Senior School 

A Legacy Piece for our Year 7 Students

As part of the Wellbeing Committee's ongoing commitment to foestering an inclusive community, the Year 12 Class of 2026 has dedicated their recent weeks to a special project: a Legacy piece for our Year 7 students. 

This installation, to be displayed in the Year 7 locker area later this week, serves as a meaningful bridge between our oldest and youngest cohorts. Our Year 12 students have spent time reflecting on their own journeys, distilling six years of growth, challenges, and triumphs into a collection of wisdom for their peers. From practical tips for navigating daily life to heartfelt encouragement for the journey ahead, the piece captures exactly what they wish they had known when they first walked through the school gates.

More than just a creative project, this initiative represents our exchange of perspective to strengthen the inter-year bonds of our school. We hope this legacy piece becomes a permanent fixture of the Year7 area, offering a warm welcome to our current students and a helpful guide for every new cohort that follows in their footsteps.

Olivia Baukh

Year 12, Wellbeing Prefect

Lunch with Kellie Sloane

Last Friday, the Athena Circle and our Head Prefects joined Kellie Sloane, Member for Vaucluse and Leader of the Opposition, for lunch to discuss women in politics and future career pathways. Our students asked thoughtful questions about navigating complex issues such as immigration and the housing crisis, gaining valuable insight into public leadership. Ms Sloane encouraged our Year 12 students to pursue their aspirations with confidence while remaining open to unexpected opportunities along the way.

School Holiday Revision Workshops and Library Access for Year 12

HSC and IB teachers have scheduled workshops, most of which will occur on Zoom, to take place over the duration of the April Holidays. These workshops are carefully designed to support students in consolidating key concepts, refining examination technique, and addressing areas of challenge identified thus far. 

The Bain Library will be open as a quiet study space for Year 12 students during the April school holidays. Our experience indicates that this environment provides an optimal setting for sustained, independent study.

The library will be accessible on weekdays from Tuesday, 7 April to Friday 17 April between 8:30 am and 3:30 pm.

Further information, including a full workshop schedule, will be published to Year 12 students, parents and carers on Friday 20 March.

Dates for the Diary - Term 2 Parent Teacher Conferences 

Please note the following dates for senior school parent-teacher conferences in Term 2. These will again be conducted on zoom. Further information about the booking process for each evening will be published to parents via Sundial at least three weeks in advance. Conferences occur from 4 to 7pm on each of the dates below.

• Year 9: Thursday 30 April 
• Year 7: Thursday 7 May
• Year 8: Thursday 14 May
• Year 10: Tuesday 2 June

Sebastien Knox

Head of Academic Life

Year 8 - Bannockburn

Term 1 has seen a myriad of Altius initiatives across the school. Most notably the first Year 8 Bannockburn Academic Camp in partnership with The Scots College and the Year 9 courses, Leadership and Global Understanding.

Now in its second year the Year 8 Bannockburn experience sees Kambala girls and Scots boys joining forces to carry out data gathering at The Scots College Bannockburn site. Students spend 3 days in Culburra, where they gather data by water testing, soil testing, insect trapping and plant analysis in order to understand how to create sustainable farming and regenerative practices. They also take part in Quoll reintroduction working closely with WWF on site, investigating ecosystems and plant-animal relationships. Students also spend time working with natural materials to create artistic impressions of the land around them. The importance of working on Country with local Elders is also investigated, spending time talking to the Traditional Owners of the land as well as the current Stewards. 

Students also experience working in co-educational groups, cooking meals for one another and enjoying morning walks (in some cases, runs!) on the beach. Data that is gathered is used in Science and Geography on return to school as part of their units of work. 

Year 9 have also been benefiting from the Altius program, embarking on either a Leadership program in partnership with The Scots College or the Global Understanding Program here at Kambala. 

In the Leadership course, students work in mixed gender groups to develop skills to build teams and share opinions. They also develop skills to manage resources through various group activities. Students share ideas and viewpoints, engage with others purposefully, explaining their understanding and experiencing varied challenges to move beyond what is comfortable. 

The Global Understanding program invites  students to explore what it means to be a global citizen in an interconnected world. Through the examination of diverse global contexts and contentious topics that arise from experiences relating to digital technologies, gender equity, and social media, students develop an understanding of how power, privilege, and inequality shape lived experiences across economics, ethics, politics, religion, and the environment.

With an emphasis on increased global responsibility, students are encouraged to reflect on their developing perspectives and sense of agency as globally minded individuals, while listening to multiple viewpoints in order to appreciate and challenge their own biases. 

All of these experiences are created using the school's values of Respect, Curiosity, Courage and Humanity at the forefront, ensuring that students develop skills in each of these areas. Additionally, each experience supports the completion of students' Global Citizenship Diploma by acting as evidence for at least one of the GCD elements; for example, Bannockburn contributes to the ‘Engagement with Nature’ Element. 

