From the Principal

Hello from all of us here at Pymble.

We’ve had a wonderful first term of the year, filled with energy and school spirit, spurred on by our culture of showing up as your best self and ‘having a go’, knowing you are supported by your Pymble family. We can’t wait to do more of the same in Term 2.

2024 is the year of Pymble Pulse, our overall College theme for the year, and the umbrella for a range of initiatives led by staff and/or students to enhance our community’s wellbeing and learning. It is based on the notion that every action you take stimulates a reaction in the people around you, much like the way every beat of your heart stimulates blood to pulse through your body. Pymble Pulse represents the heartbeat of the College and acknowledges the impact we have on each other as a community.

Our first Pymble Pulse launch for the year, was a Year 12 initiative encouraging students to show up to their friends’ and peers’ co-curricular pursuits to cheer them on and celebrate their achievements, big or small. It’s been a source of great pride to watch this spirit of celebrating others take on a new life of its own. In Term 2 we look forward to continuing our Pymble Pulse program of encouraging all students and staff to be more active, foster healthy sleep habits, and, therefore, function at optimal level.

Girls thrive in girls’ schools

You may have noticed a particular topic continuing to pulse through the media over the past 12 months or so – the great debate around single sex versus co-educational schools. This, of course, has been sparked by several Australian boys’ schools announcing their intention to transition to co-education, a movement that has generated a great deal of emotion and conjecture about the future of single-sex education.

Today I’d like to highlight some of the many research-based reasons why Pymble Ladies’ College was, is and always will be a school for girls, and girls only. This data comes from excellent research from highly regarded academics, which has been brought together by the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS), of which I am one of the Board directors. It reflects the experience of students in girls’ schools all around the world.

The research is compelling

Girls-only education leads to higher academic achievement, which we see in Australia in our NAPLAN, HSC and PISA results.
The research also tells us that, compared to girls in co-ed schools, girls in single-sex schools have a greater sense of:
- social and emotional wellbeing, due to tailored pastoral care programs and less sexual harassment, gender bias and bullying
- confidence and self-esteem, including more positive body image
- competitive spirit and willingness to take risks with their learning
- participation in STEM subjects, and a higher likelihood of defying gender stereotypes in subject and career choices
- participation in sport and physical education
- tertiary study and career aspirations.

The list of compelling reasons goes on. If you’re interested, you can access a succinct summary of the ICGS research here.

Happily, this research is supported by evidence we see each day at Pymble – here on our main campus, at Vision Valley, and at all the other exciting destinations where our girls love to learn, including Europe and the US, where our Dancers are currently on tour to undertake workshops with Broadway dancers, professional dance companies and screen acting coaches. You can just imagine how excited they were for the term to finish and to get on that plane!

Put simply, girls’ schools offer the best learning environment for girls because every facet of our educational design, from the classroom dynamics to co-curricular offerings, is carefully crafted with girls in mind. In this environment, girls are unreservedly the focal point, empowered to develop and voice their opinions, explore their identities, and follow their dreams without limitations. From robotics to football, every opportunity is open to our students, free from gender stereotypes.

As we look towards the future and acknowledge the evolving landscape of education, we are grateful to live in a country where we have choice. We choose to continue to focus on delivering an outstanding learning environment where our girls are encouraged to excel, evolve, and ultimately become the influential and compassionate women they are destined to be.

Dr Kate Hadwen
Principal

Secondary School Enrolment Update

Welcome to our first Secondary School newsletter for the 2024 academic year.

Term 1 saw the Middle School welcome 124 new Year 7 students. Forty seven of these new students had no one come with them from their current school. In typical Pymble fashion, our current girls brought their Junior School values of kindness to help all of our new Year 7s settle into their routine, build new friendships and become familiar with the campus. Many of our students share common interests and backgrounds and we celebrate these whilst embracing the diversity amongst our students whether it be different cultures, family rituals and dynamics, student interests and diversity of past experiences. This is reflected in our daily social media posts and our College publications such as Pymbulletin and our HSC Booklet.

