Rebecca Reardon (Scott, 1989)

From as early as I can remember, I knew I was going to Pymble Ladies’ College as a boarder. It was just the way it was.

My great aunt Isabel McKinney, known as Auntie, was the first of our family to go to Pymble in 1924. She was one of those high achievers, attaining her leaving certificate in 1928 while holding the role of head prefect and winning the Marden Prize, Gold Medallion and dux of her year.

The old oak desk she was given as a prize stands in my hallway today and Pymble’s administration centre is named after her. She went on to be a trailblazer for women in her day, including obtaining a BA with Honours in 1933, being one of the first three women on the Pymble Ladies’ College council (from 1933 to 1977) and captaining the Australian hockey team.

Auntie never had children, so I was like a granddaughter to her. She died in 2008 and was honoured by the school who allowed her funeral to be held in the War Memorial Chapel at her beloved Pymble Ladies’ College.

My grandmother also attended Pymble in 1928, although she lasted only a year. Being a country girl at heart, she was extremely unhappy and left to go to New England Girls’ School in Armidale. Despite this, she subsequently still sent her only daughter away to attend Pymble, my mother.

My mum, also named Isabel McKinney, started boarding in 1954 at the tender age of six. Now as a mother myself, I can’t imagine sending my child away at such a young age. Coming from the outback in southern Queensland, Mum could barely read. She was always a bit of a wild child, so she threw herself into sports instead.

Mum spent 11 years in boarding and graduated in 1964. She married Leigh Scott in 1969 and together they farmed and raised a family in Cootamundra where they still reside today.

I started my boarding journey at Pymble in 1984, and at the time I was completely oblivious to what my parents had given up sending my three brothers and I to boarding school. It is something we don’t realise until the time comes to send our own children.

I always knew I was going to Pymble. Maybe this is the reason why I don’t remember being homesick or having a good cry until about Term 3. Sport was always my escape. I played hockey, tennis, cricket and did athletics, and if I was playing sport, I was self-content.

I was in Goodlet House and in those days we sometimes slept on the veranda. I remember the veranda was left open except for when it rained, mind you it was not desirable to have a bed near the edge as rain invariably found its way through the gaps of the canvas blinds. But this was considered normal at the time, and no one complained.

We ate in same dining room the girls eat in today, but I remember there was a table up the front on a stage from where Headmistress, Miss Buckham, Head of Boarding, Miss Ollerenshaw and other mistresses would eat and look down on all of us.

The food was awful in my time compared to the delicious meals the girls receive today, and I have to say the gorgeous house mistresses that care for the girls today are exceptional compared to my day where pastoral care did not exist.

After school, I went off to study at Sydney University where I completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics Honours while living on one of the college’s campuses. I loved my university days and everything they had to offer.

I met my husband shortly after university, and it’s a rather corny story. I was a bridesmaid for my old school friend, Megan McAlpine, and my husband-to-be was a groomsman for Megan’s new husband. 

We did not marry for another ten years as I was too busy chasing my career. In that time, I also spent a year travelling overseas through Africa and Europe. I am a believer that if you are meant to be together, things will work out, and you shouldn’t live to regret not doing something.

I ended up working in the grain industry for 20 years in trading and management roles. This was a heavily male-dominated industry but to this day some of my best friends are those I made during my time living in Sydney.

During this time in 2003, I moved to Moree with my husband-to-be so he could return to his family farm. We had also started buying up our own land a few years earlier. We went on to have two gorgeous boys and a treasured girl in a four-year window. Having grown up with the freedom of being in the country, I would not have wanted to bring up my children anywhere else. Life was good.

But it was not all sunshine and roses. In 2011, my eldest son, aged five, fell ill with a disease known as aplastic anaemia and required chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately, it was quite a miracle that his little brother happened to be a perfect match.

It was a difficult period having to take things one day at a time while missing our other two children who had to live away from us whilst we spent several months in Sydney. People often say how unlucky we were – his condition affects approximately one in 500,000 people.

But we did not have time to wallow, nor have we ever felt unlucky. In fact, despite our challenges, we have always felt lucky. Our child survived and today he is a thriving teenager in perfect health who carves up the rugby field.

These difficult times taught us a few key lessons that will stay with us forever. Firstly, that life is not always fair. Secondly, that there is always someone worse off than you, and lastly, adults have a lot to learn from children and the way they approach adversity.

Today, my husband and I are still farming in Moree whilst I do boardroom work which I love the challenge of. My three children are at boarding school at Shore and Pymble.

My daughter Alex (aka Cabbage) only started boarding this year in Year 7. It was pretty much a forgone conclusion that she, like her mother and great aunty, would go to Pymble. I can picture the look of horror on both of their faces had I not sent her there.  

Like me, Alex always knew she was going to boarding school and has taken it in her stride. I look at all the opportunities Pymble offers today and quite often think to myself how lucky she is.