Volume 26 Issue 6 10 Mar 2017 12 Adar 5777

From the Principal

From the Principal

Once again our newsletter is packed with interesting articles about the various events of recent weeks – further testament to the breadth and depth of the learning opportunities our students are privileged to enjoy. There are accounts from the students about the visit by Professor Tsvia Waldon, the daughter of Shimon Peres, who lead some of our students in an engaging discussion about feminism (in the Year 9 Jewish Studies page), as well as of the activities organised by our Head Madricha and the House Captains for International Women’s Day on Wednesday (the House pages). There’s a report of the guest speaker at our Diversity Assembly this week, Laura Sweeney, who is the advisor to the Human Rights Commission on issues related to the LGTBQI community (see the Szenes House report).

In addition, there are reports on the High School Swimming Carnival last Friday, held in quite wet conditions (in and out of the pool!). Despite the weather, the spirit was high and our students got involved by competing, even when swimming was not their thing, and supporting their fellow students. I was impressed that they did not let the rain dampen their spirit and by the positive approach of both the staff and the students to just getting on with things. Our thanks go to Ray Francis, the Head of PDHPE, and his team of assistants who organised and ran the carnival.

And today we’ve had the annual crazy day of Purim! It’s always a joy to see how creative some of our students and staff are in their costumes. More of Purim will be in next week’s edition of Ma Nishma.

A tip

If you really liked the old version of Ma Nishma where the newsletter was a pdf document, you can achieve the same outcome with the online version, by beginning the process of printing it (without actually pressing the final print button).

New Parents and Year 7 Parents Welcome evening

This week also saw our Welcome evening for new and Year 7 parents. It was wonderful to meet up with many of our new parents in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere and hear about the positive experiences their sons and daughters have been having since their start with us this year. Our sincere thanks go to Michelle Favero, our Manager of Marketing and Communications, along with her team of helpers, for organising another successful and important event.

Professional Learning

Along with Tany Milner I was privileged to be able to join with a group of educators in Melbourne this week to undertake some professional learning around the Australian Curriculum area of Digital Technologies. Victoria and Queensland are quite a long way down the track of implementing this curriculum, while NSW is yet to determine how and when it will be introduced. The Scope and Sequence which has been developed (https://acaraweb.blob.core.windows.net/resources/Digital_Technologies_-_Sequence_of_content.pdf) provides a very useful summary of the intended student learning and a framework against which we will map our K – 10 curriculum. This is one of the steps we will be taking this year on our path towards building Innovative Thinking and 21st century skills. 

We also learned about how other schools are setting up their MakerSpaces and incorporating the acquisition of up-to-date digital skills into their curriculum. Visiting the Lauriston Girls School Fab Lab and speaking with Principal Susan Just about their digital journey were also instrumental in building our knowledge and assisting in the planning for our MakerSpace. We will continue to research and visit other MakerSpaces as we develop our plans in these areas.

Student success

Mazal tov to:

  • All of the Age Champions from the High School Swimming Carnival last Friday and Rabin House for winning on the day (see the report from the House Captains in the Rabin page)
  • Aidan Zlotnick (Year 12) for his selection in the AICES basketball team
  • Luca Calderon Havas and Jordan Fleischer (Year 7) for winning the Junior Boys Tennis CDSSA championship and Luca for his win as Junior Boy Champion
  • Ava Rose, Jordin Sank, Sol Biton and Tobias Topolinsky, who were our Year 6 Ambassadors for the Pre-school Open Day this week (see the Kornmehl article)
  • Adena Sheps (Year 10) for placing third in the Randwick Council Art Competition for International Women’s Day
  • Aidan Sheps (Year 6) who was one of the winners of the Australian Jewish News Purim mask competition. His entry will be printed in this week’s paper.

Coming up

  • Purim Disco for K – 6, Sunday 12 March, 4 – 6 pm
  • SRC Fete for High School, Monday 20 March
  • Year 12 Three-way learning conversations (previously Parent/Student/Teacher meetings) 22 March, 4:00 – 8:00 pm
  • Jazz on the Hill, 26 March, 2:30 – 5:00 pm
  • Year 11 Three-way learning conversations (previously Parent/Student/Teacher meetings) 30 March, 4:00 – 8:00 pm
  • Year 10 Three-way learning conversations (previously Parent/Student/Teacher meetings) 3 April, 4:00 – 8:00 pm

Quote of the week

‘Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame’. [Benjamin Franklin]

Best wishes for a restful and reinvigorating weekend.

Shabbat Shalom