From the Junior School

From our Head of Junior School

Welcome to Term 3! I hope you have all stayed healthy and safe these holidays and enjoyed some wonderful family adventures. We are delighted to welcome so many families to our Junior School family this term and extend a warm welcome to you all. I look forward to getting to know these girls who join us this term: Celine Shen and Allison Lu (Kindergarten), Abby Zhang, Ella Jang and Claire Huang (Year 1), Chloe Huang (Year 2), Divangi Sahni and Jiayi Wu (Year 4), Cadence Wong and Georgia Friedel (Year 5). We are also excited to welcome back Patricia Chiu into Year 5.

Welcome New Staff

This term we welcome Mrs Victoria Soumboulidis to our Year 1 team and Mrs Tracy Reid to our Year 3 team. Both these educators bring great wisdom and experience with them, and I know our girls will thrive in their warm care. Please join me in welcoming them to our Junior School community.

Motherhood Beckons!

This week we say au revoir to Mrs Erin Dorsen who heads off on maternity leave. We send Mrs Dorsen off with our love and best wishes for the most wonderful parenthood journey and look forward to meeting her baby soon.

Farewell Mrs H

It is with great sadness that we farewell our beloved Mrs Helen Holobrodskyj (‘Mrs H’ as she is affectionately known by many) this week. Mrs Holobrodskyj has dedicated 20 years of exceptional service to the Junior School and she will be very much missed by us all. We send her off with much love and wish her many happy years full of adventures with her beloved husband, Andrew, their children and grandchildren.

Our Kindness Focus this Term

Our young people are determined to make a positive impact on their planet and so this term we are focusing on kindness to our environment. We are hoping that many of our girls will commit to undertaking small actions to help protect our precious environment and in the coming weeks, each girl will be given a Service Journal (similar to last term) with ideas of actions she can do to make a difference.

I am very proud of Charlotte Pang (Year 5) who has demonstrated her strong sense of social responsibility and advocacy by designing a poster and creating a character, Myrtle the Turtle, to inspire our Junior School into action and to help our younger girls connect with this important mission.

An amazing group of environmental advocates in Year 4 worked with our Lead Horticulturalist, Sarah Shields, and me to plan and ultimately plant a new garden at the end of last term. The girls had campaigned for this garden as they wanted to attract more pollinators and also bring more flowers into our grounds to appeal to our youngest girls. I am so proud of their thoughtfulness.

Our Week in Learning Pictures

Congratulations!

We are so proud of Aimee Qiu (Year 2) who represented NSW Fencing Club Under 8 Years Sabre in a competition last weekend and was awarded the gold medal. This is an outstanding achievement.

Congratulations to Haylee Lam (Year 6) who competed in the Sydney Eisteddfod Woodwind competition for 12 Years and Under, performing a flute solo on 6 July. Haylee won second prize and we are extremely proud of her effort and achievement. We hope Haylee will share her flute solo with us all in assembly this term.

Congratulations to Megan Ng (Year 3) who competed in the Sydney Eistedford playing both the violin and the piano. She came first in the 9 Years section for violin and was highly commended on the 9/10 Years 19th Century piano section.

From the JSPG

Welcome to Term Three! Hope you all had a lovely and restful holiday break. Just a few reminders for you all to mark down in your calendars.

Upcoming Parent-Daughter Dances

Years K-1 – Saturday 6 August – please see attached invitation here.

Years 2-3 – Saturday 30 July – please see attached invitation here.

Year 4-5 – Saturday 27 August – theme ‘Sparkle & Shine’, please save the date.

JSPG Athletics Carnival Stall – next Tuesday 26 July

As you will be aware, our postponed Athletics Carnival is due to be held next Tuesday 26 July. This will be subject to favourable weather in the lead-up to the day so let us hope the weather is kind to us.

