From the Director of the Pymble Institute

For me, research (and education) have always been akin to textiles, with colours and textures of warmth and strength coming together to make something new. That new thing might be for protection, keeping warm, fitting in, standing out, or bringing beauty. I will happily turn my mind to crafts at the drop of a hat and often find ways to weave the threads of fabric, and other crafts, into my work and academic life. My PhD was an example where I used the story of a friend who was making a quilt at the time to explain different pieces of my data coming together. I also asked a graphic designer to take slices of the huge spreadsheet I was using to manage my interview data and create a picture of a skirt which showed the movement of the data in its ‘fabric’.

What has ‘crafting’ and ‘fabric’ got to do with research?

I’m looking forward to speaking about the important topic of partnerships in research through the school/university lens at the Trinity Grammar Building a School Research Culture through Partnerships conference to be held on the 18th June 2024. Through this lens, I’ll share insights into what the Pymble Institute does to craft university partnerships and I’ll reflect on how and why we do this. School-university partnerships can come from found materials and recycled elements, although sometimes specially sourced threads are needed.

I am using the metaphor of weaving and crafting to explore partnerships in the school research space because I believe structure is needed (think of a frame with warp threads already laid out- these are the threads that remain stationary and run vertically on the loom). The weft threads are drawn under and over the warp to create the textile. Its detailed, repetitive and careful work – like research!

But what you do with the resulting ‘fabric’ is very much up to you. This depends on what you need for your school and this is where school-based research centres are so important in terms of both generating and using research. School-generated and school-based research should not sit on a shelf  getting dusty. It should be out and about – in the sunlight, being thrown around, sat upon, used in multiple ways.

What is your metaphor for research in schools and in education more broadly? I’m looking forward to meeting many people from a range of schools and universities at our own Research Conversations afternoon on Tuesday 11 June (register here) and at the upcoming conference at Trinity Grammar School (register here).

Hope you enjoy this edition of our newsletter,

Dr Sarah Loch

Director – Pymble Institute

Using action research to improve a Year 3 wellbeing initiative

Each year, the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) invites staff of member schools to apply for the Global Action Research Collaborative (GARC) program. Since early 2023, Kate Giles has added the role of GARC Fellow to her leadership and teaching portfolio as Head of Wellbeing K-6. Kate’s action research project is now complete and she will present her findings at the upcoming ICGS conference in Baltimore, USA, in late June.

“Connecting with our feelings – Using collaboration to strengthen social and emotional skill development in Year 3 girls”

Kate’s research focused on a Year 3 class in our school and aimed to explore whether active collaboration techniques used in our Compass Directions lessons would strengthen girls’ social and emotional skills. She used the Collaborative for Social, Emotional and Academic Learning (CASEL) framework as a basis for the teaching of these social and emotional skills, with a focus on self-management and self-awareness.

What happened? The girls learned practical strategies to assist them with their emotions through explicit teacher led lessons and opportunities to collaborate in activities where they shared their thoughts and feelings. These discussions further informed subsequent lessons and activities. The exciting part was when students took their learning home and they taught their parents skills learnt in class and they reflected together. Students created their own ‘toolkit’ of specific activities and actions that they felt personally would assist them in managing their emotions when needed, demonstrating their personal skill development.

What was learned? The results indicated that the girls enjoyed the opportunities to collaborate with each other and with their parents to create their tool kits. They could articulate the skills and strategies that were of specific benefit to them and showed a growing understanding of themselves and development of their social and emotional skills.

What next? Creating more opportunities for student/teacher/family collaboration will be a focus in the Junior School in the future when social and emotional learning opportunities are developed. It was also noted that not all students had the same opportunity to share with their parents, so this too is an area of further exploration.

Reflecting on the GARC experience Kate reflects on the exciting journey of growth and development the GARC program provided by recognising the special opportunities to learn from other educators. She was able to implement an action research cycle to explore an area of passion and focus for her and to focus deeply on each step of the process. Although it was hard work at times, Kate loved the many joys of the project, including hearing the girls talk about their toolkit with pride, witnessing the growing trust in the classroom and hearing from teachers that they had seen a change in the girls’ emotional regulation when using their toolkit strategies. Kate really loved hearing from the girls each Monday after they had shared their learning and reflections with their parents:

One lesson in particular will stand out in my mind forever. This lesson followed the girls sharing and reflecting with their parents about their strengths and talents and setting some goals for themselves together. The girls were bursting with excitement to share their parents’ thoughts about their strengths and talents, some getting tearful sharing with pride what their parents had said about them and their strengths. Seeing the impact of the connections and trust grow between the girls and between the girls and their parents was something I had not really considered.

We congratulate Kate on her very successful completion of the GARC Fellowship program and wish her and all the GARC presenters well for their sessions at the upcoming ICGS conference. Kate’s report will be published in full in a forthcoming edition of the Pymble Ladies’ College journal, Illuminate: Research and Innovation.

