From the Principal
Hello, from your Pymble family. As always, we hope that wherever you are in the world, you and your loved ones are safe and well.
It certainly felt like the whole world was at Pymble for our annual Garden Party last month. Thank you to the wonderful volunteers who worked so hard to ensure the Chicken and Champagne stall was such a success (once again!), and to all who came to share the joy of this beautiful community event. While our Finance department is still crunching the numbers, we look forward to sharing the total amount raised on the day for Mahboba’s Promise and Her Village Foundation with you shortly.
Celebrating 110 Years and our Alumni in 2026
With our 110th birthday coming up in a few months, there will be many more opportunities to come back to the College to reconnect with us next year, including a special Chapel Service and Foundation Day assembly on Friday 13 February 2026, a sleepover in Goodlet House on Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 September 2026 and an unmissable concert at the Opera House on Friday 19 June 2026.
We will also be opening our newest addition to Pymble in 2026, the magnificent Grey House Precinct (GHP). Our Deputy Chair of the Pymble Foundation, Rebecca Sullivan (1985), reflects on the significance of the GHP for our current and future students, as well as opportunities to donate to the precinct, in her personal message to Alumni.
You may recall from the previous edition of the Jacaranda Post, we are currently working on a coffee table book as part of our birthday celebrations. Featuring Alumni from as recent as the Class of 2024 and as far back as 1945, the book aims to capture the essence of Pymble throughout the years and share stories of the many ways our graduates have gone on to change the world, in their own unique ways.
Thank you to those of you who wrote in to suggest notable inclusions; we look forward to launching this publication to our community on Foundation Day next year.
Look out world, here they come: Celebrating our Class of 2025
It’s school holidays as I write, and many of our current Year 12s are bunkered down in the Kate Mason Building on Study Camp, working their way through a last round of practice papers and feedback sessions with academic staff before their final HSC examinations begin on Thursday 16 October. Perhaps some of you remember that feeling of excitement tinged with nerves; of being so close to the end of school, with “just” that one last block of exams left to surmount.
With great excitement, the cohort received some exciting early indications of results for their major bodies of work and performances, including:
- The entire HSC Drama cohort has been nominated for OnSTAGE for their Group Performance, and eight students in the class have also been nominated for their Individual Performance.
- In HSC Dance, our students collectively have received 17 nominations for CALLBACK, with two students each claiming a triple!
- Three HSC Music 1, 2 and Extension students have received in total seven nominations for ENCORE.
- Three Design and Technology students each received a nomination for SHAPE.
- A further four Textiles and Design students have also been nominated for possible inclusion in SHAPE.
Meanwhile, our Visual Arts students are anxiously awaiting the results of their practical work, with nominations for ARTEXPRESS still being determined.
At the Year 12 Speech Day prior to the break, we acknowledged the vast and varied achievements of this beautiful cohort of young adults, and the wonderful head start in life they have all received thanks to their education at Pymble. As always, the thunderous applause and resounding cheers from their peers for our major prize winners made our hearts swell with Pymble pride.
- Tully Black, Evelyn Zhu: The School Prize
- Lauren Korenblyum: The Marden Prize
- Olivia Xu: Dux of the School (Sir Robert Gillespie Memorial Prize)
We send this cohort off with all our respect and best wishes, and high hopes they will continue to stay connected with each other and you, as their Alumni sisters, through our Pymble Connections platform. If you haven’t already signed up for membership to this exclusive platform, feel free to find out more and register here.
Until we meet again – hopefully, sooner rather than later – take care.
Dr Kate Hadwen