Volume 30 Issue 29 08 Oct 2021 2 Heshvan 5782

From the Principal

Andrew Watt – Principal

The end is in sight! As we welcome back our students to the final weeks of our e-Manuel remote learning program, we are cautiously excited at the prospect of a return to face-to-face, on-campus teaching and learning. Term 4 is always very busy and productive, marked by our end-of-year celebratory events. Our hope is that we may be in a position to enjoy some ‘live’ events, where our students can group together safely, and our parents can participate online. Only time will tell!

Protecting the safety of our Emanuel School Community

Many of our staff and families are understandably anxious about the return to on-campus learning. It is hoped that the measures outlined below will provide some level of reassurance that the School has identified and managed key risks, via its COVID- Safe Plan. 

Permanent measures that support the ongoing operation of schools, irrespective of the COVID-19 pandemic include:

  • limiting entry on campus to vaccinated staff and visitors
  • promoting vaccination of all eligible individuals
  • exclusion of sick student, staff, and visitors
  • monitoring and promoting appropriate hand hygiene
  • ensuring adequate ventilation
  • installing CO2 monitors in every classroom on P-12 campus
  • placing HEPA Units in each Kornmehl and Primary School classroom
  • implementing appropriate environmental cleaning. 

The temporary measures that take into consideration student age, grade/Year Group, and vaccination status include:

  • providing a parent handbook, with key information related to infection control
  • moving HSC examinations offsite
  • mandating mask wearing for Years 3 to 12
  • strongly encouraging mask wearing for Kindergarten to Year 2
  • maintaining physical distancing (especially teacher to student)
  • ensuring appropriate hand hygiene (providing hand sanitiser)
  • reinforcing appropriate protocols for coughing and sneezing
  • cohorting (Stage Groups of 50-164) before/after school and at breaks
  • staged arrivals and departures
  • distancing measures for visits to school clinic (only one person in each space)
  • parent commitment to quick collection of ill children from clinic
  • canteens – order only and separate collection points
  • private transport to and from school, where practicable
  • singing, woodwind musical instruments banned
  • getting tested swiftly if symptomatic
  • contact tracing in combination with quarantine and isolation.

Your B’yachad Box

Over 800 people will be attending Emanuel B’yachad – our biggest and brightest event of the year! Our Capital Appeal and Emanuel B’yachad Committees have been very busy preparing for what will be a sensational evening. While Margaret Lowe, Tany Milner and I will be ‘entertaining’ you, it really is the students who will be the stars of the show! 

Each household that registered before the cut off date of 6 October will receive a hand delivered B’yachad Box containing an array of goodies for the interactive parts of the evening. Look out for your specially prepared box which will be delivered by our Capital Appeal Ambassador parents between Wednesday 13 and Sunday 17 October. I am especially grateful to these parents who have volunteered their time to share their love of our School and encourage participation in Emanuel B’yachad. They truely are great Ambassadors for all that is wonderful about our School and Community.

I look forward to seeing you online next week Sunday 17 October at 7.30 pm to help celebrate and create our bright future. In the meantime, enjoy the video below – it’s all about community!

 

 

Mazal tov

  • Gemma Odes (Year 7) has been selected to join the Under 14s squad in the Football NSW Program – a magnificent achievement!
  • Mariah Lewy (Year 10) represented Emanuel School in a virtual choir made up of only 10 students from various Jewish schools across Australia. This group performed a beautiful version of the Australian National Anthem in perfect harmony for the JNF Australia Annual Gala Event, held on Tuesday.
  • Elise Kitchener (Year 9) has been accepted as a member of the Sydney Jewish Museum Youth Committee.
  • Joshua Moses of Year 11 was accepted into the National Youth Science Forum 
  • After great deliberation by the UIA judges due to the tough competition and high level of finalists, we are delighted to congratulate the Emanuel School UIA Shorashim Project 2020 winner, Ruby Friedman. 

Quote of the week

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.” ~ George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist