From the Upper School
A Message from Mr Riley, Head of Upper School
It’s been a busy week in the Upper School as we prepare for the exciting departure of our Year 9 Residential Program Pioneers and for our Year 10s to attend RYDA (Road Safety Education) at Homebush today.
We loved acknowledging our pioneers in assembly this week and getting the opportunity to tell the wider school about this exciting opportunity. There will no doubt be a few nerves as we inch closer to Sunday, but hopefully once they are in the beautifully, newly furnished Stringybark Lodge these will soon be forgotten. We look forward to sharing updates from the Valley over the next few weeks and encourage friends and family to send a postcard to our pioneers to let them know they are missing them.
Traditionally, RYDA had been an excursion in the Senior School, but after consultation with key staff we felt it is best placed for our Year 10s as they begin to think about driving and being passengers in the cars of other young drivers. To learn more, please visit this link and/or watch this short highlights video.
To celebrate a few days without rain, on Wednesday our leaders also held a paper airplane competition in the Amphitheatre. There were a lot of laughs, some great efforts and a few epic fails. Thanks to all who participated and well done to our worthy winners.
A Message from Mrs Hunt, Deputy Head of Upper School
Thank you to all the girls who supported a good cause by wearing their winter woolies last week!
Garden Party 2022
Garden Party is back and we need your help to make our stall one of the most successful, just like pre-Covid!
The Years 9 & 10 Bottle Bingo Stall is a sell out every year and we would love each family to contribute if possible as we always have more customers than we have bottles!
Please fill at least one jar with anything you would like to win yourself! In previous years, students have included in their clean jars items such as: lollies, toys, stationery and bath salts. For the uninitiated, the stall is basically a lucky dip.
A Message from Mr Levin and Mrs Richter, Heads of Year 9
The 56 Year 9 Residential Program students embark on their four-week journey at Vision Valley from this Sunday. These students were recognised and received their Residential Program uniforms at Combined Assembly this week.
We know that all of these students will enjoy this life-changing experience and we wish them the very best over the next month. Mrs Richter and I will be joining the girls out at Vision Valley on a few occasions, and we both are looking forward to catching up with the girls when we do.
Congratulations to the Year 9 students below on receiving a prestigious Jacaranda Award for Term 2.
9BA – Amelia Laing
9BB – Nikita Serban
9GA – Sienna (Sin Yu) Hui
9GB – Amelia Young
9IA – Sophia Chen
9IB – Adelaide Taylor
9HA – Anika Watson
9HB – Jessica (Yi Jia) Qin
9LA – Jessica Wang
9LB – Chloe (Jiayuan) Gu
9MA – Mia Tesoriero
9MB – Emily Mitchell
9TA – Thinara Siriniwasa
9TB – Eloise Makeham
9WA – Mary Cottrell
9WB – Lily Ikawa
In Directions this week the theme was Time Management. Students explored procrastination and strategies to overcome it to become more effective with their time. Students also received a weekly planner and applied the necessary strategies learnt in their Directions class to their typical school week.
A Message from Ms Beaumont and Mrs Michie, Heads of Year 10
The Year 10 students have been busy attending excursions and incursions for many of their elective subjects. Following our amazing Marine and Aquaculture Technology excursion last week, our German and Japanese students have an excursion this week, the PASS students participated in a conference-style incursion and the Agriculture students are currently on a 3 day camp, visiting various sites around the Dubbo and Wellington area.
As well as a jam-packed program during the day, these lucky students are visiting one of our very own Year 10 boarding families for a meal while on their camp. We look forward to sharing some photos with you next week.
Meanwhile, the rest of Year 10 are attending the RYDA road safety awareness workshop. Many of the students have begun their driving journey already and the rest of them are thinking about learning to drive. At some stage in the coming years, all the students will find themselves in motor vehicles driven by other young people.
We encourage you to visit https://rse.org.au/about-ryda/parents-caregivers/ for more information about how to navigate this time in your family. RYDA have provided some “dinner time conversation starters” that your family might like to use following the workshop which you can access by clicking here.
The time has come for Year 10 students to select their subjects for their senior years. We have been working through the process for several weeks and families should have received an email from the Curriculum office which contains instructions and a login for selecting subjects. Please remind your daughter that their Head of Year and the Upper School leadership team are here if they need any additional support.
The focus in Directions for the rest of Term 3 is on preparing for their future. The lessons have been written by our Futures team. The students will explore who they are now and how their ideas about their career and future might have changed. They will look at facing fear and change, and explore a range of employability skills in the 21st century.
We wish the best for our Year 9 sisters who are heading to Vision Valley for the inaugural Residential Program. We can’t wait to hear all about their adventures.
Key Dates
Tuesday 2 August – Year 10 Agricultural Science Three-Day Field Trip
Thursday 4 August – Year 10 Road Safety Education Workshop
Sunday 7 August – Year 9 Residential Program Community Day
Tuesday 9 August – Write a Book in a Day – Year 10
Thursday 11 August – Write a Book in a Day – Year 9
Wednesday 17 August – Year 9 & 10 Subject Selection Evening (Online)
REMINDER FOR ALL STUDENTS
Learning for Secondary School students will be face-to-face and on campus from Term 3 as advised via the Parent Portal at the end of Term 2.
Secondary students who test positive to COVID or are not well enough to attend school are to follow the normal procedure by contacting their subject teachers via email and/or referring to Canvas to catch up on missed work.
Homework Help in Term 3
Homework Help is an after-school service offered to all Pymble students in the Secondary School to provide assistance and support with everyday homework, assignments and research skills in a friendly, quiet environment. Homework Help is staffed by teachers from the Learning Support Team.
When: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday after school: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Where: Classroom C3 (Top floor of the Colonnade Building)
Dates: From Monday Week 3 (1 August) to Thursday Week 9 (15 September)
For further enquiries, please contact Mrs Lora Lim, Head of Learning Support at llim@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au
Mr Tom Riley