Andrew Watt – Principal

The Maccabiah Games and our
Sport Colours Award Presentation

Our High School Sport assembly featured some special guests and a presentation of awards.

Maccabiah Games

Past parent, Debbie Rutstein, in her role as Regional Manager of the Junior Athlete team, addressed our students on the upcoming Maccabiah Games and showcased the torch that will be lit at the opening ceremony. The torch is touring the world and it has been taken to several Jewish schools and Jewish organisations across Sydney. The Maccabiah Games are held every four years (five years this time around!) and include Jewish athletes from all over the world. There will be 10 000 athletes from approximately 80 countries competing. It is the second largest sporting tournament in the world.

Emanuel athletes (both past and present) who will be competing in the games were recognised by a warm ovation: Adam Forman: Cricket – Junior Boys (2004-2007); Aden Goodridge: Basketball – Youth Boys (2004-2005); Aden Kanevsky: Gymnastics – Junior; Brooke Rosen: Netball – Youth Girls (2004-2005); Eden Levit: Football – Junior Girls (2004-2007); Ethan Hirst: Football – Junior Boys (2006-2007); Mischa Spielman: Football – Junior Girls (2004-2007); Siena Michaelson: Netball – Youth Girls (2004-2005); Sienna Poswell: Football – Junior Girls (2004-2007); Tess Endrey: Netball – Youth Girls (2004-2005); Zac Urbach: Track and Field – Junior (2004-2007); Coby New: Futsal – Men’s Open. Two of our sport coaches, who are also Emanuel Alumni, will also be at the games: Jake Sharwood: Basketball – Men’s Open and Ethan De Melo: Futsal – Men’s Open

Sports Awards

• A Grey Sport Colour Award (representing a 3-year ongoing contribution to sport) was presented to: Reece Carr, Boaz Hadad, Ethan Hirst, Aden Kanevsky, Sienna Poswell and Amelie Trope.
• A Maroon Sport Colour Award (representing a 5-year ongoing contribution to sport) was presented to Luca Calderon-Havas. An impressive number of students received a certificate for their selection in higher representative honours in their given sport.

Over the past few years, our rate of participation and success in sport have increased significantly, as has the quality of our coaching, skill development, and strength and conditioning programs. As mentioned in my assembly address:

We now have a culture where students are committing to the hard work required to win competitions and to gain representative honours. In short, we are moving towards a good place in sport, where we expect to do well in competitions and expect that our top athletes will progress to bigger and better things. We punch well above our weight – and we will continue to improve in 2023!

Students with their Sports Awards

Exploring post-school career pathways 

Over the years, we have found that our alumni are an extremely valuable resource in providing our soon-to-depart Year 12 students with detailed information on what the next steps can look like, across a range of university courses and careers. The Careers Space event provided a forum for our students to hear about, discuss and ask questions related to their area of passion or interest. Years 11 and 12 were invited to hear from over 20 Alumni, all from the last 10 years of school and from a range of backgrounds. The format involved three periods of rotations, with 10 minute small-round-table discussions (speed dating style). Sadly, an additional group of alumni were unable to participate, due to COVID-19. We are very grateful to our presenters, for giving up their time to support our students in their career choices. A huge thank you to Claire Pech and Sonia Newell, who worked together, to ensure the success of this special event.

Alumni return to School for Careers Space

Lord of the Flies

Bookings open on Tuesday at 8.00 am for the long awaited High School production of Lord of the Flies. A link will be sent to all parents on Monday. Tickets always sell out quickly so keep an eye out for the email. 

Kids Giving Back – making a difference

During this term and in the recent holiday break, a group of our students joined with over 500 young people to produce over 7 000 hot meals, salads, fruit kebabs, breakfast boxes, snack packs, care packs and decorated tote bags, which were distributed to 13 charities around Sydney. This group also helped to fold and pack new clothes for over 8 000 vulnerable people, many of whom were affected by this year’s floods. We acknowledge the generosity of the following students, who gave up their time to undertake a range of activities that contributed to meeting the needs of vulnerable people in our community: Pepper Banki, Gil Banna, Olive Byrne, Micha Ezra, Alice Belle Frielander, Jonathan Goldberg, Lara Goldberg, Harry Greenberg, Noam Greenberg, Rose Greenberg, Emily Greenfield, Claudia Hochroth, Rosie Itzkowic, Ivy Kery, Eve Knopman, Sierra Miller, Jude Olian, Aaron Pal, Jacob Raiz, Bianca Ross, Isaac Shammay, Nathan Shammay and Nava Wiess.

If this wonderful program is of interest, please contact Gabrielle Morrissey Hansen 

A letter from the Queen

Happy 100th Birthday to Mr Aron Kleinlehrer, generous supporter and life long friend of the School. What a milestone! We believe that the Queen’s congratulatory letter is on its way!

Mazal tov

There are so many students who have achieved excellent results representing the School. If I were to include them all here we would have a very long list indeed. Please make sure to read the many articles in Ma Nishma this week where over 60 students have been mentioned for their success in various pursuits. Mazal tov to them all!

Quote of the week

“At the end of the day it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished… it’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.” ~ Denzel Washington, Actor