Passion Zone: Principal’s Project showcased a “whole lot of heart”

Friday 12 June, 2020

More than 200 students and their families participated in our Principal’s Project, using the recent term break to embark on all kinds of wonderful creative and community-minded endeavours.

Girls from across the five schools signed up to research, write, create, collaborate, document and follow our brief to incorporate the six global competencies (communication, creativity, citizenship, collaboration, critical thinking and character) in their projects. These ranged from knitting squares for blankets and teddies for sick people in hospital, to building a community street library, designing original boardgames, quilting and sewing, making thousands of bookmarks and origami hearts for students and staff, writing short stories or cookbooks, documenting history and launching websites. Submitted by individuals or groups, the projects were phenomenal, which is particularly impressive given that all work had to be completed in the holidays after an intense few weeks of remote learning with Pymble Online.

“The Principal’s Project was deliberately launched to coincide with our holidays in self-isolation to give the girls something challenging and meaningful to engage in,” Dr Hadwen said.

“While entirely optional, the response was nothing short of amazing; I am so proud of the projects produced by everyone who took part. The initiative was designed to engage and extend the girls, and it also showcased a whole lot of heart and community spirit which was just so beautiful to see shining through their work.”

Pymble’s Director of Innovative Learning Technologies, Mr Anthony England, explained that one of the benefits of the project was that each student made their own decision about what they would focus on, and the students were in the driver’s seat the whole way.

“The projects were passion driven and challenged by choice,” Mr England said, adding that some girls took on more than one project.

With the help of the Heads of School, Dr Hadwen narrowed down the submissions to arrive at the winners for each year group below. These girls will receive their official awards at the end of the year at the Speech Day/Night ceremonies. Our Principal also hosted a virtual pizza party for the finalists, which provided a great opportunity for the girls to chat about their projects.

Year 2

Aarna Ashwin (Golden Wattle bookmarks)
Charlotte Wu (Boardgame)

Year 3

Amelia Hardas (Knitted teddy bears)
Nikita Orena Barlin (Cupcake cookbook)

Year 4

Chloe Shao (Chinese Zodiac bookmarks)

Year 5

Georgia Yuen (Kindness quilt)
Lara Waterhouse (3,500 origami hearts)

Year 6

Isabella Pak (Researched ancestry)
Grace Beck (Kindness scarves)

Year 7

Group – Maya Garg, Christiana Soo, Ella Liu, Sophia Chang (Online wellbeing challenge)
Scarlett Miles (Short film about self-esteem)

Year 8

Group – Anna Ward, Georgia Bicego, Maiya Foster, Emma Eaton, Sophie Wang, Charlotte Wykes, Katie Sung (Through the Decades)
Arya Kalantri (Global perspectives video)

Year 9

Freya Carmody (Song composition)
Caitlyn Tan (Short story – Unblinded)

Year 10

Angelica Tan (Short story – Unblinded)
Emma Liu (Artworks and COVID-19 masks)

Year 11

Mackenzie Watkins (Mac’s Reading Corner)
Emma Peters (Virtual Exchange)

Year 12

Group – Carina Ma, Teresa Su (Invest in Green website)
Group – Amy Shi, Emma Ashley, Joy Luo, Daisy Ai (Global Voices)

All students who submitted a project were also eligible for the much-coveted prize of a private online viewing of Dr Hadwen’s impressive shoe closet.

To hear more about our Principal’s Project, please enjoy this video from Dr Hadwen.