Farewell Year 12
Hello, from your Pymble family.
Once again, it’s the time of year when we farewell our Year 12 students at our traditional Final Assembly, Chapel Service, Speech Day, and Boarding and Valedictory Dinners before they sit for their HSC examinations. Our Class of 2023 has reached a significant milestone in their lives, one you will no doubt remember from your own time here. Congratulations to the cohort and all our Speech Day prize recipients, including:
The School Prize – Abigail Ballhausen and Wynter O’Regan
The Marden Prize – Jessie Xie
Dux of the School – Sophia Gao and Angie Wang
One of the less-formal traditions I have come to love at Pymble is the prefect ‘theme’ for each year, selected by our Year 12 student leaders at the start of Term 1. Each cohort’s theme reflects the way they hope to interact with and unite the entire student body as leaders of the College, and this year’s was a perfect choice.
“You’ve got a friend in me” was inspired by the Toy Story movies, and perfectly captures the spirit of friendship, support and guardianship our Class of 2023 demonstrated during their time at Pymble. We give thanks for the unique gifts and talents each student has brought and will continue to bring to our community. We also give thanks to parents for giving their daughters the gift of a Pymble education and the sense of belonging to our Pymble family, whose care for you continues long after your last lesson or exam on campus.
As Pymble alumni, your wellbeing and progress through life continues to matter to us, and has prompted a range of post-school initiatives, including ongoing access to the Benestar online coaching and support service, career networking opportunities such as our Alumni Networking Event, and career mentoring programs such as PymConnect and the Alumni Mentor Group. And it goes without saying that we continue to take child protection in all its forms seriously. Should you ever have concerns about a Pymble student’s care, safety or wellbeing, whether that’s in a current or a historical context, please do not hesitate to contact me directly and in confidence via khadwen@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au. Your concerns will be treated in confidence and given prompt attention.
The following link outlines further details about our Complaints Policy, which exists to serve all members of our Pymble family.
Being of service to others is a big part of life at Pymble, and this year was our self-declared year of Pymble Gives Back initiatives, some of which have revolved around supporting newly arrived refugee children from Afghanistan.
This Saturday night, the College will host our inaugural Pymble Foundation Ball to raise funds to support future generations of Pymble students. One of the three focus areas of the Pymble Foundation is to provide means-tested bursaries for deserving students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the gift of a Pymble education, along with supporting our master plan program of building and upgrading facilities and additional programs for our girls. Our aim is to provide three new bursaries for refugees from Afghanistan to commence at Pymble in 2024; this is in addition to the one currently supporting a student who was displaced from her home in Ukraine during the current war with Russia.
Finally, a huge thank you to our alumni who joined us at our annual Commemoration Day Service on Sunday 30 July. It’s always a joy to connect with alumni from different eras in the life of Pymble, and a special thank you to Helen Jarvis (Fisher 1989) for speaking about the joy of giving to back, a topic close to our hearts. Thank you also to all those who supported our Garden Party on September 16 as a guest or contributor – it was such a glorious day of community in every sense of the word.
Our next significant College event – another tradition many of you will remember well – is our Jacaranda Day Service on Tuesday 14 November, when we come together to reaffirm and celebrate our commitment to being of service to others. This commitment to giving, like our glorious jacaranda tree in full bloom, is one of the many joys of our community. If you’d love to sit on Gloucester Lawn once again and join us in celebrating our truly beautiful Pymble family, just let us know in an email to kcorcoran@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au.
We hope to see you soon.
Dr Kate Hadwen