Anne Hastings – Principal

I hope everyone enjoyed their time over Sukkot. It has been an unusual start to Term 4, but now we are underway on a continuum of learning for the rest of the term, which will come very quickly for Year 10, who leave for their Chavayah experience in Israel on 23 November.

During the week I received this lovely email from one of our parents, commenting on our Year 8 students:

This morning I am moved to write to you with feedback about the impeccable behaviour displayed by students from Emanuel School. Yesterday I was lucky enough to be at a harbour beach with my kids and two of their friends.  

When we arrived, there was a large group of about 15 or so kids, and we recognised them as Year 8 students from Emanuel… It was a delight to watch these kids interact with each other. They were friendly, cooperative and well-behaved. They passed around and offered each other food(!), were mindful not to get sand on towels, did a lot of laughing, and generally were a perfect example of well-balanced and happy young adults.

Importantly, they did not interfere or interrupt other mid-week beach frolickers. There was no swearing, no sand throwing, no belligerence. As a parent, I felt really proud of them, and really thankful to belong to a school that facilitates the positive development of our kids. Thank you for the amazing work that you and the staff contribute.

Parents & Friends Co-chairs, Susie and Sharon

I’d like to draw your attention to the P & F page this week. After six years of sterling service to the School leading the P & F, Susie and Sharon are stepping down. We will miss them greatly as they have done a fantastic job in this role, overseeing so many events and guiding the important work of the P & F in friend-raising and fund-raising. We are very grateful to them and will express our gratitude formally at the end-of-year events. We are looking for someone or a couple of dedicated parents to step up into this role and guide the enthusiastic P & F team into 2017 and beyond. Please consider putting yourself (or yourselves!) forward for this or just contact Susie and Sharon to discuss further.

HSC Examination Feedback from Teachers

Our class of 2016 has been sitting their HSC examinations over recent weeks. Here is some feedback from their teachers about the papers. There will be more next week.

English Advanced

Both Papers 1 and 2 for Advanced and Standard were quite good papers. The questions were specific and thus required more than just a memorised response. However, they were not too specific to throw the students off. I spoke to the students after the first paper and most of them felt that it had gone well. There was no visual text in the comprehension section, which was annoying to some students as there has always been some visual element in the past, but it did not overly affect them. The texts that were there were fairly straightforward. There were some different weightings for questions, but this should not have caused any issues. 

With paper 2, the questions were again specific and fair. The only question that caused a bit of a stir was our Module B question in Advanced, which asked students to refer to a specific poem (out of five they had studied) and one of their choice. We prepared them for this, so it shouldn’t have been a big deal, but sometimes students don’t prepare enough for each poem to cover this eventuality. One question in Standard was also quite interesting, as it provided students with some stills from the movie they had studied that they had to refer to in their answer. 

[David Camp]

Music 1 and 2

The Music 1 examination was unusual in that for one question it used a particular wording that has not been used ever (to my knowledge). This would have thrown some students, but feedback from most students was that they were confident answering this strange question and also the other three more usual questions.

The Music 2 examination was a break from conventions of recent times in that there were less score-reading questions and more audio-alone questions. The questions themselves were more general (referring to the overarching concepts rather than specific technical terminology or sub-elements). In this sense it may have been a Music 2 examination in Music 1 clothing, but only time, and the BOSTES “marking guidelines” and “sample answers”, will tell. The choice of musical excerpts was excellent and interesting and it was very pleasant to sit through this examination!

[David Gwilliam and Diana Springford]

History

The HSC Modern History examination was well received by students who described it as fair and even, in one instance, ‘nice.’ This is a testament to the hard work of the students as much as it is an indication of generous examiners. Thanks to their diligence and commitment, most were well equipped to cope with questions about the experiences of British women in WWI, the significance of the American entry into the war in 1917, the failure of Germany democracy in 1933, Nazi foreign policy, the dictatorships of Hitler and Mussolini, the significance of the battle of El Alamein and the life of Albert Speer. 

The HSC Ancient History Examination took place at St Andrew’s Cathedral School on Monday. The students coped well with the change of venue and declared the paper fair and accessible. They wrote about the impact of new research and technologies on our understanding of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the nature of the Persian army, the political career of Julius Caesar and the fall of the Roman Republic. The students were enthusiastic about the opportunities that the paper provided to demonstrate the depth of their knowledge and understanding. 

[Sally Cove]

PDHPE

The general feeling amongst the students was that the PDHPE examination today was “very fair” and focused on a wide range of the syllabus dot points. There were no questions that posed any major problems, the students were well prepared for the questions and they all seemed to be happy upon completion. 

[Ray Francis and Kristy Reed]

Mazal tov to:

• Danielle Rutstein (Year 8) who was nominated for the Bradley Matthews Memorial Award for Sporting Excellence 2016. Although she did not win the major award, Danielle was a finalist and received a Commendation Certificate for her continued success and effort in sport. 
• Erin Baskin (Year 10) who represented Emanuel School at the Global Dignity Day, which was held recently at Parliament House
• The students who played in the CDSSA Netball Gala Day last week (see the story under High School Sport)
• The students who completed their silver adventure expedition canoeing along the Hawkesbury last week (see the story and photos under Duke of Edinburgh Silver Expedition).

Coming up

• Night of Song, Tuesday 1 November, 6 pm, MPH
• Year 7 2017 Parent and Student Information Evening, Wednesday 2 November 7 pm, Millie Phillips Theatre
• Writers’ Awards, Thursday 3 November, 7 pm, Millie Phillips Theatre
• Last Day of the HSC Examinations Friday 4 November
• High School House Music Festival, 6 pm 8 November, MPH
• East Timor Information evening, 5:30 pm 9 November, MP Theatre
• Years 9 and 10 Music Soiree, 5:30 pm, MP Theatre

Quote of the week

‘Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character’. [Johann Kaspar Lavater]

Best wishes for a relaxing weekend.

Anne Hastings