniorschool@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au to advise any changes to afternoon travel arrangements. Late changes should be made prior to 2.00pm to ensure messages are received by staff and students prior to the girls end of formal day routines.
LOST PROPERTY
All items of uniform should be named including summer hat, play hat, uniforms, shoes, sneakers, socks, lunch box and drink bottle. Lost items can be readily returned if it they are labelled.
Winter should have your daughter’s name written in white pen inside the crown of the hat. If there is a circular label inside the hat, don’t use this as it is inclined to come loose.
Please be aware that unnamed items will only be held at each Junior School Administration Office for two weeks.
Dates for your Diary
Term 4
28 October Links Day
3 November JSPG Term 4 AGM
10 November Year 5 Mind, Body Spirit Day
11 November Walk for a Kinder World final day and celebration
15 November Jacaranda Day
17 November Junior School Swimming Carnival
22 November Year 6 final Chapel and celebration of learning 8.45am to 11.00am
24 November Year 6 Disco
1 December Kindergarten Celebration of Learning 9.00am, term ends for Kindergarten children
1 December Years 1 and 2 Celebration of Learning 11.00am, term ends for Year 1 and 2 children
2 December Years 3 to 6 Speech Day, 1.30pm
Mrs Kate Brown