CASE STUDY:
Pymble Ladies’ College, Pymble NSW
Our partnership with Pymble Ladies’ College is close to our heart since their statement of intent, “Watch Us Change the World” exists to inspire young women to create the future they want for themselves.
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MyDiary’s founder, Louisa Wood, shares this philosophy. Louisa first began her career as an entrepreneur twenty-four years ago (while she was still in high school) with a small business idea: a better school diary! And what you see here is the result of 20+ years dedicated to that mission.
Entrepreneurship was a road less travelled at that time and not really considered to be a “proper career”.
You can read more about our founder here.
That's why we love Pymble’s fierceness;
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“Watch Us Change the World” is not our hope; it’s our declaration. As students, we bring passion and purpose into everything we do. We are change-makers in our classrooms, our community, and our culture. We don’t just follow our dreams. We lead the way. We are influential and compassionate women. We don’t just dream. We do.
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Creating PLC’s diary concept was such an interesting journey. Our product needed to focus on Pymble’s four key intelligences: academic, social, emotional and digital, while linking these intelligences with their Mind, Body and Spirit Framework supporting holistic wellness.
We have showcased our final design result below.
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MyDiary developed two diary versions: one for Juniors (Years K to 6) and one for Middle and Seniors (Years 7 to 12). To reflect the college culture of continuous striving, we gave each diary different accessories and modified the content so that the juniors always had something to look forward and strive towards in their later school adventures.
Pymble Ladies’ College - Junior Planner
The junior diary design emphasised participation and exploration, as well as a sense of belonging and mutual respect. We achieved this by placing the school’s mascot Heidi The Hedgehog throughout the diary. Students had lots of fun counting how many times she appeared!
Daily Diary Layout
On the daily layout, Heidi reminded students each week of the four school values: Care, Courage, Integrity, Respect & Responsibility.
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The daily layout also reinforced the weekly message by featuring quotes from teachers using a series of Pymble character illustrations.
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We used a pastel colour palette and ribbon decorations to include elements that are generally considered to be softer, more feminine touches, alongside messages of strength. These visual touches remind students that the qualities of being strong and feminine exist in harmony.
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The rest of the layout not only provided plenty of space to write homework, but also accommodated:
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My Learning Focus for this Week
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My Reflection
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A Note from my Compass teacher
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Reading list
Reflection, Gratitude & Inspiration
At the end of each term, we took a moment to reflect on the term's theme, decorating this page with student-created content and including Growth Mindset vocabulary: "Failures" reframed as "Fabulous Failures!".
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We provided students with prompts to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, asking them to describe what they love about their world and further challenging them to ask what they can do to help the environment.
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Then we incorporated mentorship, including stories of alumni who had achieved professional success after finishing school. We took the content provided by Pymble Ladies’ College and presented it using a design aesthetic that was soft and friendly in tone. In this way, success stories of past students appeared less intimidating and more inspiring.
Bonus Content To Encourage Interactivity
Finally, we can't forget the age of these students, so we included some spot-the-difference and mindful colouring-in activities, and of course some pages for doodles. It was important that our design reflected our aim to teach the fundamental principles of time management and to provoke, stimulate, and celebrate learning.
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Developing the Fundamental Habit of Daily Diary Usage
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Our sticker suggestion was an absolute hit and featured all school values and key messages. It even included the school guide dogs Archie & Turi!
Pymble Ladies’ College - Middle & Senior Planner
The upper school diary loosened the grip of tight structures and allowed the girls to take responsibility for their time management. The diary, therefore, becomes one of many tools to help expand their horizons.
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The key purpose of the school diary is to guide students to the higher-level concept that being creative, strategic, and simply present and loving doesn’t require time. Rather, it requires space. The skill of time management, therefore, becomes self-management and the foundation on which students learn all future skills.
Daily Diary Layout
On the daily layout, the upper school diary design focused on time management techniques of prioritisation and incorporated some bullet journalling techniques, allowing flexibility for students to draw their notes as well as write them.
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We catered specific areas for
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Weekly Goals
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Reflection
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Teacher/Parent Communication
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Inspirational Quotes from the Principal
Reflection, Gratitude & Inspiration
Term reflection focused on setting SMART goals for the term ahead and connecting with the heart through acknowledging the student’s hopes and “teaspoon acts”. After all, change is incremental.
Bonus Content
And finally, we included a few bonus pages for students to use as they wish.