From the Principal
Andrew Watt – Principal
A busy term
Our busy term has ended on a positive note, with restrictions easing, allowing parents to visit our campus and engage more fully with our School community. Whilst there is still some way to go, we are proceeding steadily, with due caution, towards a more normal school existence. Our students will depart our gates – weary but in good spirits – to commence their well-deserved break. Wishing you a safe, restful and enjoyable time, with family and friends; Chag Pesach Sameach.
Speaking of Pesach
The students have spent many hours learning about and preparing for this important festival. Over the past weeks I have heard the melodies and words of songs such as Ma Nishtanah and Daiyenu drifting across the campus, as the students practised their parts for the upcoming sederim. Thank you to the Jewish Life teachers for their commitment to helping the students discover and learnt about the important themes, customs and traditions of Pesach. Please enjoy this short video of our Pesach celebrations that we have prepared for you.
Speaking of Pesach – I hope you enjoyed leafing through our online cookbook – Our Pesach Feast. The recipes were sourced from our Emanuel School families’ Pesach favourites and were compiled into an easy online collection, illustrated by Year 3 students. I am sure you’ll find a delicious treat or two to share.
K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert
Oliver Mendoza-Jones, Year K, singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Our K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert was held in the Millie Phillips Theatre on Monday evening. The audience enjoyed a range of entertaining performances, across the following categories:
- Performance competition (K-12)
- Composition competition (K-12)
- Practice competition (K-6)
The depth and sophistication of musical and creative talent at Emanuel was reflected throughout the 30 performances. The quality of our Primary School performers indicates their potential to achieve at an outstanding level in their High School journey. We have much to celebrate! Thank you to Diana Springford, Daniel Burley and the Music Department for a fabulous evening and mazal tov to the winners of the 2021 Emanuel School Music Competition:
K-2 Practice Winner – Abbie Schnapp
K-2 Performance Winner – Zella Benko
K-2 Composition Winner – Zella Benko
3-6 Practice Winner – Nathan Shammay
3-6 Performance Winner – Isaac Shammay
3-6 Composition Winner- Mia Chesler
7-10 Performance Winner – Ella Bortz
7-10 Composition Winner – Mariah Lewy
11-12 Performance Winner – Ruben Mihalovich
11-12 Composition Winner – Ezra Hersch
Years 1-2 Swimming Carnival
Kol Hakavod to all our enthusiastic swimmers and participants at the Years 1-2 Swimming Carnival which was held at Des Renford on Thursday. Below is a taster of the wonderful photos that Ofer Levy, parent photographer, took on the day. There’ll be more to come next term.
Reducing our carbon footprint
Our commitment to a move towards a more sustainable future includes the installation of solar cells with 100Kw production capacity on three of our buildings. Raising student awareness of the outcomes of this sustainability initiative is the next challenge! In late November last year, a meeting was held with our Student Sustainability Committee, to explore strategies to design and promote our solar analytics data. M+G Energy were commissioned to design-custom a dedicated display data URL page, to be viewed online, providing information about our solar analytics; a visual representation of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint. We have also introduced a new consumption meter, to show a real time comparative of power generated and used – including a useful comparison of our solar production with the carbon absorbed by trees. The dashboard can be accessed here.
In keeping with this important theme – it’s Earth Hour on 28 March and you can read more about this in the article of the same name, written by our Student Sustainability Committee.
Mazal tov
- Twenty five students in Years 10-12 received Grey Sports Colours this week
- The Junior and Intermediate Boys Basketball Teams won the Sydney Schools Cup grand finals on Tuesday afternoon
Quote of the week
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”
Plato – philosopher