Just as our new students forge friendships and share more about themselves, some of our new parents have also shared their experience as new Pymble parents. It is always wonderful to receive feedback from incoming parents and as future new parents I thought these couple of notes may resonate with you.

“THIS! This is what the difference is. Absolute kindness with help AND solutions. Just wonderful!” – an email from the parent of a new Year 9 student who had received an email from her maths teacher offering support and assistance following an initial test where she was disappointed in her results.

“We would like to thank you for your patience, guidance and support throughout the entire enrolment process. We are especially grateful for arranging additional time to meet with Mr Riley last week and for choosing such an amazing buddy for her. Thank you to your team for making the appropriate arrangements. She thoroughly enjoyed Transition Day and was able to get a strong sense of life at Pymble. She was made to feel welcome by all of the staff, and was so impressed and excited about the opportunities, the facilities and the overall feel on campus. She also met some wonderful new friends and received great advice and insights all the girls she met.” – Year 9 parent email

“We cannot wait for our daughters to join and contribute to the Pymble community in 2024.” – email from a future parent

Boarding has its own rhythm

It has been an epic term starting with the opening of our new Boarding House, Avonmoore, exclusively for our group of 16 Year 7 Boarders. The girls are delighted to have their own space in which to bond with each other whilst adjusting to life at Pymble. We also changed our house structure to a vertical system from Year 8 to 11 in two of our larger houses. We welcomed wonderful new members of staff and 30 new Boarders. We enjoyed a tremendous community weekend, a Boarders Parent Group (BPG) meeting, welcome drinks, a BFF event and a terrific initiative around representative sport. We got the girls home for a long weekend and back again, and then moved rooms. We celebrated outstanding HSC results, the many successes of our multi-talented Boarders and so much more.

Our School Principal, Dr Kate Hadwen, has always been a shining supporter of our Boarding family, and this term she demonstrated this by travelling, with her husband Matt, 2,500kms around country NSW visiting new, current and past Boarding families. I know the families appreciated her time and company and it was gratifying to hear the feedback about how delighted families are with the care that our staff give so generously and consistently every day.

I’m happy to share the joy and friendship amongst our boarders in our Day in the Life of a Year 7 Boarder video. You may watch here. Enjoy!

2025 Orientation Dates

We will begin our pre-commencement program in October and all new 2025 families will receive formal information about this in August. For Year 7 parents in particular, this will include information on choosing your daughter’s laptop device (Mac or PC), language preference along with instructions for purchasing uniforms and textbooks.

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 19 June – Year 11 Subject Selection Evening
Thursday 12 September – Years 8,9,10 Subject Selection Evening
Monday 14 October – Year 7 2025 Parent Information Evening
Friday 25 October – Year 7 2025 Links Day with our current Year 6 students
Friday 25 October – Year 7 Boarder sleepover.
Saturday 26 October – combined Year 7 2025 Spirit House and Assessment Morning
Friday 8 November – Boarders ‘hit the town’ and sleepover
Thursday 30 January 2025 – Orientation Day Years 1 to Year 11
Wednesday 29 January 2025 – Boarders’ orientation Years 7 to Year 11

2025 Term Dates

The term dates for 2025 have been released and are available on our website.

Should you anticipate a change in circumstances, please notify the College by contacting the Enrolments Department on +61 2 9855 7613 or email enrol@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au 

There is so much to look forward to here at Pymble and we look forward to welcoming families who are joining us next year and in the near future.

Scholarship opportunities at Pymble Ladies’ College

Registrations open for 2026 scholarships on Monday 6 May including:

Year 7 and Year 11 Academic Scholarships

Year 7 Performance Scholarship – Music
Year 7 Alanda Clark, Jane Gay and Prudence Papworth Boarding scholarship
Year 7 to 10 Boarding Rural/Regional Scholarship and
Year 11 Ex-Students’ Union scholarships

A limited number of full or part-scholarships are offered. If you are interested in applying, please refer to the College Scholarship webpages here.

