Andrew Watt – Principal

Experiencing the joy of Purim

Our staff and students emerged from under the cloud of COVID-19, to enjoy a day of crazy costumes, dancing and laughter. Both our High School and Primary School ran a costume parade and joyfully celebrated Purim together. We have prepared a wonderful video of the event – please click here to experience true Emanuel School Purim joy.

I asked Daniel Samowitz, Informal Jewish Life Teacher, what Purim meant to him:

“Purim is a celebration of life and a celebration of survival. This year in the High School we used the Purim story to delve deeper into the theme of power. All students had a chance to show off their costumes, exchange Mishloach Manot and hear the megillah. One of the highlights this year was that our Year 11 and 12 students facilitated a program for the rest of the High School students. It was lovely to see our senior students – who all have many more years learning the themes of Purim – planning, leading and facilitating groups of younger students discussing the place of power in our lives.

Some of the questions the students were asked included:

• Who was more powerful, Haman or Ester?
• Who has the power in our lives today… politicians, teachers, movies stars?
• How do we at Emanuel define what power is for our community? What do we want it to be?

Our students re-told the Purim narrative as a backdrop to discuss the place of power and authority in our lives today. Perhaps the most important question we can ask is “are you powerful?”

Update on COVID-19 (coronavirus)

As community transmission of COVID-19 grows across many parts of the world, we are currently developing a continuity plan, responding to both low and/or significant impacts on our Emanuel School community. Our School will work in close partnership with our families, to minimise the risk of community transmission.

What our families can do:

• Avoid overseas travel entirely;
• Reinforce our key messages about reducing the chance of transmission through effective hand washing, covering of mouth and nose with an elbow or tissue when coughing or sneezing, reducing physical contact (hugs, handshakes) and maintaining a distance from each other;
• Keep your child at home and isolate them if they display any cold or flu-like symptoms. Previously, some students may have attended school when they are less than well – a child demonstrating any contagious symptoms should not attend school;
• Keep your child at home and isolate them (14 days from return) if they (or members of their home) have travelled to countries identified by the Australian Department of Health and/or the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Smart Traveller) as high or moderate risk;
• Book in the family to receive the influenza vaccination; and
• Avoid large group gatherings or conferences.

What our School will do:

• Promote healthy hygiene procedures (effective hand washing, coughing/sneezing, physical contact), via messages and posters;
• Provide hand sanitiser for areas and routines where hand washing is not available or practical, and actively encourage its consistent use;
• Cancel or postpone any overseas excursions or work-related travel for the remainder of Term 1 and break, and review risk for Term 2 activities;
• Postpone outreach programs that engage with vulnerable members of the broader community, particularly the elderly or sick (e.g. Montefiore Home, aged care);
• Encourage all our staff to receive the influenza vaccination;
• Review our cleaning processes and add additional disinfectant requirements, around taps, door handles and all surfaces;
• Ensure that our medical clinic and reception are sanitised after ill students or staff have departed; and
• Isolate and send home students, staff or community members with cold or flu-like or contagious symptoms (e.g. cough, sneezing, fever).

Permanent relocation of our Uniform Shop

Over the past six months, we have been working closely with Midford, our uniform suppliers, to move the uniform shop off campus. Our hope is that the current Adler Building will be demolished and replaced with a capacious, purpose-built and multi-level building in the coming years. In the interim, we will be moving our marketing and communications hub into this area, due to our limited office space.

From Monday 27 April 2020, the new location for the Midford uniform shop will be Shop 3, 155 Avoca Street, Randwick. The site is larger, air conditioned and close to our campus, with parking available at the nearby Royal Randwick Shopping Centre. The last day of trade at the current on-campus location will be on Thursday 2 April.

In preparation for the uniform shop move and the change to winter uniform, Midford will offer extended trading hours in the last week of Term 1. Please try to take advantage of these additional hours to purchase your winter uniforms, ahead of the school holidays. The end of Term 1 trading hours will be 8.00 am – 4.00 pm from Monday 30 March – Thursday 2 April.

The shop will relocate during the school holidays and the new uniform shop will open on Monday 27 April, for the full day. Midford has agreed to trade an extra hour later on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to allow parents and students to visit the shop after school finishes.

Initially, the regular trading hours will be:

• Monday: 8.00 am – 11.00 am                    
• Tuesday and Thursday: 1.00 pm – 5.00 pm                    

For security purposes the new uniform shop will be cashless. Orders can also be placed and paid for online and collected at the uniform shop after 3.00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or delivered by courier to an alternative address for a small charge.

As is currently the case, Midford will provide extended hours at the new location, in the back-to-school period and at the start of each term, especially around the change of uniform from summer to winter or vice versa.

A downloadable summary of this important information can be accessed here.

Mazal tov

The Emanuel Year 7/8 boys basketball team won the Jewish Day Schools Basketball competition on Thursday. 

Quote of the week

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”
Arnold H. Glasow