Thank you to those who have signed up to our JSPG Food and Drinks stall and are either providing food/drinks on the morning of the carnival via car line or serving at the stall during the day. If you would like to contribute on the day or review your commitments, please go to: https://signup.com/go/jmUQwFJ

Build-A-Pymble-Bear – next Wednesday 27 July

Our Build-A-Pymble-Bear event will be held on Wednesday 27 July for our Kindergarten to Year 3 girls. This is one of our absolute favourite events of the year for our younger girls as it is such a special experience for them. This year, we have chosen a few different animals to make it a richer experience for the girls. Kindergarten are being given a bear to build, Years 1 and 2 girls are being given a rabbit and Year 3 girls are being given a puppy.

Jeans for Genes Day – Friday 5 August

Friday 5 August is Jeans for Genes Day and the JSPG is holding a fundraising sausage sizzle in Sunshine Square. An invitation will be sent out shortly for this event.

Save the Date – Garden Party, 17 September

Pymble is so excited to be holding its annual Garden Party this year again for the first time since 2019! The JSPG runs many stalls which are so much fun for the girls and their families.

Please contact us or your year coordinator if you would like to be involved in participating in one of your year group stalls!

If you haven’t been to a Garden Party, there are numerous rides, hundreds of stalls, lots of food and drinks and overall it is an amazing family day out. Please save the date and look forward to the highlight of the Pymble year!

From Care & Support

We are still looking to fill our JSPG freezer with meals as part of our care and support role to Junior School families. If you are able to pick up an extra meal, or do some cooking at home, this would be much appreciated. All food can be dropped off at our Junior School Reception.

Ideas for meals are ones that will freeze well such as pasta (lasagne, spaghetti bolognaise etc), cottage pie, butter chicken etc. Alternatively, anything you would normally cook for your family.

Thank you for your support. Please feel free to contact Shweta Deshpande if you have any questions (shwetadesh@gmail.com or 0406 484 002).

Communication with Parents

The parent contact directory is available on MyPymble and has been developed for parents and carers to opt-in to share their contact details with other parents and carers in their daughter(s) year group to help build community connections.

To check your details, login to MyPymble, click on Parent Contact Directory (under My Shortcuts) and then your Roll Class. There are some parents/carers with names, phone numbers and email addresses missing. To update your details, please click on your name in the top right corner, and select My Profile.

From all of us at the JSPG, we hope you have a great Term Three.

If you have any questions or require further information, please email us the JSPG at: pymblelcjspg@gmail.com

**Volunteers Needed for the Sri Lankan Food Stall at Pymble’s Garden Party**

Dates for your Diary

Term 3 

26 July Junior School Athletics Carnival  

26 July 100 Days of Kindergarten Celebration, 10.25am – 12.45pm 

27 July JSPG Build-a-Bear for Kindergarten to Year 3 

27 July Year 6 Author Visit

28 July Year 6 Incursion

29 July Year 4 Incursion

30 July JSPG Years 2 and 3 Parent Daughter Dance 

1 – 4 August Kindergarten to Year 6 Learning Discussions

4 August Kindergarten to Year 2 Performing Arts Incursion 

5 August Jeans for Genes Day    

6 August JSPG Kindergarten and Year 1 Parent Daughter Dance

8 – 10 August Kindergarten to Year 2 Concert Rehearsals    

12 August Kindergarten to Year 2 Concert, 2.00pm and 5.00pm 

15 – 18 August Life Education Kindergarten to Year 2

18 August Year 5 Author Visit

19 August STEM Festival

25 August Book Week Parade

26 August Author Visit Kindergarten to Year 6

27 August JSPG Years 4 and 5 Parent Daughter Dinner Dance

30 August URSTRONG Parent Workshop, Online

1 September Year 5 ‘Spring into Leadership’ Day

2 September Fathers’ Day Lunch

Term 4

17 October Year 2 OEP

19 October Year 1 OEP

20 October Kindergarten OEP

25 October Year 6 Musical Performance, 7.00pm

26 October Year 6 Musical Performance, 7.00pm

28 October Links Day

1 December Kindergarten Celebration of Learning, 9.00am

1 December Years 1 and 2 Celebration of Learning, 11.00am

2 December Years 3 to 6 Speech Day, 1.00pm