I look forward to meeting up with you or talking with you at the many opportunities we have over the coming year. To stay connected to the College, please see Pymble’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn pages.   

Clair Stock
Enrolments Manager 7-12

Junior School Enrolment Update

Welcome to our first Junior School newsletter for the 2024 academic year.

As we mark the end of Term 1, we celebrate what has been an accomplished and fulfilling term as we welcomed our girls to a new academic year at Pymble. We also welcomed a great number of new families and their girls to our Junior School’s community of kindness and sisterhood.

For many young girls and particularly those commencing in Kindergarten, the transition to a new school can be both exciting and daunting. Here at Pymble, the Junior School’s culture of kindness fosters a sense of sisterhood and enables girls to cultivate strong bonds with one another. They are encouraged to support one another and celebrate each other’s achievements, all while enjoying a purposeful environment for uninhibited growth and learning. This sense of camaraderie creates an empowering community where girls can express themselves authentically and pursue their passions. This is particularly evident in subjects like STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), where girls are not bound by social conventions and are encouraged to explore and excel in traditionally male-dominated fields to ensure they are included in a substantial and dynamic segment of the workforce of the future.

The Junior School’s prioritisation of the well-being and integration of all new students ensures that every girl feels heard and valued so they can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. for our new students and their families joining us next year for the start of their Pymble journey, your family has much to look forward to.

We look forward to welcoming families who are joining us next year and in the coming years. For families joining us next year, we will soon begin our 2025 pre-commencement program and all new 2025 families will receive information about this in August.

Should you anticipate a change in your circumstances, please notify the College by contacting the Enrolments Department on +61 2 9855 7613 or email enrol@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au

To stay connected to the College, please see Pymble’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn pages.

Melinda Clements
Enrolment Manager K-6

From the Head of our Junior School

The girls arrived for the start of the academic year with huge smiles, positive spirits and excitement for their learning adventures. We warmly welcomed many new families to our Junior School community of kindness and I have enjoyed getting to know everyone during the term.

This year, as a Junior School, I am asking the girls to ‘notice’ more. Inspired by my reading of the wonderful picture book Noticing by Kobi Yamada, I am challenging the girls to be curious in their learning, to wonder and question.

Our Junior School continues to have a key focus on the power of kindness as I believe this is a critical strength in the world today. Sometimes acts or words of kindness are mistakenly viewed as weakness. I don’t agree. I believe kindness is strength. If we can empower our girls to walk through life with kindness, they will change the world. This kindness needs to start within themselves.

During Term 1, we focused on Kindness to Self, encouraging each girl to notice her passions and to know or discover what makes her the extraordinary young person we know her to be.

We want each of our girls to be kind to themselves, and to:

like herself; her mind and her body, and know she is loved for who she is
be prepared to challenge her thinking and embrace learning that is tricky, knowing that she can achieve great learning if she tries
approach problems and mistakes she makes in her learning with a resilient mindset and trusting her capabilities.
face the unknown with creativity and courage, knowing she has the inner strength to explore new opportunities
have enough sleep each night so she can embrace her learning opportunities with enthusiasm and a mind ready to learn.
notice the ways she can be her healthiest self through a balance of movement and rest; energy and calm

Together with the girls, we have explored the many ways we can be kind to ourselves, and we hope the girls continue to celebrate themselves for the extraordinary energy and heart they bring to our school.

Throughout the term I spoke to the girls about our four ‘Kindness to Self’ facts:

I will speak to myself with a kind voice (talking to myself as I would speak to a best friend)
I will be nervous sometimes, and that’s okay
I will have a go
I will make mistakes, and that’s okay.

This term, our focus will be on Kindness to Others and it promises to be another busy and rewarding term.

I look forward to meeting you soon.

Kate Brown
Head of Junior School

News from Middle School

A focus on the Middle School (Years 7 and 8)

It doesn’t take long for our Year 7 and 8 students to settle into their routines and step up to the challenges of Secondary School, as they become more organised and class work demands further consolidation. Teachers reported within three weeks that the girls were actively engaged across the curriculum and happily invested in their learning.

