We have had so many exciting opportunities throughout the year to help our school grow and bring smiles to the faces of others. Through this leadership role, our confidence has been boosted in public speaking and social skills. It has been such a joy to engage and interact with the younger years and teach them about our school values and beliefs. 

When asked to reflect on our time as Madrichim, Sofia Berkovic said, “I loved being able to meet people from out of school (parents, children) while also working with amazing people inside our community’’. Over the whole year, we have gathered so many memories and have so many take away moments. If someone asked us what have been your highlights from this year we would say, everything. It has truly been an honour being the 2021 Primary School Madrichim. We have grown and learnt so much in many different ways over this time and will never forget this experience.

By the Year 6 Madrichim: Sofia Berkovic, Micah Esra, Amali Allul Orozco, Leah Joshua, Misha Grynberg, Talia Pollak, Elise Goldberg, Bella Swill, Benjamin Freed, Isaac Shammay, Rebecca Salamon, Jonathan Igra

Jewish Life 

Over the year we have been very busy as Jewish Life leaders. Our leadership role included daily responsibilities, such as leading Birkat HaMazaon and visiting classrooms in Years 3-6 to help lead and teach morning tefillah. We assisted in setting up for events and collecting or distributing items for Primary School. We would meet regularly with Mr Carpenter to plan additional activities, ceremonies and celebrations and additional highlights from the year include:

• Helping to plan and lead Shabbat celebrations every Friday
• Running Havdalah celebrations
• Creating a skit and song where we were the symbolic foods on the seder plate
• Helping collect food donations for Purim
• Making short videos with Josh for festivals or a Torah portion
• Lead whole school Jewish Life celebrations 

Thank you for Mr Carpenter, Morah Gaida, Mia and Josh for working with us and helping us in our role.

Being a leader is a special commitment and responsibility. By being involved and stepping up, you are able to create something for yourself and for others. Jewish Life is something we do and not something that is done for us. Like most things in life, the more you put in, the more you get out. 

By Layla Aronstan, Gil Bana, Lily Foltyn, Asher Morris, Louisa Rodney, Diana Stiassny.

Art 

2021 has been a strange year. Regardless of the circumstances, we did what we could to make art an available and enjoyable activity for Primary School students during school breaks. Many times throughout the year, we have met with Ms Heilpern and planned fun and engaging activities for anyone wishing to be a part of them. During these activities, we would work on the children’s techniques and encourage them to keep trying, no matter how hard it was. 

A strong memorable moment for us was when we walked around the classroom, stopping next to the Years 1,2 and 3 students, congratulating and helping them with their wonderful work. We are so grateful for Ms Heilpern, and the time and effort she put into making everything work. Overall it was a wonderful year full of art and joy.

By Garielle Seemann and Ethan Gross

Environment

We leave behind a lot of waste in our day to day lives without even realising it. It is the type of waste that you can actually see, like canteen wrapping, or the type you can’t, like gasses from cars and buses. With so much waste on the ground and in the sky, there is less and less green about. One of our goals is to have ten minutes after lunch for everybody to clean up the playground. There are so many cleaners around the school trying to keep our school tidy and clean and we don’t notice how much trash we actually leave on the playground. 

We are hoping that we, or future green team members, can plant some native trees and fruit trees such as figs or pomegranate trees around the school. Not only will that help make the school more green, but it will also help make a home for animals like butterflies and other small insects. Year 3 have made “insect hotels” and we were hoping that we could put them up around the school and what better place to put them than under a nice shady tree? 

We have had a great time being Environmental Leaders this year. We would like to thank our mentors and the members of the green team for helping us achieve our goals. 

By Sanne Nathan, Matea Mermelshtayn and Xavier Wilson

SRC

As our year slowly comes to a close, every Leadership Role looks back on the legacy and footprint it will leave in Year 6. Many flourishing, fun events have filled SRC this year, even though we were in lockdown for many weeks. This year we were given the opportunity to put forward ideas that would benefit this school. Many people have been very happy with the ideas and contributions SRC has implemented and we look forward to seeing more creative ideas in the future. 

This year, SRC creatively and imaginatively tackled ideas and opinions put forward by students for the school. This was done by interviewing the students about their perspective of what is best for the future of our school. 

Friendships Monitors, Chill Zone Upgrades and Class of the Month are a few of the initiatives SRC collaborated on with the school and students. Friendship Monitors were successful in helping and aiding the wellbeing of the children in the playground, being there for them when someone was hurt or just feeling down. This was a great mitzvah. Through these commitments the SRC was successful. We will end the year with “Emanuel’s Got Talent”, which highlights the involvement of the students and encourages the creativity we have at our school. 

SRC looks forward to more creative ideas and initiatives next year. This year has been filled with laughter and joy and SRC hopes next year’s group, like us, will have a prosperous and productive year to come. 

By Luis Waldner, Sammi Epstein, Gemma Jacobson, Leon Besser, Seth Nachman and Jordan Arnott