Joshua New

This term, the Year 5 students are participating in the inaugural Term 3 Shabbat initiative. This involves a group of 16 Year 10 students working with Mia and me (the Primary School Informal Jewish Life team) to create new, meaningful and exciting Shabbat experiences for Year 5 during Period 0 on Friday mornings.

This has been a great way for the Year 10 students to kickstart their hadracha (Jewish Leadership) journeys and to apply the hadracha (leadership) concepts and skills they are currently learning about in Jewish Studies. For the Year 5 students, it has been a fun and informative way to learn about Shabbat and meet some amazing older students from the High School. 

On our first shabbat the Year 5 students worked in small groups with the Year 10 leaders to create their own stories and understandings of the different elements of the Shabbat table (candle lighting, Kiddush, Washing of hands and challah). This week, the Year 10 and Year 5 students will be experimenting together on different ways of connecting to, and experiencing Shabbat – through meditation / mindfulness, the power of communal singing and by engaging the whole body through ruach dancing. 

In future weeks, we will be looking into many different topics such as, ‘Ways to Celebrate Shabbat’, ‘Connection to Nature’ and ‘Shabbat and the Modern World’.

We look forward to an exciting term ahead full of creative and meaningful Shabbatot!