A lot happens within one term at Pymble and I thought sharing some highlights might be beneficial to you as you anticipate your daughter’s start at the College in the coming years.

We are lucky to have a leadership program at Pymble that provides liaison opportunities for our older students to assist with bringing joy and community spirit to the younger girls.

Our Year 12 Middle School Liaison Leaders have been running Gloucester Gathering activities for our Year 7 and 8 students at lunch times on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students are encouraged to drop in with friends or to join in to build new connections and friendships. Activities include beaded bracelet craft, friendship bracelet weaving, a friendly game of volleyball or dance-off competitions.

In early March the College, and in particular the Middle School, celebrated International Women’s Day. The theme for this year was Inspiring Inclusion/ Inspiring Creativity.  In preparation, the Middle School used some of their Mind Body Spirit (MBS) time after lunch to reflect on what inclusion looks and feels like. Everyone was asked to select a special themed postcard and make a commitment to how they could live the College values and foster inclusivity within their own lives. These pledges were displayed as reminders of the importance of fostering inclusive behaviour. 

Our Year 8 Middle School Leaders were invited along with Upper School to attend the Fearless Future Summit: A Summit for Female Changemakers. The Summit is a one-day student leadership, giving girls an opportunity to develop their leadership skills, practice wellbeing, and engage with experienced mentors in a supportive and interactive environment.

Some selected Middle School girls were invited to attend our contracted architect BVN’s head office in the city to see and hear about their designs for Pymble’s new Grey House Precinct build which is now under construction. One student reported it as “an out of world experience and incredible to see all the hard work that gets put in behind the scenes and the amount of careful planning and designing it takes, gaining me a new level of respect for all the interior designers and architects.”

To finish off the term our Year 7s all participated in a week-long camp at Vision Valley (our outdoor education campus). Girls rotated through a number of activities: high ropes, leap of faith, team-building games, hiking and canoeing along with camping at Crosslands Reserve. For many it was a highlight, whilst others embraced the challenge of the expedition feeling great pride on completion. 

Finally, applications and formal interviews were conducted amongst our Year 8 students seeking to participate in our National Exchange program where students spend a week interstate attending an affiliate school and hosted by their families. The National Exchange program is an opportunity to build independence and confidence and make new connections. This is a reciprocal in-home hosting exchange between the two schools and the two families.

Amazing Amber’s mathematical first for Pymble

A huge congratulations to Amber in Year 10 who achieved an amazing result representing Australia at the 2024 European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad.

The European Girls Mathematical Olympiad first started in 2012 and is considered the most prestigious mathematics competition for girls, in the world. Amber is the first Pymble student to be selected and attend.

Amber and her fellow Australian team members ranked second out of 54 participating countries, which is the highest result the Australian team has ever achieved since first entering the competition in 2018.

Additionally, each member of the Australian team achieved individual gold medals during the competition, with Amber tying for 6th place overall individually!

Well done to Amber and her Australian team mates who have made us so proud, not only of their wonderful result but also for their hard work and courage.

International Women’s Day

Pymble was proud to partner with The Australian Financial Review for the second year to create this special International Women’s Day (IWD) magazine, reflecting our joint commitment to building a more diverse, equitable and inclusive world.

This is an important statement to the girls we educate and the business community they aspire to join. We timed this intentionally to coincide with IWD, a day designed to embrace equality and celebrate the achievements of women. However, this is not just a one-day campaign but part of an ongoing conversation and commitment to change.

Our girls celebrated across the campus, reflecting on women who inspire them and how they can be supportive and inclusive to others. Some of our Secondary School students also attended the UN Women Sydney IWD Lunch at the ICC which celebrated this year’s theme ‘Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress‘.

International Women’s Day provides a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the contribution of women and girls, and we hope our girls will carry this with them throughout the year.

Alumni Inspiration

Ruby Nicholas (2022)

Congratulations to Australia’s newest Rugby Sevens representative, and Pymble alumni, Ruby Nicholas (2022) on her first international game in Hong Kong last month and a sensational try on debut!

