High School Va’ad Week
Kian Hamburger – Head Madrich 2023
Amelie Trope – Head Madricha 2023
Last week, High School enjoyed a brand new initiative from the Year 12 Cohort, seeing an extra special week full of Ruach, activities, games, and music run by the Madrichim and Year 12 Va’adot, where each Va’ad got a space to showcase what they are all about and to engage with the rest of High School.
The week, named Va’ad Week, was focused on High School’s amazing Va’adot, which are run by Year 12s. Each Va’ad had a day of the week allocated, where they could run engaging Period 0 and lunchtime activities and create many memorable posts on the Madrichim Instagram page.
You may be wondering, what are Va’adot?
Va’adot are committees that contribute to a certain aspect of school life and can be joined by anyone in Year 12, not just Madrichim. Thus, there are quite a few Va’adot, including:
Tefillah, Wellbeing, Sport, Social Action, Shabbat, Sustainability and Tarbut (Arts, music, culture), and a few others that are on the horizon for future creation.
Of course, Va’ad Week couldn’t feature all of these Va’adot unfortunately, as it might have turned into more of a Va’ad Month if so, but there were still so many outstanding activities run by many of the Va’adot over the week.
On Monday, the Tefillah Va’ad ran a festive and musical Period 0 prayers, featuring their fashionable “Tefillah Va’ad – Learner Rabbi” T-Shirts. These have most definitely not gone to waste, with the Tefillah Va’ad still wearing them each Monday morning! At lunchtime, students were invited to learn Brachot for the many different foods we eat, including sweet, savoury, baked, food grown from the ground, and of course the food was eaten after the prayer was made.
On Tuesday, it was the Wellbeing’s Va’ad time to shine, with their lunchtime chocolate meditation, mandala drawings and gratitude chain-making. The relaxation we received from Tuesday lunchtime has still not left us!
On Wednesday, the Sport Va’ad helped plan a sports-themed House Assembly and an Interhouse benchball competition at lunch, which was a huge success with High School. Rashi House won the Year 9/10 Competition, whilst Rabin House won the Year 7/8 Competition. Well done to Rashi and Rabin!
On Thursday, the Sustainability and Tarbut Va’ad teamed up, with Sustainability making a sustainability mural on the hill during Tutor time in Period 0, and offering honey tasting at lunch where students could come and guess which honey was organic and which was fake all while learning about the importance of bees and how honey is made. This was all accompanied by the talented Year 9-10 Rock Band playing throughout lunchtime.
Finally, Friday saw Shava’ad (Shabbat Va’ad) offering Ruach and tea light candle decorating at lunch! The best way to end the week!
What a week! Indeed, Va’ad Week really allowed the Year 12 Cohort to step up as the leaders of the school, whilst showing what the Va’adot are all about to the rest of High School as well as getting students excited for future Va’ad events!
We want to say a big thank you to the Year 12 cohort for making this week so successful!
We cannot wait for what the next Va’ad Week has to offer…