From the Junior School

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” (Benjamin Franklin)

This week our girls have been lucky to be involved in a richly diverse range of experiences to help them learn and grow. This week they have immersed themselves in a range of different careers, exploring each one as an adventurer, asking insightful questions and enjoying learning from experts within our community. A huge and heartfelt thank you to our SRC girls for the idea that led to this initiative and to all our parents who shared their careers with our girls this week. The girls were delighted by the fabulous range of career adventures to explore, including chicken farming, mortgage lending, being an artist or author, filmmaking, printing, cake decorating, surveying, medical sales, being an anaesthetist or a chemist, dentist, psychiatrist, barrister, doctor, surgeon or a CEO in banking or a railway signal design engineer. We feel so blessed by the support you show your girls and us and we thank you all for the gift of your time for this event. A huge shout-out to Mrs Nerissa Davey, who managed the many logistics for this very successful event.

We look forward to the second session in this series next week. Here are some of the girls, and parents’ thoughts and reflections from this experience:

It was an amazing experience for the girls to talk to a variety of parents who shared their life passions and how that culminated in their careers. Mr Turnbull

It was fun and interesting as there were so many different jobs that the parents were passionate about. I wish we could have stayed longer. Rose

I enjoyed it so much as I learnt about jobs that I never knew existed like devices put in your body to stay alive. Harriet

We got to try out so many different things. I loved learning about what barristers do and printers. I loved the business cards he made us. Silka

It was such a great experience seeing all the different careers I really liked all the medical ones. Lucy

It was so great having my mum there. I also learnt how to make a magnet with a battery and wire from Mr Woods-McConville. The railway system was cool. Lily

The engagement of the girls was incredible as were their deep questions, it was so valuable and exposed them to a wide variety of career possibilities. Mrs Worthington

The questions the girls asked were so insightful. Mrs Kelly Mancey (presenter and Pymble Director of Community Engagement)

The parents were so passionate about what they do. I think the Junior School is the best as the girls are so keen to be part of everything and build on what they learn.  Roscoe Peters (College Videographer)

Sharing our stories with our grandparents

We have also enjoyed sharing our stories with our grandparents this week. It is so important that we help our girls to understand the power of story sharing and learning from someone else’s journey as they begin to shape their own. It was wonderful to gift ourselves the time and space this week to learn from the elders within our community and to celebrate this experience across K-6. This week I learnt that in Africa there is a wonderful word “ubuntu”, which literally means ‘I am because of you’. It explains that a person is a person through other people, emphasising the importance of community and togetherness.  Our community is galvanised by events such as the ones we have shared this week, such experiences of “ubuntu”. Thank you all for the many ways in which you support our Junior School family and community.

I loved having my grandparents, they came all the way from the Central Coast. I loved the treats they brought too! Hilary

It was so fun because I got really yummy food like dumplings to share. It was so awesome to share my book I am reading with them. Mikayla

I got to go to the Prep School with my little sister, I loved having them as they are so close to me. Adella

What a beautiful picnic in the sunshine, it was so worth the trip from Newcastle to be here. Meryll and Bob Bishop (grandparents to Edith Cullinane)

It is so special to spend time with the grandchildren and share in this day. Deanna Cornish, Margaret and Ken Broadhead (grandparents to Willow Gerreyn)

Congratulations to both our ISDA debating teams who showed poise and creative thinking in their very competitive debates last Friday. We wish our Team A all the very best as they progress to the quarter-finals this Friday.

As we continue to focus on building our sense of community, our Kindness Captains have again led the way. They have proudly introduced our inaugural kindness newsletter this week, The Kindness Compass, and each week these girls will help us create and then share this newsletter with each Compass Class.

This week we welcome Miss Sophie North to our Year 3 teaching team and to our Junior School family. Miss North has previously worked in both Victoria and the UK and brings with her a passion for language, speaking multiple languages fluently. We also welcome Mrs Melissa Kotian and Mrs Angus to our Year 4 teaching team and Mrs Shenaiya Day to our EALD team.

