Andrew Watt

Visit from UNSW Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Toby Walsh

As part of our CSIRO STEM in Schools Day, Hon Matt Thistlethwaite MP and Professor Toby Walsh joined our Year 6 students in the Imaginarium today. Students explored the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development and used this to create and pitch a job of the future. Members of the Innovation Team and Executive joined our special guests for lunch in the Principal’s office, where we discussed opportunities for future engagement with CSIRO volunteers and how STEM-related knowledge and skills would be of benefit in the workplace of the future. We look forward to developing a range of industry partnerships, such as this one.

The Hon. Matt Thistlethwaite MP, Professor Toby Walsh, Andrew Watt with Year 6 students, Marina Akstein and Joshua Gordon

High Achiever Principal Academic and Effort Awards

Our assembly this week recognised those students in Years 7 to 11 who achieved a perfect set of grades, for academic achievement and/or effort; no mean feat! The honour list of students includes:

Year 7 

Effort: Alix Cane, Alexis Demos, Maayan Granot, Claire Madziar, Ruby Miller, Coby New and Jake Sharp                 

Year 8

Jordan Rubinstein, Achievement; Anna Davis, Effort;  Isabella Filipczyk, Effort; Lilly Goldberg, Effort; Yayda Sacks, Effort and Remy Waller, Effort

Year 9

Jessica Lowy, Achievement; Jade Berson, Effort; Ezra Hersch, Effort, Charlotte Lyons, Effort and Chloe Miller, Effort                       

Year 10

Rebekah Goldsworthy, Achievement; Jonathan Sebban, Achievement; Talia Blackman, Effort; Lachlan Corne, Effort; Madeleine Liger, Effort; Alexander Placek, Effort; Chenyao Qu, Effort and Samara Trenaman, Effort

Year 11

Dylan Herdan, Achievement and Effort; Matthew Joffe, Achievement and Effort; Joshua New, Achievement and Effort; Adena  Sheps, Achievement and Effort; Noah Klein, Effort and Rachel Turtledove, Effort.

Those students who achieved outstanding results and/or maintained an outstanding effort will be recognised through our House Assemblies. I had the privilege of reviewing and then commenting on all Year 7 and Year 12 reports. It was my first close look at how Emanuel students work and perform academically, as well as how they behave in class. I am pleased to report that, overall, our student reports were very impressive, indicating a high level of involvement and engagement in class activities. It was also pleasing to note the high number of students who were well-organised and committed to working hard at home, as well as in class. Our teachers are to be congratulated on writing a detailed, thoughtful, encouraging and constructive set of academic reports. For some students, however, the reports will have been a wake-up call. For these students (and they know who they are!), there is still plenty of room for improvement, and I will look forward to reading a better report in Semester 2.

The generosity of our Parents and Friends Association (P&F)

Our Years K-2 library resources will receive a significant boost, due to the generous donation of $10,000 from the P&F. These key resources will support our recently introduced synthetic phonics program, introduced at the beginning of 2017. These resources will benefit our young ones for many years to come.

Design Thinking in action

If you had wandered past the Basketball courts on Tuesday afternoon, you would have been forgiven for thinking there was a ballet of students and streamers going on, as Year 8 completed their STEAM Day – Festival of Flight. Creativity, learning and play were the order of the day, with students taking part in hands-on experiences, to experiment and discover aspects of flight. What happens when you blow up a balloon in a bottle? Can you balance a ping pong ball on a straw? What materials will fly in a wind tunnel? What do kites have in common mathematically? With some learning under their belts, students drew designs of kites before using a range of materials to make their imagination a reality. Frustrations ad disappointments were overcome with resilience and a positive attitude towards solving a range of technical problems as the construction process continued. The day culminated in a chaos of colour and motion on the basketball court, as students demonstrated success (or otherwise) of their design. The Year 8 Festival of Flight was a great success, with perfect wind conditions.

Rabbis’ mezuzah dedication

We were delighted to have Rabbis Jeffrey Kamins OAM, Jacki Ninio, Rafi Keiserbleuth, Dr Orna Triguboff and Reverend Sam Zwarenstein join us today to tour the Innovation Centre and dedicate a mezuzah in each of the remaining learning spaces within the building. 

Rabbi Daniel Siegel, Margaret Lowe, Rabbi Rafi Kaiserbleuth, Rabbi Jacki Nina, Rabbi Orna Triguboff, Andrew Watt, Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Reverend Sam Zwarenstein and Adam Carpenter

A student engages with the realities of the drought for our farmers

Jonathan Schach

Jonathan Schach (Year 9) is organising a collection of supplies to support farmers across NSW who are ‘doing it tough’ in the drought. He has independently planned for a collection day on 14 August, when family donations of the following items can be delivered to the school: cleaning products, nappies, baby wipes, baby formula, coffee, tea, rice and pastas, sunscreen, toothbrush and toothpaste, first aid products, perfumes, anti-perspirant, moisturisers, sanitary items, make-up kits, water-free hair products, a chocolates, deodorant, razors, shaving cream and nail clippers. All goods collected will be distributed through the CWA branches west of Cobar on 17 August. We thank Jonathan for committing to acting on his concern for our farmers; a wonderful example of how Tikkun Olam can be applied practically today.

Quote of the day

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” 

Lloyd Alexander