From the Principal
Tuesday was a significant day in the life of Pymble, marking 106 years since we officially welcomed our very first students way back in time on 8 February 1916. As per tradition, we celebrated our birthday with an annual Foundation Day Service to reflect on the journey of the College and all the students, past and present, who are part of our collective story.
Our Community Prefect, Nina Breckenridge, gave a lovely potted history of Pymble in her address to the girls:
“On the 8th of February 1916, [Principal] Dr Marden opened the school with just 60 students on the roll, 20 of whom were Boarders. Marden house, Lang house, the Colonnade and Main Hall were the only buildings standing tall in the otherwise empty field. Ten years later in 1926, Goodlet House was officially opened and named after John Hay Goodlet.
“By 1956, the pupil body had risen to 897 alongside the opening of the beautiful PLC War Memorial Chapel that Year 12 is sitting in today.
“Now, after years of massive building projects, Junior School being established, cafés being built, two very cute dogs joining our community and about 2,500 students, we can safely say a lot has passed since that day in 1916. But, despite all of this, the heart of Pymble remains the same. I know that I speak for us all by saying how grateful we are to be in such a beautiful and fulfilling place. By acknowledging the richness of our history, we can be truly connected to one another and appreciate the gift of being at such an amazing school.”
It is another Foundation Day tradition to invite one, sometimes more, of our Alumni to speak at the service and provide our girls with a tangible link to our past, present and future beyond Pymble. This year’s speaker was Jacqueline King (2012), a shining example of a Pymble girl who is using her compassion and influence to make a positive contribution to our world through her work as an Environmental Scientist, Cultural Geographer and Educator at Taronga Zoo Conservation Society.
Jacqui led the girls in a short exercise designed to create awareness of the connections all around us, not just among humans, but within our environment and especially in nature. Specifically, she drew the girls’ attention to the myriad connections that may not be visible – the “unspoken spaces in between” what we see before us and what we know. She encouraged the girls to use their creative minds to seek out the “stories that connect the dots between what we see and know and what we might not be aware of straight away.”
“It takes a creative mind to see connection, networks and patterns. To be creative is to learn and solve problems like climate change,” Jacqui said.
“You and I are part of the generation that has woken up to what is happening around us. Environmental conservation and climate change affect all of us, directly and indirectly. We need to rally around each other, focus on those connections, and recognise ourselves as agents of positive change. We are part of the pattern. We’re a force of nature. It’s time to change the story.”
Following the service – which included the first live performance in a long time from our Chorale, who sang as beautifully in masks as they do without – our Head Prefects, Isabel Dean and Chloe Hoang buried a Time Capsule in a patch of garden near the Junior School. Contents of the capsule include a USB of interviews with girls about their experience of living in the COVID-19 pandemic, College artefacts and items each Compass group chose to represent 2021, an extraordinary year in our College’s history. The capsule is scheduled to see the light of day again in 2028.
How exciting to think ahead to Foundation Day in six years’ time when we are reacquainted with these storytelling items and give pause to reflect on 2021, when we spent nearly five months running the school via Microsoft Teams and learning with Pymble Online. Our current Kindergarten girls will be in Year 6, and our Year 7 girls will be our school leaders in Year 12. Who knows, maybe one of our current Year 12 students will be standing at the lectern in the Chapel as our Foundation Day guest speaker, inspiring the next generation of students to use their unique, creative, inquiring minds to be the change they wish to see in the world.
There’s another wonderful chapter in our story we have to look forward to.