Lens into Learning

Mrs Lara Bird, Acting Deputy Head of Junior School – Learning and Curriculum

The girls in the Junior School have been busy exploring, learning and investigating. In Year 3 the girls are discovering the lifecycle of living things and learning how to cook damper. The girls in Year 4 are learning about light, looking at artificial and natural light as well as writing persuasively. Our scientists in Year 5 have designed solar ovens to see the effect of heat on solids and Year 6 are busy regrowing vegetables as part of their sustainability Inquiry unit. Year 3 and 5 enjoyed National Simultaneous Storytime Day listening to the astronaut reading of Give Me Some Space live from space.  

Da Vinci Decathlon

A reflection by our very proud teachers of the Da Vinci teams: Mrs Monica Medeiros, Miss Lyn Wynne and Mrs Jo Meacock

The results are in! We are excited to announce that at the recent da Vinci Decathlon, which was a virtual event, our Year 6 team were the overall winners! Our Year 5 team also took out third place in Science in their very first da Vinci Decathlon.

Congratulations to all of the girls who participated in this very challenging academic competition. The da Vinci Decathlon includes ten competition disciplines of Engineering, Mathematics and Chess, Code breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography and Legacy. They worked collaboratively in teams of eight to solve problems and come up with solutions against 153 other schools from around the State.

Along with these incredible overall results, Pymble also placed in the following disciplines: Year 5 – English fourth, Ideation seventh and Year 6 – Art and Poetry first, Engineering fourth, Ideation fifth, Cartography sixth, English seventh, Legacy seventh, Mathematics ninth.

Congratulations once again to the girls for all their hard work throughout the term!

Year 6 Inquiry

A reflection by Mrs Monica Medeiros, Year 6 Compass Teacher

During our Sustainable Food Production Inquiry unit this term, Year 6 has been investigating the importance of healthy soil to food production and sustainable practices that help maintain soil health to ensure food security around the globe for our future. They have also been thinking about food waste and evaluating how much of the food we produce as a nation is wasted without thought to the efforts of farmers and the lost natural resources.

One of the investigations has centred around solutions to food waste such as regrowing vegetables from scraps or cuttings normally thrown into our kitchen bins.

The girls have been amazed at how quickly the vegetables they are attempting to re-grow have actually sprouted shoots and roots! Some of the best examples are spring onions, garlic, romaine lettuce, celery, carrots, bok choy and beetroot!

 In their weekly measuring and recording of data for their vegetable experiment, the girls have noticed that some of the vegetables, which had previously been growing just in water, were ready to be transplanted into the soil. With the help of our amazing gardening team, some of the girls planted their vegetables in garden beds prepared with healthy soil and some natural fertiliser from our farm (thank you to the cows and chickens)! We can’t wait to continue our investigation and to harvest our vegetables when they are ready, perhaps a Year 6 salad lunch awaits?

 A huge thank you to our resident horticulturalists, Sarah and Alex who helped the girls, providing not only tools and tips but also their expert advice about the vegetable experiment. Year 6 is truly grateful and we love working with experts around the College campus!

Notices

If you missed the Kimochi training last night Click here to view the recording of the Kimochi Online Parent Session Tuesday 18 May. It was a resounding success.

Calendar Dates

Mrs Kate Brown

Head of Junior School

JSPG

Mrs Louise Woodall, Mrs Sarah Fisher and Mrs Shiva Rich, JSPG Leaders

Don’t forget to purchase your tickets to the PPA Trivia Night on Saturday 5 June from 6.00pm at Hornsby RSL. Make a table of ten with your class or year group or come solo – everyone is welcome!

Come dressed as something starting with ‘P’ – there will be a prize for the best-dressed table, overall winning team, raffles and gold coin games. Tickets include a sit-down two course meal, welcome drink and trivia entertainment. Click here to purchase your tickets.

Upcoming Events organised by Year Co-ordinators and Class Parents