Natanya (Tany) Milner

IPSHA Performing Arts Festival

Last Thursday evening, a large number of Years 3-6 students performed at the IPSHA Performing Arts Festival at Town Hall. It was such a special opportunity for our children to showcase their musical talent (and they were very impressive!) as well as perform with children from other schools. It was a massive amount of work for our wonderful music staff including Alex Hone and Liz Birrell who prepared our students for this event. A big thank you to all staff involved including Di Springford, Joanne De Araujo, Alice Grile and Brendan Mahony. Thank you all and a huge mazal tov to all the children involved on their wonderful success!

Science Week

Last week, the Primary School celebrated Science Week. There was an exciting range of activities on offer during class and lunch times as well as a wonderful Year 3-6 assembly to celebrate the week. Ma Nishma has highlighted some of these fantastic events and I thank Sophie Poisel for her creativity, vision and organisation to prepare for Science Week. The children were so enthusiastic and engaged.

Book Week and Book Fair

This week’s Book Week was celebrated with a wonderful Book Fair in the Primary Library. The children loved exploring the books on offer and working in the library on interesting Book Week activities. I would like to thank Ginnette Cameron-Gardner and Fiona Singer for organising the activities and fundraiser for Emanuel.

Friendship Circle Fundraiser

This week’s BBQ Day and Purple Plain Clothes Day were to raise funds for the Friendship Circle. I would like to thank Karon Rom, Diane Clennar, Chelsea Trotter, the Tzedakah Leaders and the P&F for coordinating and organising this event.

Night of Song

Night of Song is always such a highlight in our calendar and this year certainly didn’t disappoint. The choirs and soloists performed beautifully and the musical theatre theme was a wonderful success. Congratulations to all the children who were involved for their outstanding performances and a huge thank you to the music staff, choir leaders and especially to Danny Burley, for a sensational evening.

 7 Habits of Happy Families

Over the past 2 weeks, we were pleased to present the 7 Habits of Happy Families program to a group of Primary School parents. We really enjoyed sharing our insights on the 7 Habits and ways we can use them to promote our children’s effectiveness, productivity and relationships. I would like to thank Meghan Carroll, Belinda Gold and Kim Slender for their huge efforts to prepare for these evenings and for giving up their time to present. Here are some of the key takeaways from the evenings:

Be Proactive:

• Try to focus your energy on things you can influence/control rather than things that are out of your control
• Work to build a space between a stimulus and your response. It is always important to choose your reaction rather than just being reactive

Begin with the End in Mind:

• Think about how you would like to be remembered on your 80th birthday and act in ways that build towards that goal
• Consider what you would like your family to stand for – creating a family mission statement can support this.

Put First Things First:

• Consider what are your ‘big rocks’ or priorities and act in ways that achieve these first, before spending time on other areas/activities
• Try to ensure you are building time to work on proactive tasks that are creative and innovative

Think Win Win:

• It is important to consider what is a ‘win’ for all the people involved in a situation and create new alternatives that were not previously considered by others (rather than only compromise solutions)
• Try to balance courage (speaking your mind) with consideration (listening and respecting the thoughts and feelings of others) in order to respond in ‘brave but thoughtful’ ways

Seek First to Understand and then to be Understood:

• Listening carefully in order to ‘diagnose before prescribing’ will ensure more meaningful connections and relationships (listen first and talk second)
• Empathic listening involves an intent to listen in order to understand and the skill of reflecting feelings and words rather than evaluating, advising and interpreting

Synergise:

• Synergising involves celebrating differences, being open-minded and finding new or better ways to work with others
• Synergising involves recognising strengths and valuing other people

Sharpen the Saw:

• This habit focuses on the importance of taking care of you and your family
• It is important to balance taking care of the body, the mind, the heart and the spirit.