Evaluating Vision Valley through the open-ended box

The Pymble Institute is collaborating with colleagues at our outdoor campus, Vision Valley, to research a range of facets of the Year 9 outdoor education residential program. We are interested in understanding the impact this program has on participating students with a focus on girls’ educational experiences around resilience, academic buoyancy and their sense of belonging.

One of the focus points is to evaluate the efficacy of a method to collect student reflections at least one year after the end of the program. This is an important area to explore because most research into outdoor education focuses on short term impact and programs specifically for girls or in all-girls schools are not extensively researched.

To explore a way of understanding the medium-term impacts of our outdoor education residential program, an additional question was added to the existing post-program survey which was administered. This survey was recently given to the ‘pioneer’ students who attended the first two sessions of the program in 2022. The additional question asked, What have you learnt from your time at Vision Valley that has stayed with you? Concerned students may misinterpret such an open-ended question, we provided the prompt, For example, are you better at making friends or dealing with friendship issues? Do you feel more confident at solving problems or dealing with challenges? Are you less likely to get upset by setbacks at school? Do you spend more time in the outdoors? Do you feel grateful? The question then invited students to Please take a moment to reflect and to write responses in a text box.

We aimed to phrase the question in an open way to prompt deeper thinking without it being too general. Whilst most of the forty-four responses utilised the sub-question prompts, the quality and richness of the comments revealed this may have assisted in having the comments cover more than one reflective point. During analysis, it was easy to arrange the responses thematically. However, we are conscious the prompts may have guided students’ thinking.

One response is shared below:

Are you better at making friends or dealing with friendship issues? I feel more connected with my peers. Do you feel more confident at solving problems or dealing with challenges? Yes. Are you less likely to get upset by setbacks at school? I have been more relaxed and less stressed in an academic perspective. Do you spend more time in the outdoors? Yes, I have been trying to spend more time connecting with nature. Do you feel grateful? Yes, I am very grateful for this experience. It has been one of the best opportunities Pymble has offered and I am grateful to be one of the first people to experience it.

Overall, sufficient text-based data was generated to give a rich insight into students’ memories of the program, and four key themes emerged:

• Appreciation, including feeling grateful
• Relationships, including friendships
• Natural world, including outdoor environments
• Resilience, including confidence, physical and mental strength, independence

The data itself has been analysed in detail and discussed with the Vision Valley and Upper School teams as a way of informing decision making for current and future programs. We look forward to sharing insights on our website in the near future.

As researchers, our interest is also in the usefulness of the tools we use to collect the data. Considering many students gave responses to each prompt, an alternative would be to ask each sub-question separately and include an open-ended ‘Other’ box at the end. A negative of this is the additional length of the survey and intended openness may be removed. Another approach is to hold focus group or one on one interviews, but this would be more time consuming for students as well as staff. Using our current (one year on) data as a baseline, we plan to explore alternatives in data collection for the next cohort and develop a better understanding of ways of asking students about their memories of the program and its impact.

Are you interested in our research into the Vision Valley program? Click here 

Pymble’s research conversations afternoon

Join us for a Research Conversations afternoon at Pymble Ladies’ College on 11 June 2024 with our staff, Elaine Lee, Sandra Nolan, Kate Giles and Victoria Adamovich.  

Elaine and Sandra are presenting at the 2024 International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) conference in Baltimore, along with Kate Giles who is concluding her Global Action Research Collaboration (GARC) project with ICGS. Victoria will present on her Master’s Thesis on EAL/D and wellbeing in young girls. Each presenter will explain the genesis of their work and talk about the conference or course opportunity that has sparked their presentation.

Please click here for more information.

You can register here or contact pymbleinstitute@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au for more information.

Student leadership in prejudice reduction initiatives

A group of (now-former) Pymble students worked collaboratively with Dr Sarah Loch to write an academic paper. The result is “Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Addressing Racism in Schools Through Student-Developed Curriculum”, available via the AHISA (Association of Heads of Independent Schools) journal (Volume 49,1, 2024). The paper explores how a group of Pymble Ladies’ College Year 11-12 students and teachers created curriculum and research to promote and understand anti-racism education in their year group and amplify student perspectives around this important issue. A literature review is also available to deepen awareness of the issues explored.

Faye Chang, now a student in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Merton College, University of Oxford, and one of the student leaders of the initiative reflected on the experience:

“The Anti-Racism and Allyship Group has been one of my most rewarding undertakings since 2021, and as of May 2024, this chapter of the journey has finally come to an end with the publication of our article in AHISA’s journal Independence.

I’ve been so honoured to have had this chance to contribute to the literature around student voice and student-driven action, as well as to make a meaningful change to the approach of my school in addressing issues around race and prejudice.

