Sonia Newell – Development Officer

Breakfast with Emanuel

We held our CBD Breakfast with Emanuel session on Wednesday morning. Thank you Anthony Milner for arranging Adobe to host this event.

Andrew Watt gave the 1^st presentation of the morning at this informal breakfast session. He spoke passionately about his own personal introduction to the School as our new Principal, about how quickly the 1^st Term of 2018 came and went. He spoke about how welcomed he felt from the very 1^st day of Term 1, which included High School Assembly – when he entered the MPH to rather loud Rock Music, he was not really sure what to expect as he walked up towards the stage with large, bright balloons on display – not like anything he had experienced before in his many years in education. Andrew spoke about how proud he feels as he sees our students embrace the culture of the School, caring for each other and for the world beyond the walls of the School and reiterated that none of us should ever stop learning.

Anthony Milner, Andrew Watt, Sophie Poisel and Eytan Messiah

Elan Miller, David New, Daniel Stein and Ronen Vexler

The 2^nd presentation for the breakfast session was from Eytan Messiah, Head of Visual Arts and Co-ordinator of High School Innovation Team, and Sophie Poisel, Innovation Leader K-6, who both spoke about aspects of Innovation for our students and the direction the School is heading in this arena.  Sophie recently returned from a 5-week trip to the USA on a prestigious 2017 NSW Premier’s Commonwealth Bank STEM Teaching Scholarship. She described some of her observations and experiences at a couple of the 15 schools, universities and museums she visited in America as well as some of the things happening here with our students.  Eytan also showed the audience how Innovation impacts on our students and how this prepares them for other aspects of their learning and life experiences.

If you missed this breakfast session, you might like to attend next Wednesday’s session in Bondi Junction. 

Please RSVP for catering purposes to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

7.30am to 9am, Wednesday 9 May:

The Little Space

3/384 Oxford Street

Bondi Junction (cnr Newland Street)

(Please note: this venue is on Level 3 and there is NO lift)

Class of 2017 members of Shnat Habonim Dror 2018

Here now is a message I received from Alumna Shoshana (Shoshi) Blackman…

Hi Sonia, I and 11 other Emanuel 2017 graduates are currently in Israel on Shnat with Habobim Dror and are participating in Live Below the Line in two weeks’ time. We were wondering if you would be able to share the following link and message so that we can get as much support from our community at home as possible? Thank you so much! Shoshi  

Habonim Dror Shnat Participants Live Below the Line

After having countless discussions throughout our time in the socially active Jewish Youth Movement of Habonim Dror regarding the type of action we can take to help make the world a better place; the Shnat participants of 2018 have decided to do our part in attempting to decrease global poverty by participating in Live Below the Line. Live Below the Line (an extremely successful campaign facilitated by the  Australian Youth organisation ‘Oaktree’) requires each participant to live on $2 (5.45 shekels) a day – the equivalent to the extreme poverty line in Australia – for five days. Through this act, we aim to firstly raise public awareness and spark discussion regarding the issue of poverty in our communities. Secondly, we hope to accrue donations (our current goal being $2000) to aid Oaktree’s education schemes that exist in nations including Australia, Timor-Leste and Cambodia. Overall, we hope to contribute to ending the poverty cycle through education, a goal both Habonim Dror and Oaktree believe to be immensely important. The notability of our participation in Live Below the Line is greatly furthered considering our Shnat experience thus far, and the experience to come. Whilst living on Kibbutz Revivim in the Negev, we have been exposed to the poverty many Bedouin communities, Arab Villages and refugees in South Tel-Aviv are subject to, and find this shocking and unjust. In alignment with Habonim Dror’s values of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and Dugma Ishit (leading by example), we know that we must attempt to combat this inequality. Furthermore, in the second half of our Shnat program many of us will be volunteering in less-fortunate communities in South Tel-Aviv, and therefore feel even more connected to the issue. Overall, whether it is Israel, New Zealand, France or our community in Sydney, Habonim Dror believes in the capacity of young people to be able to make a difference in the world.

If you would like to support us, please donate to our page: www.livebelowtheline.com.au/fundraisers/HDshnat18/5-day-challenge

If you have news you would like to share with our Emanuel School Community, please send it to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au