Andrew Watt

Counsellor Leon Goltsman, Dave Sharma, Andrew Watt and Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton

Welcoming our Special Guests

Our list of guest speakers at High School assembly this term continues to grow, with Rabbi Dr Ben Elton from the Great Synagogue giving the D’var Torah and Dave Sharma speaking on What lessons can Australia learn from Israel and what lessons can Israel learn from Australia?  From 2013 to 2017, Dave served as Australia’s Ambassador to Israel. His appointment at the age of 37 made him the youngest person to be appointed as an Australian ambassador. In this role, he helped facilitate links to Israel’s technology sector and investment into Australia. Dave also ensured that the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba was a major commemorative event and he delivered the first visit to Australia by an Israeli Prime Minister. His deep knowledge and experience of both Israeli and Australian politics makes Dave unique in many ways, and his insights were both helpful and interesting. As this was his first visit to Emanuel, Dave joined Waverley Councillor, Leon Goltsman (founding Emanuel School alumnus), for a tour of the campus and both were very impressed by the Food Lab, Design Lab and Imaginarium in the Innovation Centre, the Millie Phillips Theatre and the Visual Arts/Science buildings.

Pick up and drop off – resolving emerging problems

A small number of parents/grandparents have been stopping for extended periods within our ‘go with the flow’ (GWTF) zones or have been double parking or stopping in the designated bus zones. This has resulted in a significant slowing of our drop offs and collections and also poses a safety risk. It also impacts our relationship with our neighbours. Our traffic issues can be largely resolved if, at the morning or afternoon times, all parents/grandparents refrained from:

• Getting out of their car to assist their child;
• Double parking;
• Stopping for more than 90 seconds (after child arrives at car), in GWTF; and
• Stopping in designated bus zone.

If there is no space in the designated GWTF area, parents are strongly encouraged not to stop, but rather to complete a second loop. Parents with older children are also encouraged to park some distance from the campus and enjoy the walk.

Our proposed changes to our entry and exit to Emanuel, as outlined by Margaret Lowe in the last edition of Ma Nishma, will commence in Term 2. In response to feedback from parents, we will however allow parents to continue to park away from the School and come onto the campus, through the Waxman Gate. However, the Kornmehl car park will be open to Kornmehl parents only and the exit from the music rooms will be closed. Kornmehl parents with children in Primary School will therefore have the option to park away from school and collect both children separately, or collect from both Kornmehl and GWTF. The new system will be trialled, then reviewed.

River Valley School, Singapore Visit

On Thursday, we hosted a delegation of educators from River Valley High School, Singapore, who came to Emanuel School to learn about our focus on developing students as critical and curious thinkers with a love for learning. River Valley High School is a high performing academic school targeting the top 10% of the student population in Singapore. They have developed a program in which secondary students can proceed directly to pre-tertiary education without taking the national exams. This allows River Valley teachers to make better use of curriculum time to immerse students in broader and deeper learning experiences that develop their 21st century competencies.

The educators from River Valley are visiting selected Australian schools to broaden their perspective on teaching and learning by understanding how different schools promote and assess the thinking of their students. Knowing that Emanuel focuses on developing the critical and innovative thinking skills of our students was the driving reason to spend time observing our lessons and meeting with Mr Adam Majsay, our Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning), and a team of Emanuel’s Heads of Department to learn about the teaching and learning practices at Emanuel.

The nine educators, including their Principal and Vice Principal, chose to visit Emanuel owing to the similarities in our two schools’ approaches to learning. Like Emanuel, River Valley High School use the Teaching for Understanding framework as the theoretical underpinning for curriculum design in their school. In addition, Cultures of Thinking, which also characterises learning at Emanuel, has been employed by River Valley teachers to promote deep disciplinary thinking in their students. Our colleagues from Singapore were excited by their time at Emanuel and take new insights in best practice teaching and learning with them back to Singapore. 

Mazal tov

Daniel Zipser (Year 5) achieved a perfect 8/8 score at the East Sydney Junior One Day Chess Championships held on Sunday 3 March 2019. Well done also to Joshua Barnett (Year 5) who came 7th in the tournament.

Lucy Klein with the winning basketball trophy

Emanuel Junior Girls Basketball Team won their grand final against International Grammar School on Wednesday in the Sydney Schools Cup (weekly inter-school competition)

Brody Elbourne (Year 9) ran the 4km course in the inaugural NAB RunWest Running event last Sunday. He had a great run finishing on the podium with a silver medal in the men’s division and 3rd overall. There were over 3000 runners in the 4km event who competed and finished the run.

Quote of the week

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.”

Josef Albers