Freya Campion  

Head of Curriculum Experiences

Year 10 Visual Arts Explore Life Drawing

This week, Year 10 Visual Arts elective students participated in an engaging life drawing workshop, where they explored a range of short and extended poses using charcoal and other expressive drawing materials. The session encouraged students to work quickly and confidently, focusing on gesture, proportion, and tone.

The experience provided valuable insight into real-world artmaking practices, offering students a glimpse into the types of activities commonly undertaken in tertiary art school environments. It also strengthened their observational drawing skills and confidence in working from a live model.

This practical learning connects directly to their current unit of work, which investigates how women have been represented throughout art history, with a particular focus on the female form. Through this lesson, students were able to critically and creatively engage with these ideas in a hands-on way.

These activities are building towards a major upcoming task, as students prepare to begin a large-scale oil painted portrait next week, applying the skills and understanding developed during the life drawing session.

Coco Peirce 

Visual Arts

Save Hamlet! - A Middle School Drama Production

Join us for Save Hamlet!, our 2026 Year 7 and 8 Drama production - a fast, funny take on Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy.

Hamlet is still brooding, overthinking and chatting to Yorick’s skull… but everything around him has gone completely off-script. What follows is a series of attempts to stop the play from ending in disaster, with plenty of chaos, physical comedy and unexpected twists along the way.

With a fresh, playful, feminist spin on a classic, Save Hamlet! is designed to be accessible whether you know the original play well or not.

Created in just one term, this production showcases the energy, commitment and talent of our Year 7 and 8 Drama students. It’s a great opportunity to see their work brought to life on stage.

Event Details

Save Hamlet by Mark Harvey Levine 

Date: Monday 30 March 2026

Time: 5.45pm arrival for a 6.00pm start (15-minute interval)

Location: Alexander Hall, Kambala

Tickets

Adult: $25

Student: $15 Ticket link here

Please note that all students attending must be accompanied by an adult.

UCL Visit to Kambala

On Friday 20 March, Kambala welcomed Ms. Jo Turner, Liaison Manager from University College London (UCL).

During the lunchtime session, students gained invaluable insights into what it’s like to study at a global university consistently ranked among the top ten universities in the world. 

Ms. Turner highlighted the unique advantages of living and learning in the heart of London, while also providing a comprehensive guide to navigating the broader UK university landscape.

The event was led by our two newly appointed Future Pathways Ambassadors from Year 10, Georgie Doyle and Tali Desmond. Their energy and organization ensured the session ran smoothly, reflecting the initiative we value so highly at Kambala. Georgie and Tali join our three dedicated senior ambassadors to form a complete team of five, all of whom are committed to helping their peers navigate the exciting transition from school to future careers.

Ian Pettit

Future Pathways Advisor

Reflections on the 2026 SCOTS/Kambala/KRB Career Forum

On Wednesday the 11th of March from 5-7pm, students from Years 10, 11, and 12 gathered for the annual Career Networking Forum being held at Scots. As your Communications and STEM Prefects, it was great to see so many students taking responsibility for your future careers, stepping out of your comfort zones, and engaging with experts in their respective fields.

Through three rotations, we heard from experts including Medicine, Business, and Finance. These sessions showed us how to turn a passion into a high-impact career.

We believe that the best part of the evening went beyond the knowledge we gained; it was a sense of unity and connection which cut across schools and year groups. We saw Year 10s developing their interests as they asked professional questions and Year 12s gaining that final bit of clarity needed for their upcoming university applications.

Mr Pettit, our Kambala Future Pathways Advisor let us know that we have received lots of great feedback from students who attended and from the guest speakers themselves. We really appreciate speakers taking time out of their busy schedules to present. We had over 330 students attend the event, and would like to publicise the event for 2027, at an assembly next term.

“The Scots Career Forum was a great opportunity for students to learn more about future pathways from professionals with years of experience. I found the Media, Marketing and Communications session very informative. The speaker, Oliver Dos Remedios, spoke impressively about his profession and what his day-to-day job looked like. This helped me to reflect on my own future pathway and gain insight into the Media, Marketing and Communications world.” 

- Coco Manovel, Y12

It was fantastic to see such a strong turnout for an optional event—it shows just how driven and ambitious our senior cohort is. AI and Media Marketing and the Sports Management sessions had particularly strong turnouts this year, reflecting the rapid pace at which careers are evolving to different technological advancements. 

We found the event useful for our career decisions but also enjoyed the collaboration between Kambala, Scots, and KRB. The event continues to be one of the highlights of our school calendar, proving that we learn best when we learn together.

To the Year 9s and 10s looking ahead to next year: register early! The "first-in, best-dressed" spots for the lectures filled up in record time. 

Alice Maynard - Communications Prefect & Danica Zheng STEM Prefect