Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Year 8 Israel Expo

On Thursday last week, I was lucky enough to take a group of Dolphins up to the Israel Expo. When we arrived, we split the group in half, and I took one group around from stall to stall and Janice took the other group. The Kornmehl children were excited to be up at the big school and as we had been learning about Israel in the lead up to Yom Ha’atzmaut. It was very timely to be visiting the Expo, where we had the opportunity to deepen our learning and understanding about Israel as a country and what it has to offer in terms of food, culture, medicine, the army, science, sport, environment, research, tourism and feminism.

The benefits of all being on one campus from Pre-school to Year 12 allows for these kinds of opportunities – for collaboration and sharing across the years at Emanuel School. This is such a privilege, not to be taken for granted. We so appreciate these moments to share and learn together.

It was even more beautiful to witness the Year 8 children adjust their talks about their research to suit the level of the Pre-school children. They did this intuitively, without prompting, and were so appreciative of their young audience visiting and taking an interest in their work.

Thank you to Daphna Levin-Kahn for inviting us and to all the Year 8 students. 

Kol Hakavod on a beautiful display of work.

Family Day Breakfast

On Monday morning, we were delighted to welcome – for the first time in two years – our Kornmehl family members into the Pre-school to celebrate our much awaited family/Mother’s Day Breakfast.

The excitement was felt from the minute everyone walked inside. There were smiles all around. I think some children were actually in shock that their parents were actually coming inside the Pre-school! For most of our Dolphins and Starfish, the normal routine is drop-off and pick-up at the door. Thus, emotions were heightened as we all enjoyed this beautiful time together in the Pre-school. The atmosphere was energetic, filled with fun, wonder, creativity, and an enormous amount of love!!

We know everyone had a fabulous morning and we enjoyed sharing this special time together.

Thank you to all our special helpers this morning in the kitchen: Adam Ezekiel, Stephen Silver, Danny Bloom and Cordelle Scaife. Your help was much appreciated. A big thank you to Cliffie Rosenberg for the amazing light show in the dream room – the children loved it!

Buddy Reading

The Year Two buddies arrived in the Pre-school on Monday afternoon for our first Buddy Reading time together in two years. We were delighted to be able to resume this beautiful time again, of sharing stories and developing relationships with Year Two. Each week, on a Monday afternoon, the Year Two classes will alternate and come down to the Pre-school for Buddy Reading.

What makes this activity even more special, is that a lot of the Year Two’s were students at Kornmehl only three years ago. It was so meaningful to reconnect and to see how much they have grown – and to hear how capably they can all read. 

Many of the Year Two’s also have a family member at Kornmehl now, so we were able to buddy them up with their brother, sister or cousin. This was indeed very special! Another benefit of all being on one campus and families being connected from year to year!

Bush School

It seems that this week has been a time of many firsts in a long while, and, on Tuesday and Friday, the Starfish and Dolphins respectively, got to enjoy their first Bush School visit for the year. This time, we were not worried about Covid stopping us from going, but rather the rainy weather. We held our breath on Tuesday morning and prayed very hard, and low and behold the sun came out in between the grey clouds. The children excitedly donned their rain gear and gumboots and headed out the gate with their backpacks on their backs. We were also able to take parent volunteers with us for the first time in ages. The children were well prepared by their teachers for this adventure down at Centennial Park, engaging with nature and enjoying climbing trees and looking for bugs and creatures. The visit was a highlight for us all and everyone came back tired but elated and feeling very fulfilled and calm.

Bush School is very much an embedded part of our program at Kornmehl and each visit is filled with wonder, excitement, discovery, learning and lots of life lessons. We are looking forward to many more visits as the year progresses. Thank you to all our wonderful parent helpers, especially Emanuel grandparent, Susan Sweller, our dedicated and committed Bush School volunteer/botanist for the past six years.

Susan has a wealth of knowledge about local fauna and flora and shares this freely and openly with the educators and children, in such a beautiful way. Thank you, Susan, we are so honoured that you still join us on all our visits year in and year out. We are indeed very blessed.