Ruby was Rugby Captain at Pymble and a member of our Pymble Elite Sports Women Program (PESP). This is a tailored program that supports students throughout their sporting and academic endeavours, while being mindful of their wellbeing. PESP was established in 2007 to assist our elite athletes in balancing their academic studies with their sporting commitments. Eligibility for the program requires the girls to be in a state-represented team competing at national championships for team sports or place at state championships in individual sports such as swimming or athletics.

Ruby is pictured below in a photo recreation with Charlotte Coslick, Australian Rugby Sevens Captain, after being presented with her Australian jersey in Hong Kong.

We’ll be cheering Ruby on in her next international game in HSBC SVNS Singapore this Friday 3 May. The game will be screened in Australia on Stan Sport.

Mr Pryor takes on the world

Mr Lachlan Pryor

Junior School is living by the motto ‘Hear us Roar in 2024′ by finding opportunities to support one another and celebrate our different passions.

As an elite sailor, Year 5 teacher Mr Pryor shared his love of sailing with some of our Year 5 students who were delighted to go to Double Bay to support him when he competed in the World 18ft Skiff Championships.

The girls made sails with good luck messages to wish him well, and Mr Pryor took some time to teach them more about sailing, enhancing their understanding of forces in action with his knowledge of aerodynamics through his sailing experience.

Pymble partners with Lauren Jackson

Pymble Ladies’ College is proud to announce our partnership with Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson and the launch of the Lauren Jackson Basketball Academy.

Lauren Jackson is arguably Australia’s most successful and decorated basketball player, male or female, with four Olympic medals including three silver medals and one bronze. She is also a WNBA championship winner, FIBA World Championship medallist, the only Australian inductee in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Head of Women’s Basketball for Basketball Australia.

Dr Kate Hadwen launched the Academy at the Lauren Jackson WNBL tribute game between the Southside Flyers and the Sydney Flames at Qudos Arena.

“Pymble Ladies College is proud to have partnered with Lauren to launch the Lauren Jackson Basketball Academy,” she said. “We’re really excited to be partnering with this home-grown, NSW hero and to be here to support Lauren today.”

Our Basketball Captain, Yvette, was also interviewed on court to discuss her Pymble basketball journey.

The Lauren Jackson Basketball Academy is open to all Pymble Ladies’ College students from Year 3 to Year 12 of all experience levels and abilities, wanting to improve their basketball skills.

The program includes an in-person basketball camp with Lauren Jackson, six multi-directional speed sessions with Head Coach and professional basketballer Rachel Maenpaa, an online Q&A session with Lauren, six sprint sessions with Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, 12 basketball skill sessions with the Lauren Jackson Academy coaches and a basketball-specific strength and conditioning program.

Thank you, Rachel and Lauren, for creating this incredible program for Pymble’s aspiring Opals!

Head of the River

Pymble supporters flocked to the Sydney International Regatta Centre on the first weekend in March to cheer on our rowing crews as they took on the NSW Schoolgirl Head of the River.

Our rowers have been working hard throughout the year in the lead up to this event, which marks the final race of the rowing season. We are #pymbleproud of all of our rowers for all their hard work, and a special mention to our 1st and 2nd Eight teams who both achieved second place!

Pymbulletin

Pymbulletin is our magazine-style publication covering student, staff and College news, initiatives, events and achievements. Read the 2023 edition here.

Congratulations to our Class of 2023

Our 2023 HSC Results Booklet provides an overview of the outstanding academic and co-curricular success of our students, as well as some personal stories of achievement and their future learning destinations.

Congratulations to our Class of 2023 for the completion of their education at Pymble and for their exceptional HSC results.

This is Pymble College

From day one, Pymble has forged paths for women where there were none.

We have educated scientists, artists, community leaders, politicians, doctors, lawyers, musicians, athletes, entrepreneurs, Olympians and countless influential and compassionate women. Read about our past, present and future as we celebrate 105 years.