From the Principal
Season’s greetings from your Pymble family.
It’s hard to believe another year has gone by and our Class of 2023 has now joined your ranks.
You may recall 2023 was designated as the year of Pymble Gives Back. I’m so proud to report this has been a roaring success, with students from K-12, staff and families all contributing to a multi-faceted year-long program built around being of service to others.
Some of the initiatives involved gifting time, understanding and friendship – our Junior School girls visiting elderly residents in aged care facilities to chat and act as technology trouble-shooters spring to mind here, as do our army of volunteers for our annual Sony Camp for children with special needs. Others engaged students in creating items or care packages, such as Happy Boxes of personal care items for girls and women in remote communities in Australia, and reusable menstruation products for Days for Girls.
In addition, many students took on personal passion projects to raise money for charities, such as The Pymble Pantry Cookbook of recipes from our community, inspired by our 2023 Food Technology Captain.
And across K-12, students also gave back to the environment, on campus clean ups, finding new ways to reduce waste, and looking after the grounds at Pymble and Vision Valley.
Collectively, we filled three massive donation bins many times over with clothing and blankets for Wayside Chapel, The Smith Family and The Salvation Army. And we hosted multiple fundraising events, including our fabulous Garden Party. It is such a joy to share with you that, in addition to performing countless acts of service towards others, our community raised $53,562 to distribute among more than 40 charities including:
Asylum Seekers Centre, Australian Children’s Music Foundation, Balmoral Swim for Cancer, Barbara May Foundation, Canteen, Colour Run, CWA Days for Girls, Deadly Connections, Exodus Foundation, Givit, Happy Boxes, Heart Foundation, Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Women’s Shelter, Indigenous Literacy Foundation, Jeans4Genes, Legacy, McGrath Foundation, Meals on Wheels, NORTH Foundation, OzHarvest, Pushing Barriers, Reach Out, Red Cross Ukraine Crisis, Redfern Jarjum College, Rural Fire Service, RUOK Day, Sathya Sai College, School of St Jude (Tanzania), Share the Dignity, Taldumande Youth Services, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, The Kids’ Cancer Project, The Smith Family, Turkey Syria Earthquake Appeal, UN Women, Wayside Chapel, Wear it Purple, Westmead Children’s Eye Clinic, World Ocean Day, Write a Book in a Day, and Young Crisis Accommodation Centre.
On Friday 8 December, more than 400 staff rolled up their sleeves and gave their time to one of the above organisations in our annual Pymble Gives Back day to be of service out and about in the community. Personally, I loved spending time with the residents at Uniting Northhaven Turramurra for the day.
In other exciting news, this year saw the launch of our Pymble Foundation and inaugural Pymble Foundation Ball, both of which inspired our generous community to donate more than $200,000 to offer deserving students an opportunity to attend Pymble. In 2024 we will welcome three new Pymble Foundation Scholars, all young refugees from Afghanistan who managed to escape to safety in Australia from their homeland after the Taliban claimed power. College volunteers have been getting to know these delightful girls throughout the year by running various programs for them, including after-hours reading support and swimming lessons, and of course we also continue to host the annual Her Village Championship Festival at Pymble, launched by one of our recent graduates in her final year of school to welcome newly arrived Afghan refugees to our community.
Our three new scholars from Afghanistan will be joining our first Foundation bursary recipient, who commenced at the College in 2023 after she and her family fled Ukraine during the war.
There are so many more examples of how our wonderful community has been of service to others in 2023, but I’m sure you get the big, beautiful picture. To all who have gifted their time to support our Pymble students, staff or alumni this year, thank you. And thank you to all those who gave to our Foundation’s Annual Appeal and attended or contributed to the Foundation Ball in one way or another to help achieve this incredible outcome of gifting four students from war-torn or conflict-riddled countries a life-changing Pymble education. I can’t tell you how #PymbleProud this makes me.
Signing off with heartfelt gratitude and all my best wishes for a safe and merry Christmas, hopefully surrounded by family, friends and loved ones.
Dr Kate Hadwen