Volume 26 Issue 26 01 Sep 2017 10 Elul 5777

From the Principal

Anne Hastings – Principal

New Principal – Andrew Watt

It has been lovely to welcome Andrew to Emanuel School on several occasions in recent weeks and a pleasure to assist his induction to the many facets of our School. He has begun his orientation visits and has been meeting with many of our staff and becoming familiar with our way of operating and culture. His naturally inquisitive nature and caring approach to all people are evident, and he is very keen to ensure he is up-to-speed as much as possible by the time he begins officially in mid-January. We will continue with these visits and include him in decision-making for 2018 as much as possible in the coming term, while also being conscious of the fact that he is still managing his considerable role at Wenona until the end of the year.

Curriculum Conference

Have you ever wondered why and how education has changed over the years? Why are there times when students seem to spend so much time on projects or discussions? Why is the focus moving away from the acquisition of knowledge and more to the gaining of skills?

On the evening of 13 September, commencing at 6.30 pm, we are holding our inaugural K- 12 Parent Curriculum Conference. In the past, we have presented parent information in various ways, last year offering parent sessions each week throughout Term 3. This year, we are trialling a different model and have created a K-12 parent conference that will focus on curriculum. Please see the flyer (K-12 Parent Curriculum Conference) in this Ma Nishma and booking details below.

The curriculum conference targets Years K-12 parents. It will be a conference-style event with a range of engaging external and teacher speakers to choose from that cover different curriculum topics for parents.

Please use this link to see the program and register. https://goo.gl/forms/PxPjVoLLWzZEv0eg2

Fathers’ Day

A very enjoyable Fathers’ Day Breakfast was held this morning, with hundreds of Dads and special men being treated to a delicious breakfast with their children in the MPH. Huge thanks go to our tireless P&F Co-chairs Ruby Berkovic and Jen Opit and their team of helpers for making this happen. The Fathers’ Day stall, that was held for the children to purchase gifts for the special man in their lives, also involved a great deal of organisation and preparation. Our thanks go to Michelle Stockley and her team for their work to make this such a success.

HJEI

You may not know that all the Principals and Heads of Primary of the Jewish schools in Sydney are part of an organisation called Heads of Jewish Educational Institutions. The group is collegial and supportive and we are often in contact via email. We meet each term to discuss a range of topics pertaining to our schools. Yesterday’s topics included a presentation by a qualified psychologist proposing seminars to help parents manage the brainstorm of adolescence, accreditation for teachers, a possible da Vinci-style competition for students from Jewish schools and a range of policy-related issues.

Sydney University Research Project

I remind you that information about this project was sent to parents of Years 5 – 11 students recently, asking you to provide permission for your child/children to take undertake the online survey, and to do the survey yourselves. Please take the time to give the permission and assist. While we get many requests to be part of research projects, we are unable to take up many of them because of time constraints. This project is specifically targeting what we do here and should benefit ours and other Jewish students in the long run.

Mazal Tov to:

  • Our Middle HICES Debating team who has progressed to the Grand Final in the HICES competition, to be held next Thursday. The students are Lara Fosbery, Eden Glass, Ruby Hurwitz, Chloe Miller, Ethan Moliver and Anna Davis from Years 7 and 8. Their coach is ex-student Joshua Moses and their co-ordinating teacher is Jemma Lopis.
  • Isabella Flax (Year 10), acknowledged as one of the best debaters in the HICES finals rounds, who has been accorded the honour of chairing the Grand Finals Opens Debate in the HICES competition
  • Sophie Sawicki (Year 8), who ran a fund-raising initiative for the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary and raised $672
  • Chelsea Rutstein (Year 10), who has been awarded Junior champion in fishing, ladies champion and overall club champion (against men, women and other juniors), in her local club and also took out first, second and third in junior girls and first in another length-only division, in the NSW competition
  • Our Junior Chess team, Jesse Gothelf, Sol Biton, Joshua Leslie and Daniel Zipser who will now proceed to the Eastern finals against Sydney Grammar Edgecliff next week.
  • The students who represented CDSSA in the AICES Athletics, and particularly Oskar Beck for first place in javelin, Danielle Rutstein for first place in high jump and second place in triple jump, and Aarin Regan Lacey for third place in long jump and second place in triple jump
  • Dan Altman (class of 2012) who has recently been awarded the University Medal in Mathematics at UNSW.

Coming up

  • HSC Music Showcase, Tuesday 5 September 6 pm
  • Year 7 Shorashim Project Showcase, Thursday 7 September, 7 pm
  • Year 11 Drama Showcase, Monday 11 September, 7 pm
  • P & F Monday Morning Cooking Club, Tuesday 12 September, 7.45 pm
  • K – 12 Curriculum Conference for parents, Wednesday 13 September, 6.30 pm
  • Grandparents Day, Friday 15 September, 9 am
  • Year 12 Graduation Assembly, Tuesday 19 September, 8.15 am
  • Year 12 Graduation Dinner, Tuesday 19 September, 6 pm
  • Last day of Term 3, Wednesday 20 September (school finishes at 1.10 pm, Erev Rosh Hashanah)

Quote of the week 

‘The primary goal of education at all levels should be to expose students to a wide array of pursuits and help them find that they love spending time on.’ [Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith in ‘Most Likely to Succeed’]

Best wishes for an enjoyable and relaxing weekend. I hope that all our Dads and special men have a wonderful day on Sunday.

Shabbat Shalom