Community Service and Tours Service Learning Doing good for others has always been a strong focus at PLC and 2019 was no different. We welcomed Linda Malone to PLC in the new position of Head of Service and Community Partnerships. Across the year, students actively participated in our annual events such as Make a Difference week, which included an evening presentation from Sir Bob Geldof and the World’s Greatest Shave where the PLC/Scotch team again were a leading fundraising School for the Leukemia Foundation. Students and families took part in many service learning opportunities including: Cooking and Crafting for a Cause, Live Below the Line, Sportslink, Free Dress Days, Birthing Kits, Winter Warmer Appeals, Ball Dress Drive (pictured) and Waste Audits.
Tours and exchanges PLC offers many opportunities for students to extend their interests, both within and outside the School. For those wanting to explore the world, various tours and exchanges are offered in Australia and overseas. In 2019, students undertook exchanges to France, Japan and the United Kingdom. Language students were able to advance their speaking and comprehension skills. These exchanges are reciprocal, whereby we welcome these students to PLC to study and learn the Australian culture.
The Canberra Tour continues to be a popular programme for our Year 9 students, travelling with Scotch College students integrating the Civics and Citizenship course and skiing. The Year 11 and 12 students had opportunities to experience the Indigenous culture in the Kimberley region. They also had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Creative Arts Tour to Italy and other students were able to perform and study in the Dance and Drama Tour to Sydney. The Year 10 students continue to build houses in Cambodia and were able to complete the homes with furnishings from the additional fundraising monies raised. Our rowing students again had success on the water at the Australian Open and Schools Rowing Championships in Sydney, achieving a silver medal in Under 17 Schoolgirls Coxed Eights. Other students continue to perform at competition level in tough environmental conditions by traveling to Singapore and playing various elite teams in Netball. Our gifted and talented students were successful in the local competitions including World Scholar’s Cup and da Vinci Decathlon with the latter extending to compete at National level. PLC was well represented in the Mooting competition held at Bond University, sending two teams to compete in 2019.
A variety of group tours were also available, offering students cultural, sporting and service immersion experiences: PLC’s China Tour saw our students attend and stay at a university whilst undertaking intense language lessons in the morning and cultural experiences in the afternoon. 33
