From the Boarding School

From our Head of Boarding

This is our last full weekend in Boarding at it promises to be a bumper! There will be a trivia night with our Knox neighbours, a trip to a fabulous Italian bakery, a beach adventure and, of course, lots of packing!

Thanksgiving

For our American and Canadian friends, Thanksgiving is a celebration of sharing and abundance. For us here in Boarding, it is also another opportunity to be thankful and a time to remember and embrace those who enrich our lives. Our Boarders took the opportunity to write cards to family, friends and staff to whom they are grateful for the blessings they bring. We all enjoyed a beautiful Chapel service where our ‘K Pop Krushers’ performed and, amongst others, we celebrated the wonderful Mrs Shaw. A lovely evening was ended with a turkey dinner, a fitting celebration of Thanksgiving!

Big Sisters

Our Boarding community is a tight knit family who enjoy the company of girls from around the world. We treasure all of our Boarders, but our Year 7 cohort are extra special bringing the vitality and sparkle of new girls about to embark on their first experience of Secondary School.

For Year 7 it is a year of firsts – the first time away from home, the first time in Secondary School and perhaps, their first mobile phone. Our ‘Big Sisters’ have an important role in supporting and encouraging these girls as they negotiate their new life as a Boarder. They demonstrate empathy and act as friends and mentors, helping to make the transition to Boarding as smooth as possible.

I am delighted to announce our ‘Big Sisters’ for 2023.

Lola Barwick

Alice Beveridge

Phoebe Bucknell

Hannah Carmichael

Mia Chambers

Holly Craig

Ella Graham

Imogen Hawkins

Sophie Laing

Gina Lau

Evie Leahy

Dezi Magann-Jones

Siena Novak

Nandika Singh

Hannah Weber

End of Year Arrangements

The last day of school for 2022 is Friday 2 December with the day concluding at 11.30am following the Year 7-10 Speech Day. Our Boarders are welcome to leave from 11.30am and we ask that they are collected by no later than 5.00pm on this day. Boarders are required to take all of their belongings home for the holiday break so that we can ensure there is a thorough cleaning of all the rooms.

If there are special circumstances that mean your daughter needs to leave earlier than the above date, please email the relevant school office to request permission. Once you have permission, please enter details as ‘special leave’ in Orah.

Christmas comes early

Santa Claus is coming to town! Here at Pymble we are making sure that he knows that we are all on the good list this year. Last weekend the girls did a great job at decorating the houses with plenty of festive flair. It all started with a trip out to the Christmas tree farm with Courtney while the other girls were doing Christmas craft. Once the trees were back, the houses had Mariah Carey on the speakers while the boarders decorated and dressed up. Saturday night, the girls then all settled in for the latest Christmas movie to take Netflix by storm – Falling for Christmas. Sunday was a continuation of the decorating but this time, the focus was on the outsides of the houses.

We can’t wait to welcome out Knox Boarder friends this weekend for Christmas Trivia. The Spirit House captains have been working hard behind the scenes being the best little Christmas Elves to make sure this event is a hit for all.

The rest of the weekend will include a trip to the Christmas Markets at the Rocks and a beach trip late on Sunday afternoon. The other super fun activity for this weekend is pack up – the girls will be starting to prepare themselves for the end of the year as we enter into our last week of term and the year!

View From My Window

Hi, my name is Ella Graham and I joined the Pymble Boarding family at the start of Term 3. I was originally born in Dubbo and lived on a 30-acre block just out of town. I moved from Dubbo in 2017 to Kew which is about 25 minutes south of Port Macquarie and now live on a five-acre block on top of a large hill with a great view. I am going to tell you a little bit about Dubbo and Port Macquarie, as I still consider Dubbo my home. So first, here’s the view from my window in Dubbo.

On a small farm I had two dogs, an emu, lots of chickens, dorper sheep and a random bull my dad bought. I have a sister named Bridey who is 18 months younger than me and an older Indigenous foster brother who is now 19, his name is Brenden. We always got up to trouble as kids on the farm, like trying to ride the sheep after getting them into yards, building flying foxes (that weren’t always safe!) and practising how to do smooth gear changes in the paddock basher while dodging our emu named Eddie who would follow us everywhere. I loved riding motorbikes with my neighbours and yabbying in our dam. We had an enormous pool which was everyone’s go-to spot after a long hot day at work. Usually on a Friday night we had 15+ people at our house from neighbouring farms socialising while the kids played in the pool. I have great memories of this time.

From my window on the farm I would often see our peacock and emu standing together beside the water trough on a hot summer’s day. I remember looking out across the flat paddocks towards our dam and seeing dry strands of grass and tall pine trees which would sway in the wind. I could just see the dam from my window where all of us kids would go swimming, catch yabbies and paddle the canoe. There were also garden beds beside my window and I could often smell the sweet scent of the pink and white roses.

The peacock I mentioned earlier just randomly turned up at our place one day – it was so strange as no one knew where he came from. This peacock would come and go over the years and he developed a name for himself, Peter the Peacock. He became a part of our family and it was our job to feed and look after him until we left Dubbo, which was very sad. Along with the peacock we had out pet emu named Eddie. We got him when I was eight years old – he came from Engonia which is a very remote town in far north-western NSW. One strange thing about Eddie was that he made a drumming sound in his throat which would often wake me up in the morning because it was so loud. We learned that this drumming was actually the call of a female emu! Our Eddie was in fact a girl! So we quickly renamed her to Edwina the Emu.

Another great thing about living in Dubbo was that we were only a few minutes from the Dubbo Zoo, where I always got to have my birthday parties.

In 2017, my family and I moved from Dubbo to a place called Kew just 25 minutes south of Port Macquarie. After 12 months of living here our house was finally built. I remember how excited I was the day we moved in as I already knew many kids in the neighbourhood. We have no been living in our new house for five years and it’s been the best five years of my life.

From my window I currently have an amazing view over Kendall and Kew towards the Comboyne Mountains, along with a gorgeous sunset every evening. I can also see my dad’s shed where he spends most of this time fixing cranes, designing and creating new things. As we are on top of a hill we get refreshing coastal breezes every afternoon which is pleasant in the humid summer months. I’m surrounded by large grey gums and enjoy looking into the treetops – I feel like I’m on top of the world! I love that I’ve had the opportunity to live on a farm out west, live on the beautiful mid-north coast and now also get to experience city life here at Pymble.

Boarder of the Week

Congratulations to Year 10 Boarder, Lauren Whitfield Lowe who is our last Boarder of the Week for 2022. Since joining us last year, Lauren has consistently demonstrated the Boarding spirit. She is kind and gracious and goes about her business in a quiet and fuss-free manner. Lauren always volunteers to help out around the house and is there to support her friends when they need a little extra encouragement. She is also works hard on her academics and makes good use of the Learn It program. She is an amazing dancer, excelling in ballet and jazz and a shining star in the recent Dance Showcase. We feel very grateful to have Lauren as a member of our Boarding family.