PLC i n P ri nt | M ar ch 2021
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With the cancellation of so many family, school and community events last year, we have all learnt to really appreciate those opportunities to gather again this year.
From the Principal
1. Year 12 Investiture Assembly 2. Year 6 Investiture Assembly 3. Cheryl Penberthy, Dr Valerie Sung (1994), and School Captains Ruyi Shen and Ria Singh
The beginning of each new school year at PLC brings with it excitement and the much-loved traditional events which connect students, staff and parents to the long and illustrious history of our College. This year it was particularly meaningful to be able to celebrate together after the difficulties and uncertainties of last year due to COVID-19. I so enjoyed welcoming new students and their parents to our warm, caring school community and seeing the joy as existing parents and students reunited at welcome events, special investitures and assemblies. With the cancellation of so many school and community events last year, we have all learnt to really appreciate these opportunities to gather again this year. There have been some disappointments, such as the cancellation of our annual Twilight Picnic, but we understood that this was necessary and turned our energy to celebrate in smaller, more personal and COVID safe ways where we could. Fortunately, we could still hold our annual Foundation Day Assembly where we commemorated the founding of PLC on 15 February 1875, 146 years ago in East Melbourne. Dr Valerie Sung from the Class of 1994 is an internationally acclaimed consultant paediatrician and senior researcher and was our esteemed speaker. She epitomises the pioneering spirit of PLC students who use their first-class education, natural abilities, empathy and tenacity, to make a difference in the world around them, often in the scientific and medical fields previously dominated by men. PLC was founded by the Presbyterian Church, whose members wanted to provide their daughters and other young women of the time, with “as high an education as their sons are receiving at such institutions as the Scotch College, the Grammar School, and the Wesley College.” This was to be a school which challenged stereotypes, where girls would learn Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, subjects which would qualify them to attend university alongside male students and be able to take up serious careers. They were no longer confined to traditional female subjects like dancing, sewing and sketching. The establishment of PLC transformed the education of young women in Melbourne. Like those first 60 students, young women over the decades have continued to benefit from that early commitment to give girls attending PLC the best, most forward looking education possible. Staff at the College have always been aware of the latest developments in curriculum and co-curricular studies and activities and have imbued in their students a love of learning and intellectual curiosity.
