Volume 26 – Issue 32 10 Nov 2017 21 Heshvan 5778

From the Principal

Anne Hastings – Principal

This week has been a particularly busy one, with our usual day-to-day events punctuated by some end-of-year culminating activities:

  • On Sunday morning, I attended the NAJEX Remembrance Day ceremony at the Jewish Museum, accompanied by two of our Madrichim, Tomer Belkin and Nadja Avshalom, who laid a floral tribute. Later that day, I went to the last AHISA (Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia) dinner followed by the meeting the next day at Inaburra School, Menai.
  • On Monday evening, I attended the Writers’ Awards (see the page in this bulletin for the list of award winners and more description). This is always a very uplifting event, with the students’ written products on show for all to read. I’m always struck by the development in the students’ writing skills, who are so carefully guided and challenged by their English teachers. A huge thank you to each member of the English staff: Joanne Burden, Hannah Chedzey, Michele Frank, Kim Woolf, Helen Philp and David Camp, for their work in bringing the awards night to us so expertly and their ongoing strong guidance of our students’ writing.
  • On Tuesday evening I joined the P&F committee for their last meeting of the year. This has been the first year for Ruby and Jen as co-chairs, and they, along with their committee, have worked hard to bring to us the wide range of community and fund-raising events. The P&F is such an important part of the heart of a school – its strength and involvement demonstrate that of the community. We are so grateful for their dedication and such strong support for the School, and particularly thank Ruby and Jen for their leadership and commitment this year.
  • Tuesday also held our final Jewish Life committee meeting for the year. This is one of the Emanuel Board committees that meets termly to discuss a range of issued related to Jewish Life, Hebrew and Jewish Studies. This meeting was largely devoted to a discussion around the teaching of Hebrew in the Primary School.
  • During the day on Tuesday we held our Year 7 2018 Transition Day (see the article in this bulletin), in which the incoming Year 7 students experienced some High School lessons, the Amazing Race around the School, and got to know some of the teachers and their Peer Support leaders from Year 10. Many thanks go to Miranda Minton and her team for her planning, organisation and management of the day.
  • On Wednesday evening, after attending my final HJEI (Heads of Jewish Educational Institutions) meeting at Kesser Torah College with my colleagues from all the other Jewish schools, the Executive and Board of our School came together for the evening to discuss the results of the extensive parent survey that was completed last term. I will begin providing for you some summaries of the Parent Survey Report, so that you can see the broad perspectives of our parents in relation to the many different aspects of our School.
  • On Thursday evening, after attending the community Kristallnacht commemoration, there was the final Marketing meeting of the Board sub-committee, in which we worked together to develop the marketing plan for 2018.

So, all in all, it was a busy, varied and fulfilling week!

Visual Arts HSC Success

We heard earlier this week that Brianna Gadeley’s (Year 12 2017) artwork has been nominated for ARTEXPRESS! This is the HSC Exhibition of exemplary Visual Arts works from across the state that happens early in 2018. A photo of her work is here and the description is below. Congratulations to Brianna and special thanks to her teacher, Eytan Messiah, for his dedication in assisting all of his students throughout the development and completion of their artworks.

BRIANNA GADELEY

Title: The Beholder’s Eye

Medium: oil paint and gold leaf on panel

Through our eyes, you and I have the luxury of vivid colours, but through the eyes of a dog we can understand a world through an alternate, dichromatic lens. The biological confinement to this colour spectrum illustrates the literal contrast between a dog’s experiences and our own. The anonymity of the hands and the point of view allow the audience to place themselves in my perspective, reaching out and making contact with the dogs. My work depicts the unspoken nature of interaction and how it forms the language upon which unbreakable bonds are forged. The use of gold leaf captures the moment of mutual connection, framing the canine expressions with our tactile engagement. Through vision we gain insight, but only through interaction do we truly connect.

 

 

HSC Examinations

Our final comments on the recent HSC examination papers, which finished on Tuesday, follow:

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts examination is split into two equally weighted sections; three short responses on artworks unseen until the examination and one extended response to the students’ choice from six questions. In order to best answer both sections, Visual Arts students need to balance a sharp knowledge of content with a clear ability to creatively interpret complex artistic systems on the spot. This year, Section 1 presented a range of challenges that engaged students’ capacities to interpret traditions and innovations, the formal elements/principles of art and the relationships that are formed between an artwork and its audience. This section presented students with a booklet of “unseen” artworks comprised of three paintings, an interactive video installation and a performance-based work. To fully appreciate the nuances of these questions and artworks, students needed to unpack the aesthetic and conceptual qualities of the works, paying special attention to the captions provided beneath each artwork.  For Section 2, the majority of our students selected either Question 7 or 8. These both focused on the socio-political implications that artists and their works have in our cultural contexts. Students were familiar with these notions, having encountered them in their Trial Examination as well as previous assessments.

Eytan Messiah

Chemistry

The paper had mainly straightforward questions straight from the syllabus dot points. There were a small number of significantly harder questions, which connected several dot points or tested the students skills in reading the questions carefully. There were quite a few questions that drew on students’ mathematical skills.

 Feedback from a student:

“The exam was stimulating as it largely homed in on the dot points that required understanding rather than rote learning”.

Miranda Minton

Physics

The examination started in a very straightforward way, but got more challenging as it went on. There were a number of challenging questions, which required students to synthesise information from a number of different parts of the course and to demonstrate a real understanding of the Physics. There were also quite a lot of mathematical questions. Overall, it was a difficult but fair paper.

Jenny Selinger

Parent survey – report

Last term all parents were sent a survey link for our biennial survey. We had 308 responses, with the following profile:

 

Here is an overview of the satisfaction ratings for Key Areas from all parents. We were very pleased that all areas were at least high, with the overall satisfaction a ‘very high’ at 84%I’ll include further details from the report in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mazal tov to:

  • Tomer Belkin and Nadja Avshalom (Year 12 2018) for their participation at the NAJEX Remembrance Day commemoration
  • Zac Greenberg, Ariel Odes, Claudia Berman and Gabriella Goodridge, for representing Emanuel School through CDSSA in Basketball in the AICES Basketball competition
  • Each of the students who were nominated for Writers’ Awards, and those who gained the Writers of the Year and Most Dedicated Writers Awards for 2017

Coming up

  • Year 10 Drama Showcase, Monday 13 November, 7 pm
  • Night of Instrumental Music, Tuesday 14 November, 6 – 7.20 pm (Primary), 7.35 – 8.20 pm (High School)
  • Years 9 and 10 Examinations, Wednesday 15 November – Friday 17 November
  • Evening of Refugee Voices, 16 November, 6 pm
  • House Music Concert, Monday 20 November, 6 pm
  • Volunteers Assembly, Tuesday 21 November 8:20 am

Quote of the week 

‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.’

[Benjamin Franklin]

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Shabbat Shalom