HouseNews

Master Plan

As you have been advised the next section of our Master Plan has begun. Yes, there are inconveniences, however the result will be a marvellous addition to our School, and we need to keep the final product in sight over the coming months. Resilience is certainly something that the past three years has taught us.  On this fly-through you can view the works scheduled over the coming years. Note in particular the first half of the fly-through which shows how the Senior School upgrades will look once complete.

To the new families and the new members of Staff, a very warm welcome. You will have read of the challenges facing the staffing of all schools, with COVID and the flu continuing to play havoc, and Pittwater House too, has had challenges in finding the best fit for our current needs. Please make these folk welcome. And to our 11 new students; we hope your journey with us will be a happy and successful one.

Sad news occurred in the holidays with the passing of the inaugural Head of the Girls College, Mrs Jocelyn Alexander. I was privileged to attend her funeral last week and hear once more the impact she had on many students from 1975 to 2001. She began this role with a mere six girls… today we have 450 girls at Pittwater House! 

Vale Mrs Jocelyn Alexander

Last week we gathered to farewell a Pittwater House treasure, Mrs Jocelyn Alexander. Jocelyn was born in rural New Zealand, one of three children and moved to Australia with her husband in the early 1970s.  Jocelyn had a history of teachers in her family and as such, the love of learning and the joy of witnessing children embrace new knowledge seemed a natural path for her to embrace.

As the then Pittwater House Grammar School, founded in 1961, grew from educating boys to providing a similar opportunity for girls on the Northern Beaches, Mrs Jocelyn Alexander was selected to become the first Head of The Girls’ College in 1975. Then, as the School expanded to include girls of primary school age, Mrs Alexander was drawn to educating the younger students. Many hundreds of alumni, both girls and boys, will remember Mrs Alexander fondly as she brought her love of literature to life in the classroom and encouraged self-belief and a passion for learning in her students, especially in the early years of school.

After retiring in 2001, Jocelyn was a favourite casual teacher in the Junior School for many years with her love for the profession and young children always on display. Jocelyn would often return to Pittwater House for special School events as she loved to see the ANZAC Services, Easter Hat Parades and Christmas Concerts. Jocelyn enjoyed visiting the classrooms, mixing with staff members known and new, always interested in educational matters and updates and loved talking to the children.

Being a particularly independent lady, Jocelyn undertook many solo adventures fulfilling her love of travel, driving manual vehicles well into her eighties. Jocelyn remained an active member of Probus taking on the treasurer’s role! and belonged to the Sydney City Choir, participating in their events as often as she was able.

Jocelyn always maintained her presence as a lady, as she preferred. She was the consummate professional in every sense of the word, a font of knowledge and experience in our field of education, a dear friend and colleague who was always ready to listen and advise, an experienced teacher who only had words of encouragement and support for parents, and a gentle and kind-hearted teacher who cherished the opportunity to share her love of learning with her students.

Mrs Jocelyn Alexander will be remembered for her inspirational and encouraging approach to educating all in the Pittwater House family. 

The Winter Recess has been an extraordinary experience for 28 students who spent the past two weeks in Cape York in two indigenous communities north of Cooktown. Accompanied by Ms Burke and Ms Brady, the students were immersed in the life and culture of the area, and we are looking forward to these students sharing some of their learnings with us. 

Additionally, 42 students headed to the ski fields to take part in the Interschools Snowsports Championships. A marvellous week was held with great, though increasingly icy, snow. Mrs Mano, Ms Lee, Mr Pears, Mr Roberts, and Mr Carruthers are full of praise for the attitude and teamwork the students brought to the time together.

My sincere thanks to these seven members of Staff for supporting our students and giving up their much-needed holiday break. The optimism they have shown through their appreciation that their work on these field trips will increase our students’ choices and capacity in the future, is what makes schools like ours, special.

And on Monday, our day of Professional Development for Staff, continued this expectation that all education is future focused. The teaching staff worked with Dr Mark Williams on the Neuroscience of Leaning and ‘Engaging our HEROIC Learners’ as a part of our day of meetings whilst our Business Services Staff also were engaged in appropriate professional learning.

