Thank you Pymble, for giving back

At the end of Term 2, our three collection bins were overflowing with donated clothing, shoes, towels and books, thanks to the generosity of our Pymble family.

The Salvation Army was grateful to collect a truckload of items, already bagged and scored by our wonderful student volunteers. Thank you to all who have supported Pymble Give Back to date. This truly has been a whole school collaboration which we look forward to continuing in the second half of this year. 

Pymble Gives Back in the Junior School 

Great work in Term 2  

Our Junior School girls continue to lead with kindness and as part of our Term 2 focus on Kindness to Others they achieved an outstanding 3,800 acts of service in their homes and local communities. The girls helped in a variety of ways including making their beds, unpacking the dishwasher at home without being asked, picking up rubbish around the College campus and in their local parks, building bee hotels and encouraging others in their families to find ways to be of service. Led by our Term 2 Kindness Captains, our Junior School girls gave up two lunchtimes to design and write cards to send kindness to refugees around the world, raising an impressive $8,200 through the Bezos Foundation to support aid agencies working with global refugees. Throughout the term, our Junior School girls completed personal service journals reflecting on the feelings they felt as they completed their chosen service, building an understanding of the joy possible by giving of yourself in service to others. 

On 14 June, all Junior School girls and staff immersed themselves in a day of service and kindness activities including planting sunflowers for the elderly residents at Bowden Brae aged care facility, making button art cards for people in hospital, writing and illustrating their own stories as part of the UpSchools global literacy project, knitting squares for the Wrapped with Love and sewing felt hearts as part of the 1000 hearts project to support mental health in young people. 

 Also on 14 June, our Junior School Kindness Captains hosted the second Children’s Kindness Convention bringing together 102 Year 5 students from 19 schools across Greater Sydney to brainstorm ways to raise awareness and find possible solutions for social and environmental problems in our world.  

Term 3
Our Term 3 focus is on Kindness to the Environment and through our weekly assemblies and Compass lessons, the girls will focus on these four facts: 

1. I can reduce, reuse and recycle 
2. I can bring nude food to school 
3. I can pick up litter 
4. I can use less water  

One of our Year 5 students Maddie, has worked hard to raise money and has funded the purchase a worm farm for our Year 5-6 playground area to enhance our capacity to compost food waste. Our Sustainability Captains have been working with our College Catering to find ways to reduce food waste across the Junior School by reducing portion sizes for our youngest students and continue to look at ways we can have a greater focus on nude food across our school. 

Our Semester 2 STEM Captains, Olivia and Sophia are looking to introduce the Return and Earn scheme to the Junior School with the goal of earning money on our plastic recyclables and applying that money to fund a charitable project such as the Solar Buddy project. 

 A group of Year 4 children who are passionate environmentalists are working with our Head of Junior School to plant more flowers around the Junior School to attract and protect our essential pollinators. 

Our Year 5 students will continue to partner with children with learning disabilities at St Lucy’s School, Wahroonga, to teach them basic robotics skills through shared play. 

 A group of Year 6 students will continue to visit elderly residents with dementia at Bowden Brae Aged Care Facility and share stories, music and a collaborative art project with these residents. Whilst an act of extended service, our girls are clearly getting as much joy out of this experience as they are giving to these elders in our community. 

During Term 3 our Junior School Librarians will be leading the Great Book Swap for our Junior School in support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation as the girls will swap a favourite book in exchange for a gold coin donation. 

Our Junior School teachers have been busy rummaging through their wardrobes and led by Mrs Kate Giles, Lead Coordinator, we are holding a teachers’ clothing swap early in Term 3 to encourage recycling and to help reduce the amount of landfill waste of textiles in Australia. 

Pymble Gives Back in the Secondary School 

Great work in Term 2 
We are proud of our Secondary School students who chose to be involved in a range of initiative is Term 2 with a focus on women’s health, the environment, international communities and First Nation communities.

The girls organised and contributed to many successful events, activities, donations and fundraisers including:

• Year 11 Red Shield Appeal – $1,770
• Syria and Turkey Earthquake gozleme lunch – $1,500
• Tanzania tour: face painting and hair braiding, GBE milkshakes – $1,500
• House Bake Sale (Days for Girls and the Barbara May Foundation) – $1,100
• Mother’s Day Morning Tea supporting Wayside Chapel and Costumes for Cancer – TBC

It has been wonderful to see our students embracing Pymble Give Back  and enjoying and often exceeding their recommended hours of service, which they have been recording on their Record of Attendance. 

Coming up in Term 3

Middle School will continue making Happy Boxes filled with hand-crafted toys, gifts and essentials, such as sanitary products, for young Indigenous girls in remote First Nations communities. 

Our Upper School girls will continue to learn knitting and crochet  to create blankets to benefit the Hamlin Fistula Foundation and in early August will cook meals for Dignity and perform environmental service in Sheldon Forest and our local neighbourhood streets. 

Our Senior School girls will be turning their minds to HSC exams this term but also continue with their Wrap with Love target of 1,000 squares as well as fundraising and training with Shore school students for our annual Sony Camp for young children with physical, developmental or mental disabilities.