From the Principal
Hello from all of us here at Pymble.
As we head into the Christmas holiday break, we have much to celebrate here at the College. In exciting news, our Year 12 students have achieved outstanding results in all HSC subjects with performance or major work requirements. Across Drama, Dance, Music, Textiles and Design, Visual Arts, and Design and Technology, Pymble students received 82 nominations in total for the NSW showcase or exhibition of exemplary work in these courses. We are incredibly proud of our Class of 2024 and look forward to sharing their full HSC results with you when they are released.
Wise Phones replace smartphones at Pymble
We are also thrilled to see our Pymble Wise Phone initiative has been received as we hoped – with excitement and relief that the College has delivered a practical solution for our students and their families.
In case you missed the news, the College has offered to provide all current and incoming students in Years 4 to 8 2025 with a Pymble Wise Phone, which will give them access to age-appropriate mobile phone features, including camera, tap payments, SMS, geo-tracking and other tools, while disabling social media apps and internet browser until they reach 16 years of age. This is in response to research and extensive consultation with students and parents confirming the negative impact of social media and endless scrolling.
To date, two-thirds of students in Years 4 and 5, along with the entire Year 6 and Year 7 cohorts have opted in and the remaining Year 4 and 5 students have chosen no phone, for now.
It’s a bold step, we know, but one our community is proud to take together to reclaim childhood for our girls. Our hope is that by going down this pathway, other communities will follow suit and help us create a better world for all our young people.
Visions from ‘The Valley’
Meanwhile, work continues to enhance the incredible facilities at Vision Valley, our Outdoor Education site at Arcadia in north-west Sydney, just 45 minutes’ drive away from our main campus.
You may be aware the College purchased the site from Wesley Mission in 2020 to provide the missing piece of our Watch Us Change the World strategy. Vision Valley has since become ‘base camp’ for our Outdoor Education Continuum for K-12, which empowers our girls to be courageous and to approach new challenges with optimism and excitement. Focus areas of the continuum include personal growth, connection to peers, life skills, leadership and environmental stewardship, developed through a series of progressively challenging outdoor experiences for students to navigate, together, in a safe and facilitated manner.
For instance, our Kindergarten to Year 2 girls start off with short daytime sessions of nature walking, bush art and campfire experiences before stepping up to their first overnight experience at Vision Valley in Year 3, followed by multi-day adventure-based learning programs in Years 4 to 6. Year 7 students spend five days based at the Valley, hiking, paddling and camping. Year 8 builds on these skills with a five-day expedition to Colo River, and Year 9 undertake our flagship Residential Program, where they live onsite at Vision Valley for four weeks and undertake a series of short off-site expeditions in surrounding bushlands, beaches and national parks. On selected Year 9 Residential Programs our girls are joined by boys from partner schools as part of our commitment to providing genuine co-educational opportunities to develop healthy and respectful relationships.
We have worked incredibly hard to ensure our vision for our Outdoor Education Continuum and its benefits are known and understood by students and their families, especially in relation to our Year 9 Residential Program, which is also tech-free (and therefore phone-free) for the entire four weeks. I’m thrilled to say this world-leading program has continued to go from strength to strength and is now an important rite of passage for our Upper School girls, as evidenced by feedback from the girls and research into the program by the University of Western Sydney. Post-program surveys show an increase in confidence and resilience (100%), self-reliance and independence (97.4%), and the development of respectful relationships (90.4%) among both female and male participants. We are incredibly proud of our girls for embracing this opportunity with a ‘have a go’ attitude that builds each year as they progress through our series of outdoor experiences.
Vision Valley grows more potential for new learning opportunities every day, with landscaping that now reflects the natural environment, and which will ultimately add more flat camping spaces for our Outdoor Education Programs and family events.
This landscaping work is in addition to new facilities which will be completed shortly, including the Kookaburra and Wedgetail Outdoor Learning Classrooms.
Hopefully, you are as excited as we are about the opportunity for your daughter to step outside her comfort zones and experience a whole new world of learning at Vision Valley in the company of supportive peers and our fully qualified Outdoor Education team. As you can see from the feedback below, our students and their families have noted an increase in confidence, resilience, and sense of belonging, and we have no doubt your daughter will, too.
“I love that you can let your imagination run wild at Vision Valley.”
– Year 5 student
“I never thought I’d be up for a camping experience but I was very motivated by my daughter’s sense of adventure and her love for Vision Valley. She really encouraged me to take the leap. It was a bonding experience on so many levels; with my daughter, with other mums, and for my daughter with her friends. Most definitely a weekend to remember for us, and I hope I get to experience it again one day!”
– Mother of Year 4 student (after the Mum and Daughter campout)
“…we discovered that we really liked spending time outdoors, and that it helps strengthen our bonds and connections with those around us. It just kind of changes you.”
– Year 9 student
“I definitely feel more confident and am less likely to be upset by setbacks.”
– Year 9 student
“To see your child return with this huge inside light on and just feel like they can achieve anything and do anything makes me feel very emotional.”
– Parent of student on Year 9 program
We have much to be grateful for, and much to look forward to. For now, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year until we connect again in 2025.
Clair Stock
