From the Principal
Andrew Watt – Principal
A Child Safe School – Empowering our students
Our Executive team is currently in the process of reviewing our child protection policies and processes against best practice principles and standards. We do this regularly, to ensure that we do not become complacent or let child safety fall off our agenda. On our School website, when we describe what is important to us, we commit to being a Child Safe School.
This means that, through our culture, communications, policies and practices, we seek to systematically:
- create conditions to reduce the likelihood of our children being harmed
- create conditions that increase the likelihood of identifying and reporting harm
- respond appropriately to disclosures, allegations and suspicions of harm.
The Royal Commission recommended a set of Child Safe Standards for schools to comply with. Two of these Standards relate to how we promote student voice and agency, in terms of reporting on child protection matters. Our messages from public forums, within our wellbeing programs and our counselling services, aim to ensure that your children:
- speak up about their safety and the safety of their friends
- are aware they can access support if required
- understand that they are listened to and respected
- feel safe to raise concerns about themselves or their friends
- have easy access to internal and external support services.
Our hope is that our students know who to talk to if they feel unsafe, or if someone asks them to do something they don’t want to do. Importantly, we want our students to be confident that they will be believed if they speak up, and that action will be taken and that they will not get in trouble for sharing their experience. This will look different in Kornmehl. Primary and High School. These outcomes can be best achieved when our staff maintain a culture of listening to our students and seeking their opinion about things that affect them. We are also consistent in letting our students know that if they raise a concern, our staff will sometimes need to disclose serious matters to the Principal or his delegate, for mandatory reporting.
Parents have a key role to play in encouraging their children to voice any child safety concerns and to communicate these concerns to the School promptly. Amongst other things, Child Safe Schools are characterised by high levels of trust, effective communication and a strong partnership with parents.
The joys of Purim
I recently asked a group of students what their favourite festival is. Sure enough, Purim was distinctly high up on the list and I know why! It’s a time of so much joy and the buzz of excitement as the whole school celebrates together can be felt as you walk through the Waxman Gates.
I enjoyed watching the students from Pre-school to Year 12 parading their magnificent costumes, singing Purim songs, hearing the Story of Esther and sharing mishloach manot (and delicious hamantashen). Thank you to those students who brought in tins of food for OzHarvest. You will find many wonderful photos in this edition of Ma Nishma. Enjoy the joy!
Our Informal Jewish Life team getting into the spirit of Purim
Leading the way: Ma’ayan Symposium
Adina Roth presents on the topic of The challenge of teaching prayer to GenZ teenagers at the Ma’ayan Symposium
Our Head of Jewish Life, Adina Roth, partnered with the Jewish Education Department, Sydney University, to host and deliver a teacher professional development program for our Hebrew, Jewish Studies and Jewish Life staff. Over 60 educators and leaders within our Jewish Schools attended. Building a team of knowledgeable teachers, with excellent programs, policies and initiatives remains a priority for each of our Jewish Schools. It was fantastic that we could come together from our different schools and learn together, share ideas, resources and experiences.
Thank you to Adina and also the workshop presenters: Professor Suzanne Rutland, Dr Yona Gilead, Sandy Hollis, Ronnen Grauman, Ben Ezzes, Michael Sassoon and Natali Tchelet. It took a significant amount of organisation to bring this Symposium to life and I am grateful to Stacey Rosenfeld for her exceptional organisation.
Career Space
Every year we invite Emanuel graduates to share their career stories with our students. This provides our senior students, many of whom are grappling with their future study and career paths, to hear first-hand what to expect as they consider their futures.
If you are or know any Emanuel alumni who would be willing to share their experiences and help shape the workforce of tomorrow, please contact our Careers Advisor, Claire Pech.
Mazal tov
Congratulations to Dylan Pal who was selected as goalkeeper for the ASISSA Football Team. Dylan and his teammates will now play in the CIS Football Championships on Thursday 30 March 2023.
A huge congratulations to Victoria Miller, Class of 2022, for being shortlisted for the Young Writers Showcase for her HSC English Extension 2 Major Work. Like the Encore and Onstage exhibitions of the best work from Music and Drama respectively, the Young Writers Showcase is a display of the best English Extension 2 Major Works from across the State. Students who have their work chosen are published in an anthology of works and become published authors for the first time.
Victoria wrote a metafictive screenplay for a fictional sitcom. Her script is an entertaining and ground-breaking exploration of the nature of scriptwriting that is both hilarious and thought-provoking. She utilised a number of non-conventional stylistic choices such as striking out words and highlighting words to show the developing nature of the script. Her piece, entitled The Pultzman Show: 250th Episode Special is designed to be read rather than filmed and watched.
We wish Victoria the best of luck with making it into the book.
Quote of the day
“The people that can know the full darkness of history and yet rejoice is a people whose spirit no power on earth can ever break.” ~ Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l