From the Principal
A warm welcome to Term 2 at Pymble. It’s great to be back on campus again and see our students have returned both rested and energised, ready to make the most of the second half of Semester 1. Our mantra for Term 2 builds on the theme established at the start of the year, ‘Let’s get creative…Dream. Think. Make it happen,’ and we will be harnessing our creativity to plan for success. More on that in just a moment.
On Wednesday, we gathered in COVID-safe groups across the College for our annual Anzac Day Service, albeit one day late due to the public holiday.
While April 25 is a day of national remembrance to mark the anniversary of the first major military battle fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War I, Anzac Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. In remembering the Anzacs, we also remember all Australians who have served our nation in all wars and conflict, as well as those who have served, and continue to serve, on peacekeeping missions around the globe, helping to restore stability. We also turn our thoughts to those currently on the frontlines; to our army, air force and navy personnel on active service overseas, those supporting them and their families who are waiting for loved ones to return.
Planning for success, or strategy, is a critical component of any war. While the name Anzac is synonymous with Australia and New Zealand, it’s important to remember our Anzacs fought with a number of allied countries to ultimately win the war. Similarly, our girls have their own key support team, or allies, to help them plan for their success at Pymble. This includes family members, Compass teachers, coaches, as well as others who may not be so influential in planning for success but who reinforce their efforts in many different ways.
This term, I will be encouraging our girls to plan their individual strategies for success. Each student will receive a planner asking her to consider her ‘big’ school, family and personal commitments. The idea is to break down our Term 2 strategies into weekly chunks and plan how we can be the best versions of ourselves according to our commitments each week.
Here’s a sneak peak of the planner and a few of my plans for Week 1, which I have included to inspire the girls to do the same.
Of course, there is an incredible amount of planning for future success that goes on behind the scenes at Pymble, while we simultaneously work hard to ensure our current programs, processes and facilities deliver on all desired outcomes. One focus area in Term 2 is cybersecurity in relation to College operations.
Prior to the start of term, our Critical Incident Management Team undertook an incredibly insightful and – let’s be honest – at-times terrifying exercise in which we responded to a series of imagined cyberattacks. Assisted by two of Australia’s leading cybersecurity experts, we role played two different scenarios using our internal Critical Incident Response Procedures and Management Plans, documenting our learnings, amendments and immediate action points along the way. In the event of our systems being compromised, the College will activate our CIMT Procedures and Plans and communicate with families through an uncompromised channel.
Cybercrime is on the increase and this drill reinforced the importance of our whole-of-College approach to cybersecurity – from robust internal systems and policies, to our comprehensive K-12 digital learning continuum and the behaviour of individual users.
Today, I am asking all families to take the first step towards safeguarding our community by reviewing the hackability of all the passwords you use.
Pymble staff recently undertook cybersecurity training with our Director of Innovative Learning Technologies, Mr Anthony England, who has kindly edited the hour-long recorded session into a five-minute video to help our community create unhackable passwords.
We also recommend checking the security of your passwords, and whether any have been compromised, via the following links:
https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/
https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords
Thank you in advance for prioritising your family’s password housekeeping on the weekend.
College communications in Term 2
Speaking of digital housekeeping – and, dare I say it, safeguarding your sanity – we are delighted to advise our MyPymble Portal is now up and running as the one-stop shop for parents and carers to receive and store College communications. This decision was based on your feedback which unanimously called for streamlined communications from one sender.
From Term 2, all communications sent to a year group, sub-school or the entire school will be posted on MyPymble. To help with this transition, you will receive an automatic email notification from Community Engagement when a new message has been posted. Email notifications will continue only until the end of Week 4, after which time all notifications will come via the MyPymble app. Communications posted on MyPymble will include academic, community, events, sport and co-curricular information, as well as important messages from me or the leadership team.
Please check your family is set up for success in Term 2 and beyond by ensuring you download the MyPymble app and have access to all the information relevant to your daughter’s learning.
Wishing you a wonderful, successful Term 2.