Looking back on this project, I’ve not only improved my research skills through our collaborations with Professor Fiona White and the writing of the article itself, but I’ve also reinforced my understanding of the importance of grassroots and community-driven organisation. The genesis of this project would not have been possible without the other students involved directly in organising the project, as well as the the support of our year group at large. It’s solidified my belief that any structural change has to be done by and collaboration with the people it most affects.

Working with an academic partner, Professor Fiona White

The guidance of academic mentor, Professor Fiona White, University of Sydney, was invaluable. Fiona shared examples of lessons about diversity, inclusion and relationships, and assisted us navigate issues such as identity, perspective and respect. She also helped the student and staff team create a survey tool to collect pre- and post-intervention data which indicated that, although the year group had very low scores of subtle and blatant racism, the levels dropped following the lessons.

Directions in 2024

Our collaborative commitment to reducing racism and prejudice and heightening inclusive structures in our school and beyond is now in the hands of a group of Year 11 2024 leaders. The students, along with teachers involved in the original project, recently joined an online UNESCO Anti-Racism webinar streamed from UN Headquarters in Paris. Teachers and students all look forward to the next iteration of this important project.

School/university partnership to explore prosocial behaviour and service

The College was delighted to invite Dr Bosco Rowland to a K-12 staff meeting to speak about his research into prosocial behaviour in Australian children and adolescents. Especially of interest was the connection between volunteering during the school years and a reduction in poor mental health. Dr Rowland is a registered psychologist who works as a scientist practitioner with Eastern Health Clinical School at Monash University. His work focuses on developing social behavioural principles relating to contemporary public health problems. In particular, he examines behaviours associated with health, social and emotional development, and explores the role of risk and protective factors.

Pymble Ladies’ College is developing a service learning framework as part of the Social Intelligence Strategic Pillar. We began by conducting a thorough literature review on the subject, including definitions of service learning, charity and community service. Our guiding questions for the review were: 

• What are Pymble’s goals with service, charity, service learning and giving back to the community? 
• What are the characteristics of our community that we need to consider? 
• What do we want to maintain? What do we want to change? 
• How would we like service and giving back to be connected to other fields in the College? 

The literature review allowed us to identify key points for further investigation which led to the connection with Dr Rowland. The staff were particularly engaged with his research findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, with many questions following his presentation. His key point that, “during the adolescent years (13-17 years), engaging in volunteering reduces the likelihood of poor mental health by 28%” (Rowland and Evans-Whipp, 2023) led us to reflect on the importance of a service learning framework facilitating students’ involvement in all kinds of prosocial activities, including volunteering through school and with the family.

‘Prosocial behaviours are activities that have the aims of benefiting others or society … Prosocial behaviours towards others are developmentally important, as they can help children and young people learn to take another person’s perspective, negotiate difference, and develop social and emotional skills’. (Rowland & Evans-Whipp, 2023, p. 1).

Junior School (K-6) staff could recognise that their efforts in building a ‘community of kindness’ and the recent introduction of a ‘service journal’ were steps that would help develop prosocial skills in young students. Dr Rowland’s research affirms that building strong foundations in the younger years will provide protective layers as children enter into adolescence.

Staff comments

Great speaker, really wonderful to see the research and very proud that the Junior School has been focusing on the three elements – to self, to others and to the environment.

I loved seeing evidence for what seems like common sense.

This session was great. I loved hearing about the research behind the importance of service/volunteering and its impact not only on the world around us but on the wellbeing of those doing the service/volunteering. It was wonderful hearing that what is being done in the Junior school with the focus on Kindness to self, others and the environment/world is supported by this research too. I would love to work with Bosco more on this and learn more about his research and the implications for Pymble!

Reference:  Rowland, B. and Evans‑Whipp, T. (2023), Prosocial behaviours and the positive impact on mental Health, Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).  Snapshot Series, Issue 9, pp.1-8.

Research-Invested Schools network annual conference

Whether you’re an academic with a commitment to practice in schools, a teacher looking to take up postgraduate research studies in education, or a research-lead in your school (in an official or unofficial role); the organising team welcomes you to the Research Invested Schools network conference.

Join us on 1 and 2 August 2024 for a journey across school-based research at Pymble Ladies’ College, Barker College and Scots College. All three Sydney schools will host a portion of the conference, starting at Pymble for the first morning and lunch, moving to Barker for the afternoon and conference dinner, and then to Scots for Day 2. This is an excellent opportunity to hear about other schools’ journeys and to network with people from around Australia.

More information is available on the conference website.

New for 2024 – Delegate Contributions

Each school with delegates at the 2024 RIS National Gathering has something valuable to share with the network, regardless of their role, context, or extent of research investment. The conference convenors seek to finalise the conference program based on the strengths and priorities of the network.

Therefore, as part of registration, you are invited to share a 5-minute account of what you are doing in one of four aspects of research investment. You are warmly welcome to make multiple contributions via this form – https://bit.ly/RIS2024Contributions – and will be contacted prior to the conference to confirm what you may be asked to share.

The conference organisers look forward to welcoming you to our schools in August.