Andrew Watt – Principal

The value of a good night’s sleep

Many young people struggle to get out of bed in the morning and find it difficult to maintain their energy and focus throughout the day; some even struggle to remain awake at school (hard to believe, I know!).

This sleep deprivation is often self-imposed, when instead of the required 8-10 hours, they get 6-7 hours. This lack of sleep causes our students not to function at their optimum and can result in poor behaviour, mental health problems and low functioning in the classroom. On the other hand, a good night’s sleep maximises brain growth, consolidates learning – and keeps us fresh to maximise our future learning. 

Michael Grose, in his article, 6 nightmare habits that are ruining teenagers’ sleep, stresses the key role of parents in helping them establish good sleep patterns, by erasing bad habits.  

Do any of the following list sound familiar?

Dr Carr-Gregg, adolescent psychologist, speaks about the consequences of being woken up too early and thus missing out on REM sleep. This is linked to anxiety, depression, poor immunity, accidents, poor judgment and memory. Parents are encouraged to set boundaries around bed time and to be consistent in maintaining good sleep habits, as the responsible adult in the room. As a parent of post-adolescent children, I can appreciate what an uphill battle this can be! The rewards, however, are significant.

Sad news

Greg Churm – smiling, always

Sadly, Greg Churm, our former IT Technician, passed away on Wednesday after a long illness. Greg was a long serving and dedicated staff member and he will be sorely missed.

Please visit the page titled In Memory of for a heartfelt tribute to Greg. 

Showcase of Young Innovators 

Our Years K-6 Innovation Festival, Imagining the Future, held today, was a joyous occasion where innovation and futures thinking, as it has played out at Emanuel this year, was featured and celebrated. Buzz words such as ‘innovation’ and ‘futures thinking’ have become an increasingly popular part of the vocabulary within schools. We must, however, be careful that we do not treat them too lightly or merely give lip service to the important skills, dispositions and mindset that relate to these critical future workplace skills.

At Emanuel, these terms have been translated into action, through project-based learning involving design-thinking, systems-thinking,

critical analysis and collaborative, transdisciplinary approaches to solve complex, real-world problems. This is what deep thinking is all about. Today, we were privileged to view and interact with a small part of the creative world of our students, as we explored a wonderful showcase of projects. The capacity of our young ones to ideate, innovate, problem solve and create was impressive! The challenge for schools is how to best prepare our students for this often volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Our Festival today and our approaches to innovation and entrepreneurialism will position our students to have the mindset and skills to take on the challenges that the future holds and be a valued, contributing member of the workplace of the future. Congratulations to Sophie Poisel, our Year K-6 Innovation Leader, for this special event.

The World of Maths 

Numeracy is an essential component of our curriculum, and to make numeracy fun and relevant to our students, we have arranged for the World of Maths Roadshow to visit our School. This roadshow provides an ideal opportunity for students to see how Mathematics is applied to some real-life situations. More importantly, our students are engaged in hands-on activities that cater for all ability levels and probe their problem-solving skills. It is a highly engaging session!

Mazal tov

• Congratulations to the winners of the Lion King poster competition, Amélie Mueller, Year 4 and Maddison Green, Year K. You’ll be able to see their entries as well as other entries on the page entitled Primary Musical.
• Simone Rappaport, Year 10 and Elia Gil-Munoz, Year 9  presented a very poised, mature and engaging segment about their recent trip to Kenya at the Emanuel Synagogue Social Action Committee’s Small Changes, Big Differences evening recently.
• Daphna Levin-Kahn also presented at the Small Changes, Big Differences evening on the Year 9 Jewish Studies Be The Change elective collaboration program between Emanuel School, the Synagogue Social Action Committee and Chifley Public School.
• Year 8 Hebrew students, Jordan Baskin, Ilan Meshel, Mirabelle Mirvis, Talia Kleviansky, Jack Smagarinsky, Tomer Aron, Mayer She and Mahley Rosen Tal are finalists in a short film competition for second languages.

Quote of the week

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

Roy H Williams