As we begin a new Semester, I share our goal once more, that we seek to educate our students to be good, kind and empathetic to all as they seek to care about each other, that they look for opportunities to help those in our wider community who do not have our good fortune and for all in the Pittwater House family, including students, Staff and our parents, to seek solutions in the face of disagreement. I would hope that our students will live a life where they protect the weak, give voice to those without the power of speech and accept those who are different; let us work on being a kinder, gentler, and more accepting community, each day. 

This week we are fortunate that Florence in Year 6 has written about her own experiences using collaboration skills. I’m sure that you will agree how articulately this article is written. Well done Florence!

If you would like to contribute to HouseNews then please email our Co-ordinator of High Potential and Gifted Students at: victoria.james@tphs.nsw.edu.au 

Collaboration: A life tool - by Florence, Year 6  

Collaboration is 'the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing' (Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2022). As this piece of writing will demonstrate, collaboration is a very useful tool that can have many great and impactful outcomes. We often collaborate at school, but collaboration occurs throughout life. In the first paragraph, we will look at how collaboration operates by itself and in the second, how it can sometimes be merged with co-operation.

One activity that involves pure collaboration is navigation. It requires the navigator and driver to collaborate well and be on the same page for the journey to run smoothly and achieve the end goal. An example of this is when my mum and I were on a road trip heading to Goulburn. We were using a road atlas and a GPS. However, my mum missed a freeway entrance, and the GPS took us on a narrow and bumpy road full of potholes. In order to keep the situation under control, we each had a part to play. I was keeping my mum informed as to how many kilometres were left, and she was driving and watching out for potholes. This worked well until we came to a loose gravel road. We then together made the decision to turn around. We collaborated with each other to efficiently find another route and get back on track.

In some instances, collaboration and co-operation are combined. First, let us look at what it means to co-operate: 'to be helpful by doing what someone asks you to do' (Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2022). This means that there are at least two parties who have a certain goal in mind who then bring in others to help them reach it. For example, my mum and I recently found a bird that was struggling and possibly injured in a churchyard. We called WIRES who recommended that we contain the bird and wait for a volunteer to arrive. In this case, we were collaborating with WIRES to achieve the outcome of saving the bird. A café nearby co-operated by giving us a cardboard box, newspaper and napkins. However, as WIRES were unable to give us an arrival time, we needed some further help. We went to the parish office where the secretary co-operated by providing the bird with a basket and a blanket. A man who worked in the parish office drove us to the nearest WIRES vet as we did not have a car with us at the time. The following day, we received an email from the vet saying that the bird had been checked over and had been released back into the wild. In this instance, we collaborated with WIRES and co-operated with four other parties - the café, the secretary, the man at the parish office and the WIRES-approved vet to help the bird.

As you can see, collaboration is an important skill to have and can be very effective as it resulted in positive outcomes on both occasions. These examples also provide evidence as to how collaboration is used and is effective not only in school but also in everyday life.  

Green Level - Problem of the Week

I have $34.80 in $2, $1, 50c, 20c and 10c coins.

Question: If I have the same number of each coin, how many of each do I have?

Red Level - Problem of the Week

The three cubes below are labelled in the same way.

They are placed in a row so that the front looks like this:

Question: If you look at the cubes from the opposite side, what will we see?

What to Do: Send your answers in to your Mathematics teacher (or your child's Mathematics teacher if you are a parent!) to see if you get it correct.

Solutions will be posted in HouseUpdate - Week 2!

Please be advised that due to cost increases from suppliers, the price of certain uniform items will increase from the start of Term 3. Whilst we try to avoid raising prices unnecessarily, we cannot fully absorb the increased supplier cost, in itself caused by significant cost pressures across materials to freight and logistics plus labour.

Please be assured that we have done everything we can to try and absorb these costs before passing them onto you, and to make the increase as minimal as possible.

The price increases will take effect from the start of Term 3.

All books borrowed during Terms 1 and 2 are now due back to the library. Please ensure they are returned or renewed no later than Friday 29 July 2022. Anything outstanding by this date will be charged to your account. These charges are non-refundable.

Thank you, The Library Staff