From the Principal
HICES Concert
It was a pleasure to join the other Principals from HICES schools (Heads of Independent Co-educational Schools) at the Years 7 – 12 HICES Music Festival on Wednesday evening in the Town Hall. Six of our students (Talia Blackman, Matthew Doust, Rebekah Goldsworthy, Aron Jaffe, Amber Langman and Nathaniel Spielman) had attended the 3-day Music Camp to represent Emanuel School with students from 30 other schools and performed in the orchestras, bands or choirs that gave very high quality performances on the evening. The final events, the Honour Choir and the Massed Item, were conducted by Richard Gill OAM, and accompanied by our Danny Burley (see page 23). Congratulations to our students and Mr Burley who were wonderful ambassadors for our school and who performed so beautifully.
Wednesday’s activities, E-Zone and more
High School students participated in a day of activities related to our wellbeing program on Wednesday, with Years 7 – 10 students having workshops on cyberbullying, Years 9 – 10 on drugs, alcohol & partying, Years 11 – 12 doing E-Zone and Year 12 the Half Day of Hope from the Hopefull Institute. Each of these workshops and seminars is designed to address some of the issues affecting adolescents and teenagers, and to help them work through these as they mature.
E-Zone is in its third year for our students. A Gesher initiative, it is managed by our Careers Advisor Claire Pech and supported by Sonia Newell, and features members of the community coming in to talk to our students about careers. This year was like a ‘speed-dating’ session, with groups of students being able to spend a short amount of time with a number of career representatives, asking questions and delving more deeply into aspects of the career. This year’s event was, by all accounts, even more successful than in the past, with students engaging with the presenters and asking thoughtful questions. Our sincere thanks go to Claire and Sonia for their wonderful organisation of this event.
Success in the NSW Film Festival for High Schools!
Zane Voloshin (Year 10) won Interrelate’s NSW Film Festival for High Schools and saw his film come to life on the big screen. Zane’s video was one of seven finalist schools’ films screened at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney on International Youth Day, Friday 12 August. Zane was assisted by Jack Mane and Ms Diana Springford.
The competition was a partnership between Interrelate and the Office of the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner and was open to all NSW High School students. The films centred around the theme ‘Cyberbullying – the effect and how we solve it’ and were filmed by groups of students, with the footage professionally edited by competition sponsor, Filmpond.
Zane’s entry, titled ‘b.u.!.!.y’ and featuring Tomer Belkin as actor, won the judges’ votes for “its creativity in showcasing how a victim can build inner strength and resilience to cope with cyberbullying”. The students attended a leadership workshop with Burn Bright and a Q and A session with industry experts on 12 August, before attending the Awards Ceremony in the evening. Their prize includes $1000 for our school. The boys are currently thinking of ways of using their prize to support wellbeing and cyber-bullying initiatives in the school.
Mazal tov to:
- Monica Pinchuk, Year 11, for Excellent Effort and Commitment for German Beginners from the Open High School
- Zane Voloshin, Tomer Belkin and Jack Mane (Year 10) for their excellent production of their short film on cyber-bullying
- Seniors and Middles Debating teams who are into the quarter finals of the HICES Debating competition
- Jordan Weizman (Year 9) who is also included in the Maccabiah soccer team to compete in Israel next year
- Gabriel Sebban, Gabriel Wolf and Yonathan Sinani (Year 10), for their contribution to the ‘Speak for Yourself’ Conference and the Draft Charter for Children and Young People Engaged in Decision Making.
Anne Hastings – Principal
Coming up
- HSC Drama Showcase, Monday 22 August, Millie Phillips Theatre, 7 pm
- Instrumental Music Festival, Tuesday 23 August, MPH, 5 – 8 pm
- Gesher Networking breakfast, Wednesday 24 August, Bondi 7:30 am
- Year 9 2017 Subject Information Evening, Wednesday 24 August, Millie Phillips Theatre, 7 pm
- Years 7 and optional Year 8 parent teacher interviews, Tuesday 30 August, 4 – 8 pm, MPH
- Gesher Networking breakfast, Wednesday 31 August, CBD, 7:30 am
- P & F Trivia Night, Saturday 3 September, MPH, 7 pm